TheatreSports July 2008 – pictures!

Earlier this month a team of visiting Germans (all with matching uniforms, neatly folded and brought with them in a holdall, natch) took on The Spontaneity Shop who recruiting a rag-tag band of wandering Americans to help bail them out. James Cann took pictures of the whole sordid affair. Here they are.

Best talk ever

Now clearly, if you have an ounce of sense, you’ll be getting one of us here at The Spontaneity Shop to give a talk about stories, spontaneity, charisma, creativity, theatre and communication.

But just say none of us is available. Consider getting Benjamin Zander to talk to you about classical music. Honestly. This guy is amazing.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html

I’ve seen a lot of good stuff at Ted, but this is the best.

The Improv Handbook is out!

Deborah and I were delighted this morning to receive copies of The Improv Handbook – our new book on improvisation The Spontaneity Shop way. It is in the shops NOW if you live in the USA and will be in the shops here within the next four weeks. But you can always buy it on Amazon and they will send it to your door.

The Improv Handbook is 400+ pages of improv goodness, tips and tricks, games and techniques and is a complete guide to how to improvise, how to stage an improv show and why anyone should bother. It also includes interviews with such leading lights of the improv scene as Keith Johnstone, Charna Halpern and Neil Mullarkey.

To celebrate, we’ve put a new page up on our website, The Spontaneity Shop library, showing you all the books we think you’d like. Buy, open, read and enjoy!

http://www.the-spontaneity-shop.com/workshops/library.html

Storytelling I: Cause and effect

The fundamental quality of stories is cause and effect. A happens and so B happens. The famous quote comparing “The king died and then the queen died” to “The king died and then the queen died of a broken heart” exemplifies this perfectly.

Consider what we do NOT like about stories. We reject a story when…
- it is too episodic
- it contains too many elements
- it is confusing
- it relies on coincidence
- it “cheats” by introducing new concepts late in the day (deux ex machina)
- (more subtly) the resolution is “too easy”

These are all failures of causality.

The last one is deserving of special attention. Let’s start by looking at the beginning of the story.

Little Red Riding Hood begins with the following (trivial) cause-and-effect.

LRH’s mother asks her to take a basket of cookies to grandma -> LRH sets out on her journey.

(Note that most improvisers would do ANYTHING rather than leave the house and start the journey.)

Without this causality, the story doesn’t begin.

But there is a deeper causality too. LRH’s mother tells her “don’t stray from the path” (or “don’t stop to pick flowers on the way” or “don’t talk to strangers” or some combination, depending on which version you read). When LRH does stray/stop/talk she brings about her own brush with death, further strengthening the bonds of cause-and-effect. Without this instruction and disobeyment, the wolf feels arbitrary. With them, we understand what CAUSES the interaction with the wolf.

Hence, when a story is resolved too easily – we sometimes feel that cause-and-effect is missing. If at the end of Star Trek II, the engines are fixed in time to escape the Genesis Wave, then the audience feels they are fixed in time BECAUSE that gets the Enterprise out of danger and for no other reason. If (as actually happens) the engines are fixed at the cost of Spock’s life, then the audience knows that the Enterprise was saved BECAUSE Spock was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

The following film, despite some bright moments, effectively unpicks the previous films causality which may explain why it is not held in such high regard.

Pictures from Maestros

Thanks to Jon Pokroy and Dennis Doracin for taking these.

 

Playing Maestro short-handed

Last week’s Maestro was interesting as due to a combination of poor administration, bad communication and a couple of sudden drop-outs, we were left with only six players. Our student Maestros have to do double-duty: give our students the chance to play in front of an audience and to be an entertaining show. With my eye on the latter, I could see that the usual Maestro structure wasn’t going to make a lot of sense, but with my eye on the former, I could see that suddenly switching to a new format at the eleventh hour wasn’t going to help.

My co-director, Alex, and I settled down to begin the show and called out the first two players. Three scenes later, we had exhausted our crop and the first round was already over. I had been right, this was a nonsense. Then inspiration struck. I called up a single player and told him that this was his round and he would get the points for it. However, that didn’t mean he couldn’t share the stage with anyone else. Suddenly, the format pinged back in to place. We had six scenes per round, one for each player. The process of going through the players made sense and all was right with the world.

Eliminations seemed too cruel, but we did have a tie-breaker after the third round, and finished the show in just over an hour.

Dance Monkey Dance on 23, 29 May

Our Level 3 students are presenting two more shows this term at the Hen and Chickens on 23 and 29 May.

http://the-spontaneity-shop.com/shows/show_details.html?show_id=92

Uniting primates and poultry as never before, Dance Monkey Dance takes over the Hen & Chickens for three nights of improvised entertainment that falsely promises to shatter the species barrier.

Armed only with their wits and some sadistic audience suggestions, our performers will draw upon their darkest secrets to create for you a chimerical concoction of sex, lies and gaffer tape.

Engaging in these fearless games of pin the tale on the monkey, we present Alex Clarke, Charlotte Gittins, Claire Kaplan, Ece Ozdemiroglu, Ed Bennett, Glen Long, James Mitchell and Mia Debidin. Join them at the Hen & Chickens as they wage gorilla warfare [sic], commit deeds most fowl [sic] and make you sic [sic] with laughter.

Dates: 23 May 2008, 29 May 2008, 9:30pm
Price: £6.00 + £1 membership
Venue: The Hen & Chickens Theatre, 109 St Paul’s Road, London, N1 2NA
Box Office: 020 7704 2001
Nearest tube: Highbury and Islington

Maestro Impro Sunday 11, 18 May

Our Level 2 students are playing Maestro Impro at the Cockpit Theatre at 7:00pm on Sunday 11 May and Sunday 18 May.

http://the-spontaneity-shop.com/shows/show_details.html?show_id=93

Fifteen comedy improvisers will play out a series of sketches and games – all completely made-up on the spot. At the end of each one, they will throw themselves on your mercy! You, the audience, award the points which will determine who stays in the competition and who is eliminated.

At the end of the night, there will be one glorious winner – the funniest of them all, the improviser’s improviser, the champion of champions.

But it won’t happen without your votes, so be there and be part of the fun.

Dates: 11 May 2008, 18 May 2008, 7:00pm
Price: £8:00
Venue: Cockpit Theatre, Gateforth Street, London NW8
Box Office: 08700 600100
Nearest tube: Edgware Road / Marylebone

Buy tickets now: 11 May, 18 May