Firehouse Theater Under New Mangement....

Hey guys,


I know we have cut our ties with The Firehouse Theater for many reason, but I am here to post that the place is under new management. Theater director Paul Allen has taken over the place and it's now called STAGES Theatre Company at Old Firehouse #10. I at least wanted to get that out.


There is one catch. To do a improv show at STAGES Theatre Comany, we need a deposit of $125.00 to do a show, then we can get scheduled and have 4 hours of stage time. I know this is way too much for us, but I am just saying this. If we wanted to move on up, we can. If worse comes to worse, I'll fork out the money if we decide to do a show under STAGES banner.

Hope everyone is having a good summer off. Take care, and check out STAGES to see what they're about.

Ashley
Creative Supervisor

Can you do warm-ups on friday afternoons.

Hello improvers. I'm trying to book warm-ups. The Library we do warm-ups at are closed on Saturdays. Will Fridays afternoons work. I'm saying this because school is out for most of you. Please Let Me Know.
JoeyD

Silence and movement

You may have noticed a dearth of posts recently; we have been rather silent here while we celebrate Easter, promote our acts, deal with taxes etc. Fear not! We will begin to schedule more activity now that we are in the home stretch, running towards summer.

I've been impressed the last two warm-ups with good stagecraft. Sometimes when we improvise we frown and bite our lips, thinking about what to say or do, and forget to move around the stage or face the audience. That hasn't happened much recently! So kudos to you.

Sometimes it is perfectly all right to break the rules... as long as you pick the right time. For instance: deliberately turning your back to the audience while you rummage in an imaginary backpack, or stopping and allowing a moment of silence to emphasize the next bit of dialogue (hopefully a punch line).

We'll post more practices soon. Until then, I look forward to laughing with (at) you...

New Warm-ups

Hello all, I went ahead and scheduled warm-ups, the dates and times are 3/28 from 1-4pm and 4/11 from 1-4. They are at the Tecumseh branch. I hope to see you all there.

New games & principles to remember

A couple of new games we've incorporated into the practices, or exercises really, intended to get people thinking about plot and genre: 

Storytime: Groups of four sit in a circle; first person gives a genre and a title for a story, the next person tells the situation, the third tells the conflict and the fourth, the resolution.  The idea is to come up with something original and compelling, with a nice humorous finish.  

Elements: One person grabs a whiteboard, the group agrees on a genre, and everyone contributes elements common to stories in that genre.  Elements get written on the board, then we construct a plot using those elements.  The plot should be true to the genre.  

A few principles to remember when we're letting it all hang out: 

Stagecraft, stagecraft, stagecraft!  Remember the audience: move around the stage as necessary, face forward (unless you specifically shouldn't), and speak clearly.  Give 'em a show. 

Yes, AND: as Del Close famously said.  Take what another person gives you and build on it; don't get locked in to your own ideas and ignore what all is going on. 

Running gags from one scene to another can be quite funny.  Running gags from one practice to another won't mean a thing to an audience.  Or, to put it another way: inside jokes aren't funny. 

Warm-ups

Great warm-ups folks!  I was especially glad to see the turnout for the one yesterday.  Thanks to newcomers, too; your participation was welcome.  Do come again!

I have not yet scheduled the next warm-up, but look in this space for more info.

New warm-ups

I went ahead and scheduled warm-ups, as you'll see to the left. Hope many can participate!

The New Year....

First of all, happy new year. I hope all is well with everyone.

I know it's been a long time since we've done.....anything. Well it's the new year and I think it's time we see if this old bird can still fly. As soon as I'm feeling physically better, I will try to schedule some up coming practices. As far as shows go, we've got a lot of catching up to do. I know we normally perform at the Firehouse, but I'll see if we can get some gigs elsewhere. In the meantime, let's work with what we got.

More to come.....

Ashley