Classes, March 2008

I was traveling for a couple of weeks in March, so there are only two classes with pictures for that month. Still, here's a quick run down of what happened. .

The March 5 class was taught by Mike, and from all reports it was a big hit. Unfortunately, there's no photographic evidence.

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On the 12th of March, the camera was back to document a Story Story Die session, a round of Alliteration, the ever popular Irish Drinking Song, and Emotional Zones. You can see the photographic evidence at the album.

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For March 19th, I was again traveling, and so no pictures. This time Victoria took the reigns and kept the faith. And once again, nothing but rave reviews.

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And finally, the camera and I were back for the March 26th class (album). We worked on Last Letter scenes, Repeating Scene Changing Genre, and the Irish Drinking Song. For the advanced part of the night, we were able to work on a couple of One Act plays, which I think was a good experience for everyone.

And that's the March 2008, summary.

Recital July 5, 2008

The Santa Barbara Improv Workshop is having a recital this coming Saturday, July 5th at Jefferson Hall. Folks from the ongoing Workshop class will be performing short-form improv games and everyone is invited to stop by and enjoy the show.

Once again, the particulars are:

Time: 8:00 pm until about 9:30 pm

Date: Saturday July 5th, 2008

Location: Jefferson Hall, 1525 Santa Barbara Street (near Anapamu)

Workshop Location Change June 18, 2008

WE ARE CHANGING LOCATIONS FOR THE WORKSHOP THIS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2008

This is a one-time change! Next week we'll be back at our regular location.

This week we will be meeting at:

Jewish Community Center 524 Chapala Street 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm (our usual time)

Click here for a Google Map

There's a parking lot, and parking is available on the street. The door to the center will be locked, but it's a glass door and we can see anyone knocking and let them in. It will be easier if everyone could arrive on time (or close to it).

I want to thank Nancy (from class) for arranging this. I had a chance to check it out, and it's a great location.

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Alan

P.S. Call if you need directions: 680-0455

Classes, February 2008

And now, at long last, we move on to the next month's worth of pictures. Here's a quick summary of the four classes that happened in February. On the 6th of February, we did a little Story, Story, Die narrative work. We also did some Attitudes scenes as sell as some Surprise Lines. Everyone did an Irish Drinking Song and we finished the night with Three Person Freeze Tag, a very fast paced version of that form. The picture is of Scott and Allegra, although I'm not sure what scene it's from. The rest of the pictures are in the album.

On the 13th of February, we had a good sized class, but not many pictures. This one is from the opening One Word Story exercise. The rest are in the album. We did some work on Give and Take using the Cocktail Scene as an exercise. We also told some Tag Out Stories and Spoon River.

On February 20, we had a couple of new faces, and you can find them in the album for the night. We did ABCs, Ages, and Dubbing. And, we still had time for the Irish Drinking Song and some 3-Line Drills. The picture shows Guy, Scott, and Seth in a Dubbing scene.

The last Wednesday night in February (the 27th) had our usual workshop, and this time there are a lot of pictures to show for it. Find them in the album. In addition to One Word Story and Hitchhiker, we also got in some Standing, Sitting, Bending as well as a Create Object To Speak exercise. Then came the Irish Drinking Song, some Three-Line Drills, and a quick couple of rounds of Montage to complete the night.

And that's the quick summary for classes in the month of February.

Classes, January 2008

Here's a quick review of the classes in January, along with the links to the albums of their photos. This photo is from the Tug-o'-War exercise during the January 2 class. The rest of the photos (such as they are) can be found in the album. The camera was still acting out, so there aren't a lot that made it through the screening. Still, there are some fun new faces joining the regulars.

The camera is back in action for the January 9 class, and the album has the number (and quality) of photos to prove it. In addition to a couple of new players in the class, we also had a guide dog!

I was out of town for the January 16 class. Mike filled in and taught the class, but no pictures from that one.

The January 23 class included one of my favorite scenes in some time. The lead picture from this class (the rest can be seen in the album) shows the Three Wonder Sisters, performed by Roberta, Karla, and Li-At. It was one of the Typewriter scenes and also included Sol as the starting writer. There are a lot of pictures from this class, and they're all fun.

