Live Nude Improv - Coming To the Hideout in July and August

[acrouch]

We're auditioning next week for the Hideout's summer prime time show, and it's going to be a bit experimental so I thought a bit of description would be helpful:

In brief: Live Nude Improv is a playful, vulnerable exploration of modern theater in which the audience is fully incorporated into the storytelling. The show is a "rehearsal for a new play" and everyone (audience and improvisers) is in the cast. There will be some degree of nakedness.

At length: The jumping off point for Live Nude Improv was Dionyses in 69 at the Off Center last year, in which the Rude Mechs recreated a production of The Bacchae originally staged in New York in 1968 that was as much hippie happening as theater show. The audience was seated on scaffolding and on the ground around a central performance space and invited to participate throughout the performance (cuddle piles, dance parties, being pulled out of the audience and propositioned by Theseus king of Thebes, etc.). The riskiness of the audience interaction was fascinating; there are stories from the 1968 run of audience members kidnapping the main character and essentially ending the play. And the nakedness was a powerful tool for heightening the intensity of the story and making everything feel more real (and it certainly didn't hurt their attendance). It inspired a lot of interesting questions about the nature of theater and the relationship with the audience, questions that I think we're well-equipped to explore as improvisers and storytellers.

This show will be almost nothing like Dionysus in 69, but we are stealing the following things:

* audience seating in the round
* heavy, risky audience interaction throughout, with a real sense that anything can happen at any time
* nakedness as a heightening technique (for comedy and vulnerability)

Having committed to these theatrical choices, we need an improvised framework on which to hang them, and the likeliest candidate is the The Play Format that Well Hung Jury/Available Cupholders pioneered. In that format we see a director and three or four actors going through the process of putting together a production of a play; the first act is a table read in which we discover the basics of the play, meet the actors and their characters and get a sense of the group dynamic, the second act is an on-book run through later in the rehearsal process, and the third act is opening night. It's fantastically playful and presents storytelling on two levels (the play itself and the interactions of the actors as they work through it).

Things we're stealing from The Play Format:

* show within a show (dual levels of storytelling)
* a "scripted text" that is improvised by the group

For our purposes the conceit is that EVERYONE (audience and improvisers) is in the cast and this is a 90-minute workshop to get the play up on its feet. As audience members arrive and pick up their tickets, we congratulate them on having been cast and the improvisers filter amongst them gently pretending that we're all here to rehearse this play, treating them all as actors. Everyone filters upstairs and sits on the risers which have been arranged in the round. The director enters and gets things rolling with a few low-pressure warm-up games and exercises to loosen everyone up, and then we start discovering the play through improvised games, interactions and scene work. Everyone has "memorized the script" already but no parts have been cast yet, so anyone can play any role theoretically.

To ensure that we're able to incorporate the audience as fully as possible and keep the story on track and playful, we'll be bringing in elements of Gorilla Theater, a Keith Johnstone format in which the actors take turns making games and scenes happen, trying to produce the kind of theater that they're excited about. The director and improvisers (and maybe even brave audience members) will use games, scenes and anything else that seems likely to explore the story and characters in our "play." Early in the show you might set up a speak in one voice to explore the psyche of one of the main characters. You might do a dubbing scene or a character switch scene or even Pan Left, Pan Right to get the early exposition out quickly. And then later in the show hopefully it would settle into a smoother narrative flow.

That's my thinking on the format at this point. Obviously we'll make discoveries over the course of the rehearsal process, but the essence of the show will at all times be walking that dangerous line between playful improv and more compelling, grounded storytelling.

[Spots]

I like it, altho I wonder if the name "Live Nude Improv" doesn't detract away from the idea of heightening during the performance itself.


I speak only for me, but I imagine "When are folks getting naked?" will be a slightly distracting thought bubble during the show. ;)

[menelaos]

I was already excited when I first heard of this. This whole description made it a whole lot more intriguing!
Can't wait for the auditions!

M.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

i like this idea.

i also like the idea of doing a lot of crunches beforehand. well, that's not true, but if i'ma get naked, i'ma look good doing it! :p

[SarahMarie]

That sounds like an adventure! Got any audition/rehearsal details yet?

[acrouch]

Audition Notice over here:

http://forum.austinimprov.com/viewtopic.php?t=11810

[KathyRose]

I like it, altho I wonder if the name "Live Nude Improv" doesn't detract away from the idea of heightening during the performance itself.

I speak only for me, but I imagine "When are folks getting naked?" will be a slightly distracting thought bubble during the show.

I think Jesse has a very valid point. "Live Nude Improv" makes a very specific promise, and would most likely attract a beer-infused crowd that doesn't give a crap about having a "grounded" theater experience.

Consider giving the show the name of the fictitious "scripted" play, e.g. "The Naked City," with a warning that the players might be baring more than their souls for the sake of The Theatre. Make it a provocative tease, not a promise.

[menelaos]

M.

[Spots]

Consider giving the show the name of the fictitious "scripted" play, e.g. "The Naked City," with a warning that the players might be baring more than their souls for the sake of The Theatre. Make it a provocative tease, not a promise.

Kathy: Perhaps the ad campaign will convey a sense of irony. An obvious irony. No need to make any changes, just sayin' my thought bubbles out loud.

And yet another option which is to call it what it is and don't worry about justifying the beauty of the human form. After all, everyone knows what they signed on for.

[kaci_beeler]

The title of the show is set. Period.

[PyroDan]

This sounds so risky/awesome, I want to be apart of it, and I will begin working out again for it.

[B. Tribe]

Gonna have to get my back waxed if I get in.

Front hair stays. Ladies love the front hair.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

The title of the show is set. Period.

well, with this much planning, can we really call it "improv"? and "Live" carries certain sketch connotations because of SNL. i propose we call it "Staged Performance With/Without Clothing"!

[Spots]

"Andy's Casting Couch" :P

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

"Andy's Casting Couch"

oddly the name of Andy's Austin access show about the wonderful world of papier mache...