Improv tips to help Improve your world

played out a western as former Marshall, Sheriff Marshall Coltson, last night [yes, Colt Son as in son of a gun – with my memory it helps to have some kind of word association going so i can remember my own name, although Megan did call me Cranston at one stage which was particularly [Breaking] bad, but that happens…] at the Kalk Bay theatre as part of the ongoing Improguise Festival…

it was my last show personally as i am about to jump on a plane to head back to Americaland, but the festival continues through Saturday and you should really give it a watch if you can – some magical stuff happening on that stage…

in March, we [they] are going to be running the next TheatreSports course [which i am convinced in my headbrain that everyone should do at least once] which is an excellent way to set free your creative juices, to experience amazing teamwork and to conquer [or at least push back to the fringes] any inhibitions you may have. i highly recommend the experience. only a few people are invited afterwards to join our crazy crew, but each person walks away having learnt and experienced some incredible lessons which they can apply to all areas of life…

Yes, Lets.

one of the first lessons you learn when doing improvisation is the concept of ‘Yes, lets,’ something we could all use more of.

if i start a story with the line, ‘Hey do you want to go to the beach’ and your response is ‘No, thanks,’ then the story has died. One of us has to come up with a new offer of a story and we have wasted a lot of time. So it is important to say “Yes, lets” and then work together on how we can make a great story.

this is such a beautiful lesson and it would really be amazing if we could all embrace that generally in life.

Yes, and…

the second one is like it. even if i am not such a big fan of your offer of us going to the beach because we’ve done so many scenes on the beach and it feels like a bit of a boring story to me, i can invite the philosophy of ‘Yes, and…’ which means giving your idea a big “Yes” and then adding something that will add to your idea… So, “Yes, let’s go to the beach. I heard that Professor Klugelman just dug up the bones of a mammoth there last night.” suddenly the beach story is not the typical one we are used to – the “And…” has given it new life and direction and together we have a more exciting story.

taking someone’s suggestion or idea and adding something to it is another way we could live bigger lives – i get super amped when i see how creative people are on Facebook and You Tube with photography and music and art and so much more and it is often done with an eye on a laugh or a good feeling or creating for the sake of creating. i get triply superstoked when people start using that same kind of creativity towards things like poverty and AIDS and homelessness and come up with creative “Yes, and…” ideas for seeing new endings to boring and sad old stories that we have grown used to and often just accepted as the norm.

This is not for my laugh

one of the hardest lessons i learnt playing TheatreSports [or to be honest am still very much in the process of learning] was that of realising that it is a team game and my job is to make the team look good, to give someone else the best laugh – we are selfish creatures [especially when comedy is concerned] and grabbing the biggest laugh for ourselves is always a huge temptation [for me anyways].

i feel like i really did well at this in the three shows i performed with the festival this year. but suddenly i started noticing when others were not doing the same thing. and it made me both irritated and frustrated. but the worst part was recognising myself in there – knowing that it used to always be me going for the cheap or easy [or at times clever] laugh often at the expense of story or the team. and so i have come to see the value of playing for the team – if i look particularly good, then the rest of the team starts to look bad by comparison and that is not fun [i have done that and i have received that].

again, such a powerful less0n that would be well applied to life – working for the team, the group and then extending that to the family, the neighborhood and the community.

so, go and watch an Improguise festival show before it ends on Saturday, sign up to do the March TheatreSports course, and let’s all try and live life with a little more “Yes, lets,” “Yes, and” and “Playing for the whole team” in our stories…

for more information on any of the improv stuff and how to get watching or even be involved, go and visit our website…

Good Will(ed) Acting

so last nite the beautiful val and myself went off to support theatresports stalwart megan furniss’ new directed play ‘Good Will Acting’ at the Kalk Bay theatre, strangely enuff in Kalk Bay and had a really fun and delightingful time. you should go! no really, do it!

the two part play revolves around the concept of four out of work actors (the corporate they were booked for was cancelled) during the december holidays who eventually decide to collaborate together and put on a nativity play (altho as Ras the Rasta points out, they will be doing an Activity play cos na-tivity is too negative)

Larissa Hughes plays Marlene who is the group therapist slash directress and tries to pull the whole thing together; Anele Situlweni as Ras the Rasta does a lot of ‘I and I’ philosophising while wielding the english language to his will with great tweaks such as ‘I overstand’ and comments like ‘The universe shall reimburse’…

Ntomoxolo Makhutshi is an exhuberant political-energy-driven Libertina X who is constantly in the face of the other actors and Daneel van der Walt is phenomenal as Tabitha who is a little bit out there and crazy while trying to constantly fit in with the rastaness and black empowerment spirit of the other two.

