Clone Wars

Monday, April 14, 2008 by John Robison.

My apologies for not updating in so long… the past week was spent in Chicago on a much-needed vacation with my family, and then catching up on work when I returned.

During my trip, I decided to skip the pilgrimage to my alma improv mater, i.o., and instead went to check out a theater I had never previously visited… The Playground. When I went in, I was shocked to discover that the Playground and the Roving Imp could easily be long lost sisters. Upon walking in, it was like coming home. Both theaters are similar in size, have an identical capacity (75), are laid out in a similar way, and also had sparse attendance for the show I attended.

I saw the Sandbox Improv Showcase, which takes three different teams to form a 90-minute show (which is the norm for a Chicago improv show). The names of the particular teams escape me at the moment, but the essence of the performances linger with me, waiting to be scribed in the paragraphs below.

As with other Chicago shows I’ve seen, the most novice team goes first, middle team next, and the most experienced team rounds out the night. This was also the case on this night. The first team, made up of seven men and one token woman (who absolutely held her own, by the way), performed a format where one two person scene occurs stage left, and then another eventually takes over on stage right. The original scene comes back on stage left, and the second scene follows it. At the edit, a different scene begins, and the pattern starts over again. Simple, and easy to follow. I will probably steal this idea. The improvisers on this team were obviously new to the art, asking far too many questions, failing to recognize gifts and games, and going for the quick (unfunny) joke at the expense of the scene. It was a pretty rough set, but gave me hope that yes, Chicago improv is not all glitz and glitter and uber-professionals.

The second team was a two-person female troupe, who took my suggestion of “floor lamp” and used it to start a documentary-style interview about two college roommates, followed by several freestyle scenes along the theme of “people that live with other people, and the people that love them.” Really entertaining, great characters, fantastic relationships, and an overall great show… my favorite of the night.

The third team performed an improvised sketch rehearsal. At first glance, it appeared that this team consisted of a guy and two gals on stage, but it quickly became apparent that a fourth male member was doing his improv from the booth, in his role as tech for the sketch show. The group got eight suggestions from the audience at the top of their set, and used those suggestions as the titles for the eight sketches which were to be in the show. The actual sketches were fine, but the real highlight of the set was the banter/arguments between the on-stage actors and the tech… that’s where the real emotion was, after all. Good, solid entertainment. Plus, there was an improviser that could easily have been the sister of KC improviser Tina Morrison. Eerie. The evening was bookended with clones. First the theater, then the actual actors.

I learned some new things, and was reminded of some things that I once knew, and had not focused on for awhile. I’ll highlight those in my next post. Tune in next time.

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