The Weekend of Awesome

This past weekend was so freaking awesome.  I've made some new friends, I took two workshops with the indescribable Patti Stiles, and I was asked to join an improv team.

I took two workshops with the fabulous Patti Stiles.  The first, Creative Impulse, was incredibly fun.  We did exercises that got us out of our heads, put us in the moment and we had heaps of fun.  The most memorable excersize was "World's Worst Improviser".  I recommend everyone play it, and I will therefore describe it below.  It forces you to look to your partner constantly for offers and trains you to play with any and every kind of improviser by "giving your partner what they want".



World's Worst Improviser: Two person scene.  Person A plays the scene normally.  Person B tries their hardest to be a terrible improviser by doing everything we were taught not to do.  Person A is forced to justify their partner's erratic behavior in the scene.  A few things happen:

• The World's Worst Improviser becomes a character and is full of great offers whether or not they realize it.  It's Person A's job to find and take those offers.
• Person A is constantly reading their partner in them moment, instead of looking to the future to move the plot along. 
• You take your time.  Your partner probably isn't going to agree with you or give you that great sort of 'tennis-match' we look for, so you can breathe, take a moment and react truthfully.

This exercise made improv easy for me.  In going to my partner, and only my partner, it made the scene much easier for me because I trusted them to do whatever it was they were going to do, and I trusted myself to react.  Lightbulb moment. 

The exercises Patti had us do have been incredibly helpful, and it's funny that they're just the simpliest things.  I've felt myself using what I learned already.  Goddamn.

Improvised Soap Opera was the second workshop I took.  We literally improvised an episode of a soap opera.  The format is complicated in that storylines get complicated and you really have to keep track of your important relationships, and your own character.  But therein lies the fun and the challenge.  You get to spend time creating and living a character for as many weeks as your company decides. 

Improvised soaps are completely new to me.  I keep finding myself thinking about what happened to the characters of the soaps we saw and played. I've immediately fallen in love. Can't wait for the season of the Young and the WITless.

We went out for drinks after the workshops, and there I was asked to join the new generation of the Improv Divas.  The Divas are the first all-female improv act in New Zealand, and the torch is passed every so often to a new group of ladies.  Lots of players I've come to respect in my short time here have been Divas at one point or another, so I'm ridiculously excited to join their ranks.  All-female troupes have such an insteresting dynamic, and I'm looking forward to playing with the ladies (and we're already becomg friends yay!)

I'll post performance dates as soon as we have 'em