Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Improvising Solo: Rehearsal Number Six
On Monday night our numbers swelled a little. Alongside about half our cast (that's Ron Weaver pictured below), we were joined by nearly a dozen other improvisers for the first of three workshops Jim and I are offering in tandem with the FourPlay rehearsal process. We did this last year as well to provide some in-house training for those not involved with the show, and as they were quite successful, we'd thought we'd repeat the experiment. (This year I also pitched the workshops as a means of generating some non-traditional budget funds for the production costs of the show itself to help out with SAK's ailing bottom line.)
The first of the three sequential workshops shares the title of this entry: Improvising Solo. It's a bit of a challenge designing a series of skill-building sessions for what is, essentially, an unknown combination of unseen improvisers. While I'm keen to make strong progress each session, I'm also wary that I don't want to lose those who may not come to the table as well equipped. That's always a tough balance to achieve. Rather than just work solos, then, I elected to work specific skills that are essential to a strong solo, such as building rhythm, utilizing rhyme, exploring melody and examining methods for collaborating with the musician during the opening phase of a song. (These are all skills that we need to polish amongst the FourPlay company as well, which is a secondary agenda for the workshop series.) I find this last area of focus, beginning songs, to be of particular value. For the novice singer, it provides a more confident launch that better enables a strong pattern to continue into the body of the song itself. For the more advanced singing improviser, it provides a set of skills that can be used to provide greater variety or a more nuanced choice initially. When creating a show with so many improv songs, this variety is particularly important as it can provide elements of surprise and risk for the audience.
We had a good variety of participants as expected, with players from SAK's LabRats, Generation S and Ensemble, as well as two welcome players from the Bay Area Improv Theatre. I was particularly happy to see former FourPlay cast member Richard Paul, whose new position at Disney has taken him largely out of the SAK pool this year. The evening was full of laughter, risk-taking, gospel outbursts (perhaps a little too much of this!), and some wonderful "Inner Monosong" scenes at the end, where we put all the pieces together. (Why don't we play that game more on the SAK stage?! It's one of my favorite musical games.) I particularly enjoyed an extremely well-shared scene about a less-than-traditional band forming, topped by recent LabRat of the year, Stephen Kadwell, bemoaning that he only had a bucket to offer. Darren provided a memorable just-walking baby (ten-year-old?!?) to parents Ronda and Greg, the latter who walked, with a brilliant comedic finesse, just like his neophyte child. There was also a wonderfully dysfunctional married socialite couple (Sheri Schifter of BAIT and SAK's BC Murphy), cast into turmoil by Steve Sherill's drunken party guest (with a particularly enjoyable and succinct solo), and Chase's indentured butler. Finally, in a moment of explosive hilarity, Jamie Bridwell managed to throw Jay off his game (that practically never happens) with a rather dubious endowment in a scene about complex identity issues... Actually, I've just described all the final four scenes, so obviously I liked them all!!!
Workshop two happens next Monday at SAK focusing on duet techniques and how to shape and share a song. There are some slots left, so if you're reading this and are interested in joining our merry little band, contact SAK by going here or feel free to post a comment for me.
Tonight our numbers dwindle again as we get back into the details of our act one and explore some new song structure possibilities. I'm looking forward to Robyn and Mark returning so we can show them what we've achieved and forge ahead to new uncharted territories...
I'd love to hear from any blog readers if you have questions or comments about the show, this process or my blog itself.
Until tomorrow...
Your "improvising solo" Director, David C.
On Monday night our numbers swelled a little. Alongside about half our cast (that's Ron Weaver pictured below), we were joined by nearly a dozen other improvisers for the first of three workshops Jim and I are offering in tandem with the FourPlay rehearsal process. We did this last year as well to provide some in-house training for those not involved with the show, and as they were quite successful, we'd thought we'd repeat the experiment. (This year I also pitched the workshops as a means of generating some non-traditional budget funds for the production costs of the show itself to help out with SAK's ailing bottom line.)
The first of the three sequential workshops shares the title of this entry: Improvising Solo. It's a bit of a challenge designing a series of skill-building sessions for what is, essentially, an unknown combination of unseen improvisers. While I'm keen to make strong progress each session, I'm also wary that I don't want to lose those who may not come to the table as well equipped. That's always a tough balance to achieve. Rather than just work solos, then, I elected to work specific skills that are essential to a strong solo, such as building rhythm, utilizing rhyme, exploring melody and examining methods for collaborating with the musician during the opening phase of a song. (These are all skills that we need to polish amongst the FourPlay company as well, which is a secondary agenda for the workshop series.) I find this last area of focus, beginning songs, to be of particular value. For the novice singer, it provides a more confident launch that better enables a strong pattern to continue into the body of the song itself. For the more advanced singing improviser, it provides a set of skills that can be used to provide greater variety or a more nuanced choice initially. When creating a show with so many improv songs, this variety is particularly important as it can provide elements of surprise and risk for the audience.We had a good variety of participants as expected, with players from SAK's LabRats, Generation S and Ensemble, as well as two welcome players from the Bay Area Improv Theatre. I was particularly happy to see former FourPlay cast member Richard Paul, whose new position at Disney has taken him largely out of the SAK pool this year. The evening was full of laughter, risk-taking, gospel outbursts (perhaps a little too much of this!), and some wonderful "Inner Monosong" scenes at the end, where we put all the pieces together. (Why don't we play that game more on the SAK stage?! It's one of my favorite musical games.) I particularly enjoyed an extremely well-shared scene about a less-than-traditional band forming, topped by recent LabRat of the year, Stephen Kadwell, bemoaning that he only had a bucket to offer. Darren provided a memorable just-walking baby (ten-year-old?!?) to parents Ronda and Greg, the latter who walked, with a brilliant comedic finesse, just like his neophyte child. There was also a wonderfully dysfunctional married socialite couple (Sheri Schifter of BAIT and SAK's BC Murphy), cast into turmoil by Steve Sherill's drunken party guest (with a particularly enjoyable and succinct solo), and Chase's indentured butler. Finally, in a moment of explosive hilarity, Jamie Bridwell managed to throw Jay off his game (that practically never happens) with a rather dubious endowment in a scene about complex identity issues... Actually, I've just described all the final four scenes, so obviously I liked them all!!!
Workshop two happens next Monday at SAK focusing on duet techniques and how to shape and share a song. There are some slots left, so if you're reading this and are interested in joining our merry little band, contact SAK by going here or feel free to post a comment for me.
Tonight our numbers dwindle again as we get back into the details of our act one and explore some new song structure possibilities. I'm looking forward to Robyn and Mark returning so we can show them what we've achieved and forge ahead to new uncharted territories...
I'd love to hear from any blog readers if you have questions or comments about the show, this process or my blog itself.
Until tomorrow...
Your "improvising solo" Director, David C.
Comments:
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I love you David Charles!
Yes, someone does read your blogs! And her name is Wong Lee, and she looks like Jay Hopkins.
Thank you for taking me out of my comfort zone these past Monday nights, I've learned SO much (even though I want to throw up when you tell us to get onstage).
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Yes, someone does read your blogs! And her name is Wong Lee, and she looks like Jay Hopkins.
Thank you for taking me out of my comfort zone these past Monday nights, I've learned SO much (even though I want to throw up when you tell us to get onstage).
<< Home
