Bovine Metropolis Theater

Archive for July, 2008

Fo’ Shizzle!

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

Guess who are your new Improv Hootenanny Hosts?! Linnea Brutlag and me, Nanna Ogburn. Boo-yah! I’m very excited to take on a new and different role at the theater. I find that once you’ve found something you love to do, you should do it as often as you can. With even more time spent at the theater, I’ll be doing just that! We both hope that we can fill the very large shoes left behind by Carl Wedell.

Hosting is one of those under-appreciated roles at any theater, but a great host can keep the show upbeat, light-hearted, and enjoyable to watch. If a show’s transitions aren’t smooth, or if the between set commentary isn’t that fun, or if the introductions of groups are lackluster… the whole show can feel a little blah.

I’m sure you all know, Carl has does a phenomenal job for SEVEN YEARS as the Improv Hootenanny host, and we can only hope to do him justice as your new hosts. For those of you in the improv community and related circles, there will be a party for him next Monday, July 28th, after his last Hoot. Please come and show this man some love. He’s earned it!
We hope to see you there!

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Sweat the Technique

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

Saturday was a music rehearsal. I’m amazed by musical ability. Play by ear, lyrisize, conceptualize song structure; sing etc… It’s the kind of deep admiration I have for advanced mathematics, juggling more than 4 items, sick offensive basketball skillz, gymnastics, big wave surfing, dp’ing, break-dancing and foreign languages.

I know enough to appreciate the ascension from dilettantency (not a word). In all these activities lie fundamentals. You can only get so far without learning a little technique. Technique comes, of course, from practice and study. Those with talent have a shorter road. In Larry Bird’s biography he recalls playing basketball as a child and noticing that his shots kept going in. Larry Legend , chuch.

Michael Stipe describes creating art as a circle. You start at the bottom. Learning the craft is moving from the bottom and curving up to the top. The top of the circle is the point where the craft is mastered. To complete the circle you return to its beginning. The beginning is the passion you felt for the art and its medium. After making it to the top (mastering the craft) you convex back down to the initial point: essentially re-engaging yourself with the passion that sent you on the journey. If there is no craft, than there is no circle.

Once you’ve got the fundamentals/craft/technique you get to really create. However, “fundamentals/craft/technique” can be, semantically, infinite.

You know what else is infinite? Fun. You know what’s fun? Making up and honing songs for a sketch show - especially with people whose technique and fundamentals are beyond yours. Like how Lucas hung with Coppola, Aristotle learnt from Plato or how Daniel learned that cleaning can translate to fighting.

Chuch

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Comment on “Thoughts on Improv…and Life”

Friday, July 18th, 2008

Originally I was going to comment on Eric’s blog “Thoughts on Improv… and Life”, but my response was too long for a comment. I couldn’t agree more with everything he said.

And

Here’s a few to add:

People rise and fall to the expectations placed upon them

Treat your scene partners like poets and geniuses and watch them rise to the occasion.

Work from the heart, not the head

Play the emotion not the joke.

Here’s a neat thing to try: At the onset of a business meeting or any interaction think “I love you” as you look at the other party, be it your boss, a mechanic, the information guy at the airport, whomever. This works really well if there’s any type of confrontation.

When talking on the phone smile, it translates.

Do Work (son)

To get better at anything you have to put in the work. Do a solo Harold in your car or when walking downtown. Get Mick Napier’s book and do the solo exercises in the back. Treat every rehearsal and show as sacrosanct.

Don’t Misuse Time

There’s only so much time in the day / in the scene. Don’t waste words or actions.

Walk Away

If your scene partner isn’t cooperating and you’ve tried everything to engage them/ make a better scene and nothing’s working - find a reason to leave.

Don’t Judge Yourself

Listen to notes but transcend praise and criticism.

Always Make Your Friends Look Good

Have Fun

Posted in Performing | 1 Comment »

Thoughts on Improv… and Life.

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

There are some things you learn in improv that can help you in your life.

You have to bring it!

You must bring something and what you bring begets part of what you get. If you to don’t bring anything to the stage, the scene just happens to you. You’re bored, so is the audience. If you bring something dark and negative, the scene will move that way too.

Your actions define you.

The scene and relationships are defined by actions. Actions and choices make things happen on stage. Thought and talk can make for funny bits, but poor scenes.

Sometimes you have to roll with it.

You have to accept what happens. Intention is great, but what happens is reality. Once something is revealed on stage it becomes the truth. You may have to let go, change or adapt what you wanted your gift/intention to be to accept the reality of the scene.

Balance Hope and Acceptance

If you spend all your time hoping, thinking, dreaming, planning, then life happens to you. And if you can’t get your head around what the reality of your situation is, you have a tough time moving forward. It hits me a lot like Prayer and Life. Prayer is asking for intercession. It is putting energy into something in hopes of getting a desired outcome. What happens is Life. You can fight it, deny it, argue it, curse it, but whatever happens, happens.

It’s all here and now.

The future and the past are inconsequential on stage. It’s good to have an intention to start with, but this moment is the only thing that matters in a scene.

Posted in By Author, Eric Farone, Overview | No Comments »

I Dig Chicks!

Friday, July 11th, 2008

I have a new long form group I’m coaching. I love them. The women in particular (nothing personal guys). They are smart, funny, crazy, sexy and powerful, however I have noticed that they were not bringing those qualities to the women they were playing in our first couple of rehearsals. They were ‘yes and’ing too much.

They were the doting girlfriend, the dumped girlfriend, and the lonely girl. They played the sluts and the prudes. They played the mother and the daughter. What they didn’t play were REAL women.