The last class of the month was on January 30 and the pictures are posted in the album. There were several new players and so we got back to doing some good, basic exercises and games, including the one shown in this photo: Entrances and Exits with Jennifer, Kenna, and Scott.

Classes, End Of 2007

I'm BAAAAACK! Yes, it's taken me a bit to get my head back into the blogging game after my trip (and work, and life, and blah blah blah), but I think it's time to catch up on some of the backlog. Let's start by getting a bunch of these workshop photos published onto the old intertubes.

The last post with photos was for the October 17, 2007 workshop. Since then, we've had one workshop canceled (Oct. 24) and four workshops with guest instructors (Oct. 31, Nov. 7, Nov. 14, and Nov. 21) and no photos! For the rest of the workshops of 2007, I'm going to forgo any sort of detailed description and just give out links to the on-line albums.

The album for the November 28, 2007 class can be found here. For some reason, my camera started giving us grief, and we lost a lot of pictures to blur (I overcompensated for underexposure).

Still, it's nice having Scott's enthusiastic approval.

The December 5 workshop (see the album) had quite a few new players join us. Their experience ranged from "first time on stage" to "experienced improv player". Unfortunately, the camera was still acting up, so we don't have as many pictures of the new folks.

The album from the December 12 workshop shows the return of a lot of familiar faces. Although we are still losing pictures to blur, at the end of the night there were a lot of two-player shots from the Freeze Tag round. Those are some very fun pictures.

The December 19 workshop had a nice mix of new and old experienced players (although I think we scared off one of the newer players - drat!). The camera was settling down so we have quite a few pictures in the album for this class (although I'm still correcting some exposure problems).

The last workshop of 2007 (December 26) has only 1 picture in the album. After I took the class warm-up shot, no one else picked up the camera. The night was just that good! Actually, we had a pretty good turn out for the day after Christmas, and it was a very good class.

And that was how we finished off 2007! Thanks to all the Santa Barbara Improv performers, players, students, instructors, audience-members, and well-wishers for a fabulous year.

Now to catch up on 2008...

Instructors While I'm Gone

Howdy Folks! I'm on vacation for the next 4 weeks (Guatemala!) and while I'm gone there are three other instructors who will be taking on the workshop. Here's the schedule until I return.

Wednesday, October 31

This is Mike.

He will be teaching on October 31.

Mike is originally from England.

Cheerio, Mike.

Wednesday, November 7

Meet Jim.

Jim will be teaching on November 7.

Jim made our black boxes.

They are really good boxes.

Wednesday, November 14

It's Mike again!

Mike will be teaching on November 14

Remember Mike?

Wednesday, November 21

This is Victoria.

Victoria will be teaching on November 21

Hi Victoria!

We all miss you

Wednesday, November 28

This is Alan.

Remember Alan?

Alan will be back teaching November 28

Class October 10, 2007

The first Animal Transform scene of the night with Jim (hamster), Li-At (woodpecker), Melissa (bull), Sol (cat), and David (giraffe). It became a fun scene at the company picnic with some great characters. This workshop was a bit different, starting with not doing a 1-Word Scene, but instead practicing with Firing Line. The rest of the night, we focussed on some basic character work. Because there were a lot of single character pieces through the night, there were a lot more pictures. 261 photos were on the memory card from this night. I was able to whittle that down to 125, but I felt that was OK this time since so many were of individual players. You can see them in the album.

The first scene work of the night was Video Dating, using a couple of bins of hats which I'd brought. Everyone got in at least 4 different characters and many of those were fabulous.

Next, we did Trouble With A Small Object. This was the chance to show off work from our first homework assignment. Basically, I asked folks to pay attention to their physical actions over the week, and practice miming those actions. In class, I wanted to see a demonstration of using some small object, then running into a problem with the object, and finally solving the problem. If you didn't work on the assignment it was OK, I just asked that you demonstrate something.

Next we did a series of Animal Transforms. Those turned out really well. The characters were very different and yet clearly human. A nice stretch for everyone.

We still did an Irish Drinking Song with 3 groups of 5.

