Nothing from Something

Theatre Review: Something from Nothing
written and performed by Caleb Manci, Megan Green, Aaron Kozbial, Carrie Bain, Aaron Rueter and Lauren Q. Hearter
Directed by Bryan Cohen
The Improv as Theatre Initiative
at The Apollo Studio



Something from Nothing is about seven months in the life of a Harold Team at ImprovOlympics in the mid-1980's. The Harold is a creation of Del Close's that helped define longform improvisation as we know it today.

As someone who has taken on studying comedy from since I was a kid, I appreciate it when improvisers take an interest in the roots of improvisation. So, when Bryan Cohen started to put this production together and I heard he had been knocking on the right doors to interview people about the time period he was focusing on, I had hope.

Let's just get this out of the way right now, this play is a mess.

So much of a mess, that I don't even know how to start this review.

Well, let's go with the old stand-by...

Good news first.

The good news is that the women in this show thankfully steal the show every moment they're on stage. Megan Green, Carrie Bain and Lauren Q. Hearter have brilliantly realized their characters and when all else fails on stage they can be relied upon to at least wring a chuckle or two out of whatever contrived situation is going on at the time. These ladies really do take the stage, give us characters they and the audience can believe in, and have perfect comic timing. One of the best moments is when Megan Green asks out another improviser as if she were checking off a To Do list with an underlying vulnerability that's both sweet and funny.

I also liked that the play, appropriately developed through improvisation by the actors, wasn't a straight-up history lesson. The play is presented from the viewpoint of the members a Harold team. One guy, Aaron Kozbial, has been left in the dust by his previous team who all got hired into The Second City's Touring Company. He auditioned, too, and didn't get hired. He has a touching monologue early on questioning why he's here and if he's on the right path. Something all improvisers go through, especially those who don't get cast by Second City.

Most improv teams, including Second City companies, are very unusual in that the people on the team tend to be put together, through the randomness of class enrollment or through an audition process. The people on the team didn't choose each other. There's a certain "casting your fates to the winds" involved when joining a team.

Having the play be about the life of an improv team is an interesting idea. I have seen people's lives transformed through improvisation. People bond, people grow, people become more self-expressive. People can be unrecognizable from their first class to who they are by their last class. It can be mind blowing.

This play doesn't really show us any of that.

Now, the bad news.

For one, it's too frickin' long. The first act was an hour and a half and left the audience on a weird, awkward note at the end of act one with a couple of improvisers on a very quiet date. It didn't leave us with any reason to come back from the intermission. And when the audience came back from intermission, it didn't really give us much reason to want to stay. There's very little story development. I didn't know where this train was heading and I didn't care after awhile. The only way I knew for sure the play was over, is that the actors stood in a line and bowed. The 8pm play let out at 10:40pm. I know, because, at times, my watch became more interesting than the play.

I'm really trying hard not to be a dick, here. But if you're going to do a play about improvisation, use some of the things you've learned from improvisation.

Things like...

- Show,Don't Tell - for a play about improv, there sure is a lot of sitting around talking, punctuated by occasional bursts of standing around talking.

- Share Your Voice - The Apollo Studio is a tiny space and I was only in the second row. I could barely hear the guys most of the time.

- Heighten - Not a lot going on in this department. There are things that happen. There are bouts of hook ups, break ups, unemployment, and even homelessness. But none of them build on one another or lead to anything big.

- Stage Picture - This is really Directing 101, here, folks. There were several scenes in cars and restaurants where actors literally sat upstage of other actors and couldn't be seen.

- Transformation - Characters change circumstances and wardrobe, but no character seems much different at the end than they were at the beginning.

If you're going to set your play in 1985, immerse yourself in it beyond clothes and cultural references. Substitute one of Del's disciples for the offstage improv coach and this play could have taken place today. The play seems to have lost track of its original intentions to shed light on a historical period in improv. There no longer seems to be much of a reason to set it in 1985.

And this is picky - very picky - but I'm a stickler for this kind of thing, so indulge me. In 1985, it's very unlikely someone would have a video of Star Wars in their home. Unless it was a bootleg, which is conceivable. But they definitely wouldn't refer to it as the "original" Star Wars. Maybe, the "first" Star Wars, but I don't think anyone called it the original until either the redone version or the latest trilogy.

I really wanted to like this show. The people all seem very nice and I'm sure they have the best intentions. But the script needs to be severely overhauled and the guys need to not let their 80's wardrobe do all their acting.

