FIST FIGHT IMPROV - Part I - The Rehearsal

jacobts (65)in #curie • 7 years ago (edited)

On a foggy night in St Louis, a new team aged to perfection, is ready for a show, ready for a fight.

I will share with you the story of their improvised piece another time. I will tell you of a wedding gift, a father and his dumb son, a couch fort, and Appreciation Station. But for now I will tell you the story of our night together, how I shared the advice from an improv ghost, how Fist Fight trained this misty evening in St Louis as the ice slowly melted from the trees and the steam rose from the streets.

I had never met them before. I was invited by their brilliant coach, Katie Nunn, to coach them as a guest. I've known Katie for years, we've all known Katie for years. She's that friend you knew in your 20's who was doing shots and soaking up knowledge with all the veterans late into the night. She and her beau are the friends who invite you over to crash and cook you full blown meals. She is that improv player that shows up ready for fun, the teacher with a vision, and the partner in crime who can not be tamed but whose kindness is always by your side. How lucky for this new team to have such a leader for now, for they have never had a leader before.

Fist Fight, as they call themselves, have been together over a year. They have known each other since High School, and have been rehearsing on their own simply because they enjoyed playing together. It is rare that a team will rehearse for a year without playing a show. They've had time to let some bad habits weave into interesting choices alongside an easy execution of reinforced fundamentals. Their name was appropriate. They were ready to play, and they played very smart. However, at times it felt like they had their fists up to protect themselves. This is common in improv, for many reasons players will emotionally protect themselves. But this team was a group of friends, and if they could just drop their guard, maybe they’d discover a greater joy together.

Rehearsal is typically divided into Three Sections. The Rule of Three is everywhere in improv. First is Recaps and Warm Ups. Second is Scenes and Exercises followed by a longer Piece. The Piece is what a team would perform for an audience in a Show. One can call it a Form, a Show, or sometimes generically a “Harold”. But I will often call it a piece in rehearsal because it’s not quite a show without an audience, but it’s still an inspired creation of art by the ensemble. The Third Section is usually Notes, Recap, and Plans for future rehearsals or shows.

While stretching to warm up, they described themselves, their style of play, and the form they have been working on. In longform improv, a team's "form" is like a song in music. If you are in a cover band, you might have some jazzy songs with riffs, you might have some tight country standards, or you might even rap and drop some hip hop beats. In longform improv, a team might huddle up before a show and decide on a form. In pro wrestling, they might go over the story of the match and then go out there and improvise from beat to beat. In improv, the story is discovered, but the beats are discussed so that all the players are aware of where they are in the piece.

Some forms are more complicated than others, Fist Fight's was a mix of a La Ronde, Onion Peel, and a Harold. For the sake of rehearsal, we discussed focussing on the Harold aspects of their form. But first, we continued with Warm Ups.

Yoga stretches and qigong breathing stances were shared to warm up our bodies during this cold weather we've been having in St Louis.

A Motion Morph game was passed a physicality around the circle, focussing on repeating that physicality and sound to the next person in the circle, letting the action and sound organically morph.

A simple "Yes" pattern game was heightened and explored. At first treating it like a game of "Zip Zap Zop" just to pass around our focus, we then incorporated movement. One player would point to another and say "Yes" and walk towards that person. The receiving player then makes eye contact with another player and says "Yes" while walking towards them. Our goals were to feel comfortable saying yes while moving forward with focus, to freely receive that focus, and continue allowing ourselves to be playful as we discovered where that focus would flow to next. Giggles are a natural side effect.

After warm ups comes the second section of rehearsal, Scenes and Excercises. We started off with Shotgun Scenes, which are short scenes. The goal is simply to shake off any rust and get ourselves feeling comfortable making initiations and discovering moments between characters. After a while the coach starts to add tasks and make notes to help the players. I'm sure there's lots of teachers that use this method, but I first saw it from Mick Napier at the Annoyance Theater in Chicago. One of the notes I gave the players of Fist Fight was to allow themselves to make eye contact and breathe as they entered the scene. It was interesting to see them improvise so well, yet it was a challenge for them to make eye contact at first. They took notes very well and as they continued to make eye contact, you could see their eyes light up and their faces fighting back laughter as they continued to play together.

We played a Side-Mirror Scenes. Basically two players play a scene, while a couple other players stand off to the side behind their partner and mirrored their behavior. The goal of all games is to have fun, and this game’s fun is getting to see someone imitate you off to the side as you play a scene. It also helps players to keep moving if they are trying to avoid a "talking heads" scene where two people stand still and trade wits.

In Part 2, I will tell you the story of their longer piece. I gave them a simple 'form' to follow I call the "Herald" which is basically a living room type discussion, followed by three to four scenes, before returning to the living room discussion, followed by more scenes before the 'blackout'. For their suggestion I read them some lines from a couple of Steemit posts I discovered via @SteemTrail, “Ships at Anchor” by @zthomasolson and the other was an article, “Windows of Perception” by the @Krnl. I asked Fist Fight to close their eyes, breathe, and listen.

After their piece we played Freeze Tag. An oldy but a goody. Freeze Tag is played by two players doing a scene. At any time, players watching the scene can say “Freeze”, then tag out one of the players in the scene while assuming their exact physicality, then they will discover and initiate a completely different scene. It’s a nice way to wind down the night by simply playing and not having to think of the beats of a form.

During the third part of rehearsal, notes, we discussed remembering and building on what we liked. We can always build on what we like and leave the rest behind. A crazy old bartender from iO once told me the Ghost of Del told him, “You’re power is in your capacity to wonder.” I shared this with Fist Fight in hopes they would continue to let what they appreciate, appreciate and grow. Like a baseball player becomes a better hitter from expanding his ability to hit different pitches, we as improvisers can expound our ability to appreciate and simply like gifts from our scene partners. We discussed using memory and emotion to initiate scenes. We discussed eye contact and simple stagecraft. We discussed some personal strengths and things to work on. But most importantly we all agreed it was time to start hunting down stages, they are ready for a show.

The good news is they will be appearing in an upcoming Cage Match show at The Improv Shop. “Two Teams Enter, One Team Leaves”. But it is my hope they book some stage time on another night, even at other venues such as Bar 101, or maybe another local bar in town with a stage. Improv is growing at an impressive rate in St Louis. The public continues to discover and appreciate this bizarre, raw beautiful gift that is live improv comedy. People are looking for a comedy punch in the face, they're looking for a funny Fist Fight.

We huddled up, said goodnight, and headed back into the foggy film noir night. Katie and I nerded out over rehearsal and improv in general as we drove to meet up with friends at the The Improv Shop’s new location. I took a tour of all the potential in Improv’s new home in St Louis’ Grove District. There is still much work to do, and many surprises to share, but for now I am thankful to see the new stage has begun to take shape in the shadows of this large brick building. I will always appreciate the smell of sawdust in the air, the days before the shows.