Finally, we did a set of 3-Line Drills, only this time I had everyone complete their open scenes after telling me their wants. That was interesting, and I think everyone got a chance to try 'what comes next' after the first three lines. There were a lot of great scenes. Next, we'll go back to some simple long from structures.

Finally, I gave out a new homework assignment. Look at your friends, co-workers, and acquaintances and try to identify what makes them a 'character'. In the next week, pick out one character and develop it. At the next workshop I'll give you a chance to introduce the character, and then interact with some other characters.

And that was the night.

Class October 17, 2007

Sometimes the picture that I'll choose for the lead in to the class posting is just too obvious. Here, Scott, Marika, Li-At, Ben and Kenna are in a School Picture to Scene character exercise with their assigned group being the Fencing Club. If you'd like to see more pictures from the class (with fewer of Scott nekkid') then check out the album. A fairly large class this time with 21 players. We had a bit of a bumpy opening but got in some 1-Word Story warm-ups as well as a round of 3-Part Narrative.

The night focused on character development, and I think there was a lot of great work (other than the Jalan character). We started with School Picture to Scene and in addition to the Fencing Club, we saw the Rugby Club, 4-H, Track and Field, and ROTC clubs. It was a good warm up.

The next exercise was great. Last week's "homework" was to focus on a friend or acquaintance and identify aspects that can be used for a character - how they talk, carry themselves, interact with others, the way they sound, their obsessions, etc. This week, I gave each character a chance to introduce themselves and then interact with a couple of others in a scene. For those who didn't know about the homework (or forgot about it), they had to throw something together quickly. The point was to closely base the character on someone real. And wow, there were a lot of great characters. Interesting, compelling, and complete in the sense that they were able to stay completely in character during their interactions with other, very different characters. They were really interesting. Well done.

After those scenes, we got in several rounds of Irish Drinking Song and they were surprisingly toned down - less bawdy than usual. I'm not sure whether that's good or bad - but I generally enjoy different.

We finished with some Montage scenes. We didn't start with a 3-Line Drill, so I wanted to see how everyone did when they went right into open scene work without any "warm-up". And folks did pretty well. The more open scene work we do, the better.

I did give out another homework assignment. This time, I want folks to concentrate on "opening lines". Other than "hey Bill", how do you start interacting with friends and acquaintances when you first see them? How do those opening lines depend on common but unstated knowledge (we rarely narrate things we both already know)?

Since I've had to cancel the next class (Oct. 24) and I'll be out of town for the next couple of weeks (but there will be other instructors for the workshops while I'm gone) we won't get back to this assignment until the end of November (when I'm back).

Workshop on October 24, 2007 CANCELED

Howdy Folks, The Santa Improv Workshop scheduled for Wednesday, October 24, 2007 is CANCELED!

The Unitarian Society has its annual Star King Benefit Rummage Sale, and the entire building is used to support that event. No rooms are available.

We will be back on Wednesday, October 31. I will be on vacation, but there will be others teaching the class while I'm gone, so be sure to stop by.

I'll be posting this notice on the website (www.sbimprov.com) and sending an email to anyone who signed the attendance sheets during a Santa Barbara Improv Workshop (and this is one of the reasons I asked folks to sign up on that list).

I'm sorry about canceling this class and I look forward to seeing everyone in November. Alan

P.S. It just so happens that on that Wednesday night, Scott Williams from the workshop is putting on a S.B. Real Estate Conference; you can check it out at http://www.scottwilliams.com/he/pages/section4/section4_Newsletter.asp

Class October 3, 2007

With Jeff watching from the sidelines, we've got Jim, Karla, Angela, and Marjorie in a scene from TV Clicker. Here, Karla and Marjorie are trying to prevent Angela from chopping off the head of Jim's dog character. Must have been an "After School Special". The album from this workshop is now available. I was able to whittle the set down to 87 pictures. That's down from the original 234 (!) pictures taken. Yowzer.

We started off with a pretty small (for us) warm up group, but during the What Are You Doing exercise, we almost doubled in size. There were twenty people in in class by the time we worked on 1-Word Story exercises.