The Rules of Engagement

Anger and upset are very much a part of the human package. There's nothing wrong with having emotions. You can't NOT have them. We tend to work very hard at avoiding them, especially anger and upset. Or limit them, like there's a time and a place for them. Emotions don't tend to follow schedules. We grow up being discouraged to show our emotions (Don't you raise your voice to me! ...I'll give you something to cry about!) We're even discouraged as adults. (I can't talk to you when you're like this - treating someone who's angry like they're a crazy person.)If people allowed themselves and others the space to just let their emotions flow, they'd probably move through them faster and we'd all probably be a little bit happier. We'd also get to know each other a lot better and probably feel safer because of it.

Easier said than done. Especially if you're around people where there hasn't been any agreement made on how to handle emotional situations.

I have two rules that I personally have that I apply to any heated argument.

1) No hitting. No destruction of property.

2) No dirty tricks. (This could be anything from lying about what's really true for myself - No, I'm not upset.- to bringing up issues unrelated to the topic just to try to hurt the other person.)

I try to adhere to these rules as best I can and if the other person breaks them, all bets are off and I then have the option to get nasty.

My girlfriend and I are like any couple. We have lots of good times and an occasional rough spot that needs to be smoothed out with some conscious contact. These engagements are important to me, because this is where I really get to know her on a very intimate level. I also get to know her personal rules, usually through trial and error.

Things Not To Say Or Do In An Argument With My Girlfriend

- Do not equate her behavior to that of either of her parents

- Do not make a reference to her "very fine boo-tay."

- Do not talk like a duck.

- Do not make farting sounds (real or imitation)

- It's okay to leave the television on, but ignore it. Don't you even dare look at it. (Really best to just turn it off)

- No unscheduled performances of The Naked Weenie Dance.

I hope you find this helpful. As an artist, I think it's important to study not only how people handle upset, but how you handle upset. I also believe that the more you allow yourself to fully experience anger and pain, the more able you are to fully experience pleasure and love.



SOIREE DADA: We received a lot of positive feedback on our performance at Looptopia. Jeff Watt put together a small montage focusing in on one of my favorite pieces.





Brooke Bagnall from the sketch comedy group Blaire is competing in a contest to be an NPR host. Seems like a very un-NPR thing to do, however her entry is interesting and sounds just like the real deal. It just takes a second to register to vote.

Brooke Bagnall on Public Radio's Talent Quest

Dumb Vegans

Vegans Sentenced in Baby's Death

By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA - A vegan couple was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for the death of their malnourished 6-week-old baby boy, who was fed a diet largely consisting of soy milk and apple juice.

Superior Court Judge L.A. McConnell imposed the sentences on Jade Sanders, 27, and Lamont Thomas, 31. Their son, Crown Shakur, weighed just 3 1/2 pounds when he died of starvation on April 25, 2004.

Defense lawyers said the first-time parents did the best they could while adhering to the lifestyle of vegans, who typically use no animal products. They said Sanders and Thomas did not realize the baby, who was born at home, was in danger until minutes before he died.

Sometimes, vegans are dumb. That's a sad understatement based on the news article above. I get the same hitch in my stomach around dumb vegans that I get around idiot bike riders. That's great that you're doing something helpful for yourself and the environment, but don't be a jerk or an idiot about it.

I'm a vegan...mostly. A true vegan would chastise me for that statement. You either are or you aren't. If someone told me they were a vegetarian except they occasionally ate fish or chicken, I'd say they were NOT a vegetarian. They might be more health conscious than others, but if you eat the animals, you're not a vegetarian. No exceptions.

There are two reasons I'm (mostly) vegan and will always be. It's healthier and the amount of cruelty endured by animals to feed our gullets is beyond inhumane. It's as if Nazi exterminators, instead of being eliminated, were told, "Hey, don't do that stuff to people... Have you considered cows?" The life of a farm factory animal is not a Perdue Chicken commercial. They don't live in a big open barn just hanging out and enjoying life. Almost all the animals that make it to your plate lived in overcrowded unsanitary conditions, were doped up and more-than-likely fed remnant meat (Yes, even today ten years after Mad Cow Disease emerged in the news, herbivore cows are still fed meat waste. That practice was outlawed, but it's poorly regulated. If it saves a buck, it won't go away until it's taken away.) and they died terrified.

