Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Improv

 One of my favorite TV shows is "Whose Line is it Anyway?".  It is an improvisation show.  It does not use scripts, and the actors come up with scenes from suggestions that the moderator gives or by those in the audience.  One very successful franchises for improv is Second City.  If you are not familiar with them, they have been around a long time, and many SNL cast members have come from there. 
 In 1974-75 at PC, I was required to direct two productions.  I am going to talk about the second one first. My second was an Improvisational workshop.  Back then, not many people knew about improv.  So, the workshop was part entertainment and part educational.  I assembled some actors from PC who knew how to do improv and we worked a couple of weeks beforehand on some techniques.  We only did one performance for PC.  We had promoted it all over campus, but only a few people showed up, and most of them were Psychology or Theatre students.  We had a good time, though.
 I have been accused of being a trend-setter for one thing or another.  I like to think that I introduced people to something back then who now take the form of Theatre for granted. 

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