XProv is shorthand for “experimental improv”. It’s a night where we can try things that we don’t normally get to: new improv games, sketch pieces in development, a new form for an improv troupe, an exercise that focuses on an improv skill, or…
We start the night reviewing the pieces that folks have brought to try and then break up into groups that will learn and practice those pieces. That normally goes from 7:00 pm to 8:00, but this night we didn’t have anything that needed practice, and so we start the performance early, about 7:50 pm.
The performance part of the night is meant to last an hour or so. It’s not open to the public; we are are just performing for each other in order to get some practice and feedback. This was our lineup for the night:
1) Status Switch: Sarah brought this one, and it’s an exercise where we are focusing on status as a character skill. It’s done as a two person exercise, one person has high status, the other has low status. In the course of the scene, the two need to change status, the high status player become low status, and the low status becoming high. I think everyone had a go at this one.
2) Split Screen: I believe Monica brought this one, although we’ve done it before. This is a hard one to describe - basically the stage is divided into two, where the left half is really the right side of a regular scene, and the right half of the stage would be the left half of a normal scene. There are four total players representing two characters on the stage. Two players are the characters in the right half, and the other two players are the same characters in the left half. When one of the right half players walks off stage (on the right side), the left side player for that same character walks onto the left half of the stage and vice-versa. It’s a delightful tour de force that really should be seen to be understood. And when the audience finally gets what’s going on, you can almost hear the “ahhs” of delight and amazement. We did a couple of rounds.
3) Cut To: Monica brought this one, and we did it as a two person scene with a director. The players will conduct a scene, and periodically the director sill stop the scene and change the setting to one that’s been referred to in the previous scene. It can be set in the future or the past.
4) Video Dubbing: This is a perennial favorite at xprov. A series of scenes from a movie or TV is played on a video screen with the sound off. A player is assigned to each speaking character on screen and they provide the voice for that character. This night, we had a series of scenes from a Sports Night episode. We’re getting better at performing this, and I’m getting better at picking out scenes that lend themselves to being dubbed. We’ll put this in a performance soon.
5) See No Evil, Hear No Evil: This is an exercise that Monica developed to help with editing scenes in a long form piece. It’s done as a rotation, with two players performing a scene and two players in the back line. One of those players has their ears covered so they cannot hear the scene but can see it. The other player is listening to the scene but has their back turned so that they cannot see it. It’s the responsibility of the player who is only listening (See No Evil) to call out “sweep” when they feel the scene should be edited. The player who couldn’t hear the scene (Hear No Evil), steps in and starts a new scene, replacing whomever had been performing the longest. The other player that had been in the scene stays the same character for the new scene. The See No Evil player becomes the Hear No Evil player, and a new player joins into the rotation as the new See No Evil player (the one who will have to “sweep” the new scene). Yeah, you needed to be there to really understand this one
We played several rounds of that exercise, going long in the performance part of the night.
Finally, the last hour is when we review the pieces that were performed, giving feedback. However, since so many of the pieces this night were skill building, we really spent the night giving feedback to the players. Actually, it sort of devolved into old man Alan discussing his ideas on the sorts of skills players should be developing as they progress learning improv. Never give me a chance to pontificate.
Unfortunately, no pictures from the night. We just haven’t gotten into the habit yet. I’ll work on that next time.