Everyday, people shove food in their mouths without knowing anything about it. Many people continue to eat based on habits they developed growing up and never question it. If you buy it at the store, it must be okay, right? People get sick everyday and are dying from obesity, cancer and heart disease and never make the connection between the quality of their health and the many pounds of meat rotting in their colon. That's understandable. A good portion of our health system hasn't connected the dots there, either. My mother had quadruple by-pass surgery. Within a week of having her chest cut open, the hospital served her a bacon cheese burger. The nurse told us that we could bring her McDonald's, if we wanted. "What's important is that she eats, no matter what it is." Sheesh... Apparently, it's their way to insure repeat business.

All right, let me get off my very tall horse. Because what really burns me are vegans, the extreme example being the couple above, that give other vegans a bad name. Some people jump into the diet without doing the very simple homework of nutrition. Just eating Twizzlers may make you a vegan, but a very unhealthy one.

Notice, I don't use the term "lifestyle" when it comes to veganism. I don't consider it a lifestyle. It's a diet. Anyone can do it. Part of the problem I have are vegans who embrace it as a lifestyle and alienate those who do not. There's a very fine organization called EarthSave that I used to do a lot of work with. The monthly potluck dinners they hosted were the best. People brought in amazing food and I always used the opportunity to learn to cook a new dish. What turned me off were people who would say things like...

"You have a cat? I can't eat your food because your utensils may have touched other utensils that touched cat food." - Chill, dude. I washed it.

"Ew, is that a fake leather coat? That promotes wearing leather." - Um, no. It promotes wearing fake leather.

"I don't cut my hair. I let it grow out naturally. I use crystal rocks for deodorant. I breast fed my child until he was sixteen. I make all my own clothes out of hemp. I smell funny on purpose." Okay, these are slightly exaggerated.

Veganism is a healthy choice. It's good for your body and it's good for the environment. But as long as vegans make dumb choices or perpetuate an alienating, condescending hippy persona, it's going to be hard to spread the good word on it.

Saturday Morning Cartoons!

It's Saturday morning! Grab a pillow to sit on. Go get a bowl of Corn Pops.

Don't sit next to your brother. He'll try to fart on your cereal.




And when you're done with that, check out the fun we had at Looptopia. Been a long time since I got my Dada on in front of an audience.

Fry Day

Updates


MOM: Is back in the hospital. The doctors aren't sure what's the matter. She had an attack similar to what she had last week which they thought was caused by an alteration in her prescribed medicine. They kept her overnight. I spoke with her yesterday afternoon. On her way to the hospital, they shoved a tube down her throat to help her breathe which, when removed, caused her voice to be deep and raspy. She actually sounded old to me. She has always sounded older, but she never sounded like an old lady to me before. It was chilling.


ROBOWRITERS: We had our first meeting, last night. It was small group, but they rocked. I was delighted by the level of quality and at how great everyone was at giving constructive, honest feedback. A common thread developed in the criticism. Most of the scenes started out strong and then flattened out into just a string of jokes or events that failed to heighten the situation. This isn't unusual. An interesting issue comes up early and the writer, instead of exploring that theme, abandons it to move on to other jokes that they want to fit in. So, many first drafts of scenes end up feeling more like two or three scenes in one. Usually, the strongest part of the scene is the one that has the most emotional resonance. Get rid of all that excess "funny" stuff and develop the more interesting stuff where the characters are more emotionally invested in an outcome.

Everyone took an assignment to work on for next week. I put together an image, a line of dialogue and a word from the dictionary. Their challenge was to weave them all into a scene, either figuratively or literally. Here's one that was left over. Feel free to use it on your own...


RoboWriter Assignment #10

Write a scene using the following elements….

An image…





A line of dialogue…

“If you give any explanation but the true one, you are a liar and a coward.”

And a word or phrase…

TARTAR SAUCE


You can take these words or images figuratively or literally. It’s up to you.



TODAY: It's a scaled down version of Savage Breast at 2pm at Manifest in the Sculpture Garden next to the Getz Theater... Soiree DADA will take to the street for a brief but glorious time during LOOPTOPIA on Friday, May 11th. Bask in the sunshine of their love at The Plaza at Chase Tower, between 7:15 - 7:45pm... And somewhere in all that. I'll finish my research paper and study for a final exam. Yikes!

RoboWriters Tonight!

Today is one of those days where the hours available don't match the workload. I have to rework the running orders for OLD and for Savage Breast's turn at Columbia's Manifest Arts Festival. I also need to finish up a research paper on theatre in Northern Ireland and prep for tonight's first RoboWriters meeting at The Uptown Writer's Space. I also need to send off a Mother's Day card. I spoke to my mother yesterday. She doesn't have a phone in her room, so whenever my younger brother visits at the nursing home, he calls. She genuinely sounds fine. She likes her room and the food. Go figure.