Playing these two dimensional characters makes it easy for the guys to play with them because it’s like catching a ball off a flat wall, you know where it is going to bounce to, but screw that. I want to see complex women on stage. I want to see women on stage who are both powerful and vulnerable. Women who are proud and hurt. Who are sexy and afraid. Women who are smart and sexy. Who are insightful and compassionate. REAL women. A wall with curves that kicks the ball back in a way I can’t predict.

I have two daughters at home. I hope they grow up in this theater. I want them to realize that whatever kind of women they become, they are perfect. That they are self reliant and don’t need to be defined by their relationships.

I have been lucky enough to improvise with some great women in my life; Rachel Hamilton, Linda Klein, Barbara Gehring, Pam Farone, Kerstin Caldwell, Nanna Ogburn, Kathleen Boland, Sara Alan, Sarah Kirwin, Erika Gonzolez, Michelle Miracle just to name a few. And I love watching improvisers like Renee Albert, Amy Sedaris, and Rachel Dratch. All these women bring it. You don’t know who the hell they are going to be or what turn her character might bring at any moment. That’s why I like playing with them and watching them. It keeps me honest and engaged in the scene. It’ FUN!

So I sat down my actresses and asked them to bring more of themselves to the characters they play. Screw “the rules” of improv. Improvise! Surprise me. Be real. Play smart, funny, crazy, sexy and powerful all in one character.

It was like giving them a licence to kill. They exploded into these fabulous characters who captivated me and made me laugh. I can’t wait until I see them perform again and get to see the women who they bring to the stage.

Posted in Eric Farone, Performing | No Comments »

Falling off the wagon

Friday, July 11th, 2008

(more…)

Posted in Tony Ventola, By Author, Performing | No Comments »

Good Taste

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

I love the internet. I know I have to share it with others but I like to think that it’s mine to explore and all that stuff is there for ME. Sounds selfish, I know but I have reason to believe that nuggets of truth are planted here and there for me to find and that only reinforces that posessive side of me.

Example you say? I found on You Tube a short piece by Ira Glass of “This American Life”. His position is this. Those of us honoring our creative side intrinsically have good taste. That is we KNOW and appreciate the heights that our chosen art can attain. But we are saddled with the tough reality that what our initial efforts produce is far from the goodness we are drawn to. In fact, what we do sucks pretty bad at first. And that sets up the odd interface of knowing but not being able to do. And a lot of people find this stage of creativity hard to handle and uncomfortable and, in some cases, insurmountable. So a lot people give up and never see themselves making the good taste that drew them to their endeavor in the first place.

But, he continues, that awkward, clumsy stage is so very normal and expected and, in a lot of ways, very good. To get past it there is only work. Produce, act, paint, improv, sing, dance - whatever your muse you have to do it and do it and do it. Each repetition is one step closer to that goal of good taste. Glass says to ‘Be a warrior for you art’.

So, the wise reader asks, what’s the improv angle, dude.

I suspect that we all were drawn to this medium because we saw a perfomance that spoke to us. Someone did something on stage that dropped our jaws as we were brought into the mind of performer and the group. And we saw goodness and it reached into us and wouldn’t let go. And we began to improv and play and take classes try so very hard to be good. And it hurt sometimes because we so clearly saw how far we were from the mark.

But…because we knew that good improv taste existed we kept on. Show after show, workshop after workshop. And by simply keeping that ideal of ‘how good it can be’ it our minds we are able to approach that goal. And it is so very cool to see and even more exciting when, for a few moments in a show, you feel like there is nothing but you and your scene partner and you are both in touch with something bigeer than the both of you.

We are different, us improvisors. And that is what I love about doing this - we put real-ness out there. And sometimes it is delicious.

Posted in Keith Rains, Performing | 3 Comments »

Keep The Main Thing – The Main Thing

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

This week we went over more scenes and songs, well a song. It’s sometimes hard to judge a cold read, especially if the humor is in the stage direction.

If something isn’t working or if there’s potential but it’s not really coming together the main question is what/ who is the scene about. What’s the essence and what’s noise.

I went through a phase where I watched Bishop T.D. Jakes. He’s a preacher from TX. He would wear calf length suite jackets with a dozen buttons, stroll/ march/ dance across the sanctuary, carry a cloth to wipe the sweat off his face and head and get the parishioners out of their seats dancing and testifying. A true showman; like James Brown in the Blues Brothers when Jake and Elwood receive their mission from gad. Bishop Jakes would start to preach and people would get excited and he’d ask “Am I talking to anybody”, the crowd would shout, he’d shake his head turn his back on the crowd and say “There’s no one here that wants to hear this message Tah Day”, the crowd roars, he turns back facing the crowd “Can I preach”, crowd screams, “Can I talk to somebody (he starts stomping his foot) one person, is there one person here that wants to hear this message” crowd loses its shit.

Anyway, my main Bishop T.D. Jakes prostyletized that people need to keep the main thing – the main thing. Keep the essence lose the noise.

An equally awesome Bishop is Bishop Don Magic Juan whose sister wrote “From Pimp Stick to Pulpit – It’s Magic” about his life. Chuuuuch. I was recently reminded of the phrase Chuuuch and how awesome it is and how it didn’t really catch on.

We also brainstormed show titles. We tried to come up with as many ideas as possible. People shouted out ideas and Vivian scribbled them on a white board, no judgment – everything went on the board. After a series of voting we narrowed the field to four. Eric and Denise will give a green-light to one and we’ll think of a tag line to go with it. One of my favorite titles is from a second city revue: “Slaughter House Five Cattle Zero”.

Chuuuuch

Posted in Michael Traylor, By Author, Performing | No Comments »