We started the scene work with TV Clicker. There were two groups and a whole lotta scenes. It was all pretty energetic, but let's try and forget the "Old Men Gone Wild" show - there are NO pictures from that particular scene!

We got in a set of Surprise Lines scenes and those were great. Good conflicts, nice character interactions, and the lines were worked into the scenes well.

We had our usual set of Irish Drinking Songs and then had a complete rotation of 3-Line Drills.

And we ended the night with an open set of Freeze Tag. Nice work!

Class September 29, 2007

Lorien, Andy, Li-At, Angela, and Roberta in an Irish Drinking Song. The full set of pictures from the workshop is now in the on-line album. We had four new players with us for the night, and they impressed all of us with their bold choices and willingness to dive right in. Welcome!

We started with a pretty traditional set of warm-up exercises, including the 1-Word Story. And, I debuted the new Improv 101: Yes & introductory talk. A door replaced the table and vase, and denial of relationship replaced denial of children. We'll see how much of that sticks.

Our first stage piece was the 5-Letter Word, and most of the scenes kept to the letters in their words, more or less. All of them were fun to watch.

Next we did a set of Dialog Separate From Activity exercises. We did these in large groups, and so there were a lot of elements to juggle. My biggest concern - that give and take would be abandon creating multiple, conflicting dialogs - was unfounded. The group discussions were easy to follow and interesting. Some of the physical work between players could be improved, so we'll do some work in the next workshop focusing on that skill.

The rest of the night had a more musical theme. We performed our usual Irish Drinking Songs and then did a series of Dubbed Opera scenes. The singers in the operas all had a delightful sense of the dramatic, and I think all the translators did fine jobs telling their stories.

We finished the night with Freeze Tag. Thanks everyone!

Class September 19, 2007

Scott, Nick, Alan, Sol, and Ben in a Sporting Event scene. I just like the looks on everyone's faces. I've got the album on-line and captioned so stop on by and enjoy. It was a fun night (and I'm writing this up within a week of the class!)

We started off with a set of Story-Story-Die scenes. Everyone has become quite adept at this structure, and the crowd has to be pretty critical to get the players to die off.

Next came Last Letter scenes and this was more of a challenge. It's critical for the lines of dialog to be crisp with clear endings. Run on sentences or tentative statements makes it harder to start a follow up line.

We tried a new exercise called Sporting Event. This also proved to be a challenge, requiring us to be aware of what everyone was doing in the scene. When it works, it makes for some compelling scene work and it's a skill that's worth developing.

We followed up with our traditional Irish Drinking Song, and then got in a 3-Line Drill. Our time was a bit short, so we finished the night with Michigan Freeze Tag.

Class September 12, 2007

Well, there aren't any pictures from this class because I didn't get a chance to pick up batteries to the camera. It's too bad because there was some great character work in the course of the night. We started with our usual warm-ups. After that, our scene work began with a series of Counting Words scenes.

I brought a couple of bins of hats, and we broke them out for Panel of Experts scenes. This was the part of the night for which I most regret not having pictures. There was a lot of great character work using the hats as influence.

We did a set of Irish Drinking Songs, and then moved on to the advanced part of the night. Everyone did the 3-Line Drill and then we worked on a series of Scene On Scene structures. Hats were available for this exercise, and again they prompted some good characters.

Class September 5, 2007

I like this shot of Jim, Sol, and Victoria. It's very dramatic. The album for this workshop is now available so head on over and check it out. You'll also see pictures of Neil (yay!), who had a chance to come to class during his quick return visit to Santa Barbara.

After warm-ups, we did a Speaks As One Dialog. This looks easy, but is really a challenge. It's hard not to have one leader, but the challenge of the scene (and the technique) is to avoid that. And the other challenge (apparently) is to avoid rocking back and forth!

Next, we did a series of Rhyming scenes which I thought were a lot of fun. And then, to keep honing the rhyming skill, we sang a series of Irish Drinking Songs.

We ended the night with a long set of 3-Line Drills. I need to start these earlier in the evening to give us a chance to work on our open scenes.

Class August 29, 2007

Linda, Aidan, Li-At, Kenna, Don, and Sharon belting out an Irish Drinking Song. The album for this workshop is available now, so check it out.