Last night was another WNEP writer's session for the upcoming Dada show. It was a ton of fun. Some very creative, and slightly insane, people.

Here's a poem I've been working on that we didn't get a chance to read. Most of the material I've brought in so far have been created through mishing and mashing existing texts - cutting and pasting and churning words through translation programs. A very technological approach. I've decided to try a series of more organic poems. The following was originally handwritten while sitting and eating lunch - thus the imagery.

(Mind you, Dada is best if read out loud. So, if no one's around, go for it. If there are people around, even better. An authentic German accent helps...)

GUARDIAN THROAT
by Dada mondo yippeeeeeee

My throat enables the litter of previous bovine to tackle the up of a flip (AHEM)

My throat grabs at the words leaking from my lips. They slip from it's grasp like eels of wet spaghetti.

The
words
drop
to
the
floor.

They splat in small dollops and are eaten by mice who are eaten by cats who die from holes bore into the corners of their stomachs.

My words have edges. They cause paper cuts. My words are deadly. Deadlier than I give them credit to charge what they like at the local five and dime-is-on-our-side

Words that when strained through the rotting jail cell of my teeth include, but are not limited to;

"arugula"

"topiary"

"moist"

and "minuscule."

"Buttocks" used to be problematic.

I can now release it into the wild without thought of provocation or consequence.

Please.

Heed my advice.

Teach your cats well.

Close, But No Cigar

Oedipus Complex
adapted and directed by Frank Galati
Corporate Sponsor Partner Fifth Third Bank
The Goodman Theatre

Side note: I love going to the larger theatrical venues in Chicago. It feels like an event. People are a little more dressed up and there seems to be a slight air of reverence for what we are about to see. There's a decorum, which I appreciate.

(A beef I have with Columbia College is that the students act like they're at a high school football game when they're attending a show. I dig a certain amount of energy and rowdiness if it's for the production and the story being told. Not because your bud's on stage.)

Note note: Oedipus Complex is a retelling of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex through Sigmund Freud, the father of psycho-analysis who dubbed the condition of falling in love with one parent and hating the other as an Oedipal Complex. So, there's a natural connection here worth mining. Plus, both Oedipus and Freud share a common outlook on life - no matter what you do, you're fucked.

The good news is that Oedipus Complex is performed in a full one act that passes rather quickly. I was stunned to look at my watch and see almost two hours had passed. The set is elegant and evokes a sparse Victorian setting. Most everything, from the costumes to the set and the checkered floor, is in black and white, adding an unexpected dream-like quality. There's some very interesting staging and who doesn't love a good eye-gouging?

For all the potential of having Freud and Oedipus on the same stage together, the play falls short. Galati never takes these two iconic characters and makes them his own. He sticks to Sophocles' and Freud's words, thus Freud and Oedipus are stuck in their own scripts, with Freud often showing up in Oedipus's story as a bit player. They never interact as Freud and Oedipus. As a result, it's just Oedipus Rex done in the style of a Victorian melodrama with some cool images. Freud tells us a little bit about his mother and his dreams, but they never pack an emotional punch and seem to exist separate from and unaffected by the Oedipal story. Freud never has anything at stake in telling us this story and his character goes unchanged at the end. So, if you're familiar with Oedipus Rex, you don't leave learning or thinking about anything new.

Storywise, the first third of the production is very slow with lots and lots of dramatic yakking. Galati could really use some editing here. We really don't need the annoying prophet in the wheel chair to almost leave and then wheel back in to tell, Oedipus, again, for the umpteenth time, that he's in for a lot of misery. He already made his point. This actor chose to base his character on a cross between Simon Bar Sinister and Dr. Strangelove with a dash of Mr. Potter. An odd affected performance that grows weary. The production doesn't really kick in until the entrance of the Corinthian Messenger who's there to give Oedipus good news and offer hope to him and his wife (er, mother, Jocasta - theater's first MILF)that the Oracle was wrong. This scene through to the end is full of many twists and turns and inventive staging. Even though I knew better, it had me hoping for a happy ending. That's the best thing I can say about this production. It made me forget a well known story and had me cheering for Ol' Oedie.

As for Freud, he comes across as a quiet, gentle scholar when he was really a jackass. The premise is fraught with possibilities that are tossed aside and is simply used as a way to dress up an old Greek Tragedy. It's worth seeing, but sometimes a Greek Tragedy is just a Greek Tragedy.