Our warm-up exercise was the word association game that we did in our first class. (Look through previous posts if you don't believe me.) We begin with "you" and eventually a word gets said after "you," and the group votes on these words by repeating them or stating words that agree with the word said immediately before. Eventually, a narrative arises from these words. In our first attempt yesterday, it took us a while, but a story emerged where a guy went on a vacation to Hawaii and was attacked by a shark at a beach. He was taken to the hospital, a limb was amputated, and he eventually had sex with a nurse. (It's undetermined whether the nurse was male or female.) We got some suggestions and did it again. The second time, we had a murder, a burial in a shallow grave, a manhunt, a chase, and then a trial. (Knowing our group, it's somewhat surprising that prison sex wasn't introduced to the equation, but perhaps if had had more time....)
Tim then took suggestions from us for four categories: social/political issues, book or fictional works that have influenced us, things that we have done for the first time in the last several years, and locations (the more detailed the better). These categories were used as jumping off points for black outs and sketch ideas that consumed most of the rest of our class time.
We began by being divided in groups to work on three black outs. I was grouped with two very funny and talented friends: Scott and Kristin. Writing in a group is usually a source of frustration for me, but working with these two this was a very energetic, fun, and smooth process. We targeted a news issue (gas prices), a social issue (corporate citizenship and so-called right to lifers), and a place (the Air & Water Show -- we could hear the planes during class). Dr. Evil made an appearance in our gas prices blackout, Kristin had a PTSD flip-out induced by the airborne war machines at the Air & Water Show, and Scott and got to play rabid corporate right-to-lifers. (Note to self: you are too angry; it scares people.) We received some classic advice from Tim after our corporation abortion blackout: kill the bad people because audiences want justice.
Siera, Mario, and Christine had a very funny blackout regarding Chik-Fil-A. Siera and Christine were two lesbian lovers having a kiss in outside a Chik-Fil-A. Mario was a conservative evangelical who was at Chik-Fil-A to show his support for its social stand and the company's free speech rights. Despite his foaming hatred of "gays" he gets turned on by the sight of two women getting it on. All we need is love, right?
Our sketch work had us shuffled into new groups with the goal of choosing a place off our list of suggestions and focussing on character, action, and support. Ryan, Christine, Casey, and I were working in a slaughterhouse in Chicago during the 1920s. This involved several accents. (We were mostly immigrants.)
Scott, VP, and Kristin had a funny scene involving a roommate (Kristin) coming to sleep in the same room as her roommate (VP) and her friend/stud-muffin Scott. She eventually climbs into bed with them because the floor is too uncomfortable. And things get very uncomfortable.
The last group was Mario, Dan, and Siera. The setting: Bangkok. The premise: Mario was an effeminate Thai man. Dan was trying to get his lesbian sister (Siera) this girly boy as a mail order husband. But actually, Dan and Mario had hooked up the night before. Mario's antics were super funny in this scene.
Tim's insights after these scenes was that trying to be funny in a scene can break down the support between the actors which then short circuits the scene's development. We just have to trust that the funny will happen because our scene partners are talented and funny people instead of forcing the funniness. A counterexample to that advice is that even with silly characters the scene can progress and develop when the actors are playing their characters with emotional truth.
We ended class as we usually do with montage work, but we had a twist: we used the suggestions from earlier in class. We had Bill Clinton at a roller park, Romney and Ryan hanging out at a hipster bar in Logan Square, a women's studies class, and wild west saloon whose proprietor is allergic to cats.
We had a great time this term, and I cannot wait for next term.
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| Tada! |
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