each of the four actorpeoples were brilliant in terms of their character portrayal (altho for both me and tbv i think Daneel to some extent stole the show – maybe we just relate a little bit too close to ‘the crazy’) and the collaboration between the four very different characters created a satisfying and diverse mix

bouncing between monologues and group interaction the first half of the show sets the scene for the playing of the musical play in the second half which is an absolute delight and there is a group disappointment when it draws to an end, as we could have definitely watched another 15 to 30 minutes of that finely crafted result of their endeavours

they bring a very fresh energy to the telling of the nativity story (from the perspective of four out of work actors) combining song, movement, glaringly over-the-top product placements, finger puppets and a set of costumes and props left over from another show they were working on… the standing up bed scene with the innkeepers, that starts it off, a complete highlight.

basically, if you are in cape town, and looking for a good nite of just pure fun and entertainment, you need to go along and watch this play [as a side note if you can take nicholas spagnoletti’s mom with, the enjoyment she received from the show was a complete highlight and ambience creator as well, so see if she is available]

Directed, workshopped, written, edited (and lighted on the nite) by Megan Furniss of TheatreSports fame, Good Will Acting is devised in collaboration with cast members Anele, Daneel,Larissa and Ntomoxolo and it looks like they had a whole lot of fun bringing it all together.

Good Will Acting will be performed Wednesday to Saturday until 18 December and from 20 – 23 and 27 – 31 December, when there will be a special New Year’s Eve performance.

Performances start at 20h30 and tickets for show only cost R100. Tickets for the preview cost R50. Family specials of four or more are R80 per person. Doors open at 6pm and theatre-goers can enjoy a light meal before the show. To book and for further information, contact 073 220 5430 or visit http://www.kbt.co.za

[if you befriend megan furniss on facebook then there is the offer of two tickets for the price of one and at 50 bucks each – for the poorer thespian appreciators like myself – it really is moe than worth checking out]

oncoming traffic and other near depth experiences

so ja, last nite we had a theatresports show at kalk bay which was all cool and delightful and a bunch of fun (except maybe the two quite morbid but particularly brilliant dramatic one minute challenge games we played – whole nother level) and then i started driving back home to the beautiful val as i do…

when i came to a roadworks part of the road but with no one manning (or womenning) it – now i had come thru it on the way to the show but not noticed anything particularly different from normal except that now it was a lot closer to the show venue than it had been months ago (good sign) and so i paused for a moment figuring out if i must go or not and then knda started to go but saw bright lights coming around the corner and so i reversed enuff for the car to get past and then i waited a while longer and nothing and then i was thinking of going and two more cars came around so now i was getting a little concerned – was this russian roulette night time roadworks dash? and why wasn’t i given a packaged rule book and matching arm tag to show i was competing..?

as i had built up enuff courage and after considerable gap of no cars i started going forwards again and again lights from around the corner and so i reversed and the guy in front was flashing his lights at me (how rude, and yet no flashbacks – ha! – to the time when i inadvertently turned into the wrong way of a two lane one way road system and thort all the cars flashing me were trying to warn me about the first idiot who i had come across who was on my side of the road) and he stopped next to me and told me that it’s a one way and then pointed to the signs…

the signs which if you can imagine me driving down a street are on my left (with an only left sign and a no right sign) parallel to the road… so for example, if i had been out of my car on the opposite side of the road and looking across the road i would have noticed them quite easily, but driving along the road with them passing me on the left as i faced ahead of me (for some strange reason i like to call not driving into things or people) they were less useful…

now there may have been some other signage somewhere else explaining the whole thing to me but it clearly was not very clear and i could have died and i don’t like the idea of that right now (don’t get me wrong, i’m very ready to die when it happens, but at the moment and especially with a beautiful but sick wife waiting at home for me, i’m quite fine with the living thing) and so i was a bit angry with the road and/or sign people…

the second one occured when i was on the orange river recently and we were nappy running sjambok and i got pulled under for what seemed like eight seconds too many and i wans’t convinced in that moment i was going to make it…

and the third was in Malawi in 2000 on DTS outreach with YWAM when we were woken up early in the am with our night watchmen having seen two crowds of mob with machetes and the like advancing up the hill towards our base right while i was in the middle of a crisis of faith and do i really believe this stuff or not…

turns out i do.

and near death experiences are pretty cool and highly recommendable actually (once they’re done – usually during them there are all sorts of issues like hoping you don’t need a fresh pair of pants anytime soon and so on) because they encourage depth. stock-taking. life evaluation… actually i think that might be why some people offer to drive with me from time to time – that and increased prayer life.. i’m just kidding.

or am i. you had a near death lately? any good consequences thereof?