After our warm-ups we got right into a couple of Tag-Out Stories. The energy was good and I think the stories were fun. A series of ABC scenes followed and we quickly learned who doesn't feel constrained by the traditional order of the alphabet. Who Am I was next, and it's been some time since we worked on these endowment/guessing game scenes. We'll need to revisit these scenes to keep in practice.

Everyone worked on their improvised song skills with the Irish Drinking Song. For the advanced part of the night, we did something a little different. We skipped the 3-Line Drill and instead went into scene work with Assigned Professions. I think everyone got quite a bit out of a more structured set of open scenes and I was pretty happy with the results. It's a good exercise that we will revisit.

We ended the night with a round of Freeze Tag in the line form - what I sometimes call Michigan Freeze Tag for reasons that I can't remember.

Class August 22, 2007

I know this photo is a little blurry, but I like the action and enthusiasm from Robert, Ann, and David. They're in a Hitchhiker scene, and David just entered as a rowdy concert goer. They all look the part! The album from the workshop is now available. We started off (after the warm-ups) with a set of Hitchhiker scenes that were pretty physical. That got everyone ready for a full rotation of Puppet scenes which were also very physical - even though the puppets don't initiate any movement. Those puppeteers are busy.

We then practiced the Irish Drinking Song before a full round of the 3-Line Drill. We finished the night with some Montage (although the camera had run out of battery charge by then).

Class August 15, 2007

Have you noticed that the performers in an Irish Drinking Song start to look like they're going to punch someone. Here, Gina, Sol, Scott, David, and Christine are belting out a song, but because this is Christine's first song, she doesn't appear quite as mad at Scott as all the others do. The album for this workshop is available on-line. We took advantage of the group being a little bit smaller to do some two person scenes. After our warm-ups, we got to a round of Mutant scenes and then a full set of Gibberish Switch. It's been awhile since we've been able to spend the time with these scenes, so it was great to see how well folks did with these 'old-timers'.

We followed up with our standard Irish Drinking Song, and then on to the 3-Line Drill. We finished the night with a couple sets of Montage, and I must say that the quality of the scenes are getting much better. Good work, everyone.

Improv Workshop August 8, 2007

Ah yes ... the ladies. All of the women in class gathered for a round of the Irish Drinking song. Later, all the men (including myself) performed together in our own drinking song. No question, the women kicked our asses. They sang beautifully, in rhythm and formed wonderful rhymes. I'm not even sure that all the men were singing the same song ... or at times whether we were in the same building. Sad.

You can find the rest of the pictures from this class are at our album. I didn't have the usual camera, so the resolution is a bit different on these photos. Actually, I didn't have a lot of the things I usually bring to class, like a lesson plan! So, we improvised the workshop, and in many ways it was one of the better classes (uh oh, this just encourages bad habits).

Also missing (I came to class directly from another appointment and was ill prepared) was my notebook, so I'm only working from my (very poor) memory - oh yeah, and the photos. I know we worked on a Repeating Scene, Changing Genre piece that was a lot of fun. Everyone did well with that one. We also had a gender based pair of Irish Drinking Songs. Did I emphasize how badly we (men) did?

The whole group did some 3-Line Drills and ended the night with quite a few rounds of Freeze Tag. As I mentioned before, this turned out to be quite a fun workshop.

Improv Workshop August 1, 2007

Scott and Jim are the players in a Pillars scene, with Allegra and Andy as the word-providing pillars. More pictures from this scene as well as all the other pictures from this workshop can be found at the online album. We had 18 people in class that night, and it started with the usual warm-ups, including a couple of rounds of 1-Word Story. After that, we started some scene work with a full rotation of Gift Giving. Next came Pillars as a rotation that everyone participated in, both as performers and as pillars. Then came Questions Only which we did in three groups.

At that point the pictures stopped, although I don't know if it was because of low battery power or lack of memory chip space. In my notes I see that we did a set of Irish Drinking Songs next, and then a set of Soap Opera scenes. I particularly like Soap Opera and hope to get some pictures from that exercise in the future.

Thanks everyone, for a very fun class.