AMA: Ask Me Anything!

Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell · September 6th, 2012, 12:20 pm

if you could produce a show in any non-American theatrical style, what would you choose and why?

shando · Post by **shando** » September 6th, 2012, 12:49 pm

Nice timing Jordan. I've just been thinking about this quite a bit recently and was talking to Roy about it earlier today. Without a doubt were I to do something non-American, it would be a samurai show. I'm a big aficionado of samurai movies and frankly I know I could pull it off in a way that would be both culturally sensitive and accurate (provided there was the budget for kimonos and swords).

This is not gonna happen until after 2013, so no one bite my stylez please.

If you meant specifically a non-American style of theater, though, not sure. Kabuki, Javanese Shadow Puppets, and 18th century European restoration/rococo comedy with giant wigs and corsets would be right up there.

Edited to add the why part you asked for: Samurai movies and samurai stuff in other media like comics are relentlessly narrative without just being exercises in plot like a Tom Clancy novel. One of the reasons I like genre work is it imposes confinements of class and cultural norms (honor, sex, family relations, etc.) from within the world on the way the show unfolds. I'm interested in exploring those kinds externally imposed limits on characters and see how they conform to them or defy them. It adds tension in a way that works set in the present, narrative or not, seem to blow past or at least operate within our ill-defined and unstated cultural expectations (hope that is clear, not putting it well).

Ruby W. · Post by **Ruby W.** » September 6th, 2012, 12:56 pm

Okay, so I ask Jordan a question, yes?

What project have you felt like you've grown the most from? I don't mean grown as an improviser, or increased your talents, but more so which project (film/improv/otherwise) have you grown the most as a person, and why?

valetoile · Post by **valetoile** » September 6th, 2012, 10:53 pm

oh yes please do. And can i claim a place in line to ask Ruby a question?

kaci_beeler · Post by **kaci_beeler** » September 6th, 2012, 11:50 pm

shando wrote:18th century European restoration/rococo comedy with giant wigs and corsets

Just piping up to let it be known I want in on this/have been thinking about this as well.

Also, dammit Shannon, when will we get to do a show together?!

Okay, back to the questions/answers. I am enjoying this thread.

shando · Post by **shando** » September 6th, 2012, 11:54 pm

kaci_beeler wrote:
shando wrote:18th century European restoration/rococo comedy with giant wigs and corsets
Also, dammit Shannon, when will we get to do a show together?!

Sooner than you think?

kaci_beeler · Post by **kaci_beeler** » September 6th, 2012, 11:58 pm

shando wrote:
kaci_beeler wrote:
shando wrote:18th century European restoration/rococo comedy with giant wigs and corsets
Also, dammit Shannon, when will we get to do a show together?!
Sooner than you think?

Shit. Am I forgetting something?

shando · Post by **shando** » September 7th, 2012, 8:33 am

kaci_beeler wrote:
shando wrote:
kaci_beeler wrote: Also, dammit Shannon, when will we get to do a show together?!
Sooner than you think?
Shit. Am I forgetting something?

Hahaha, nope. Just saying that I might make myself more available for things once Gnap! wraps weekly production at the end of this year.

Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell · September 7th, 2012, 3:23 pm

shando wrote:Nice timing Jordan. I've just been thinking about this quite a bit recently and was talking to Roy about it earlier today. Without a doubt were I to do something non-American, it would be a samurai show. I'm a big aficionado of samurai movies and frankly I know I could pull it off in a way that would be both culturally sensitive and accurate (provided there was the budget for kimonos and swords).

where ever i am, whatever i'm doing, when this happens PLEASE call me so i can come audition for it. this sounds amazing. i was trying to unlock how to do something like improvised Lone Wolf and Cub a while back and love this genre as well. i remember a few years back you asked me to write a comic book featuring you as a samurai. and, like with most of my writing, it fell by the wayside. but i still have some of the ideas and images rattling around in my head...some day, the Pale Eyed Oni will return...

Ruby W. wrote:Okay, so I ask Jordan a question, yes?

Yes. wow, that was an easy one...oh! that wasn't the question...cough...

Ruby W. wrote:What project have you felt like you've grown the most from? I don't mean grown as an improviser, or increased your talents, but more so which project (film/improv/otherwise) have you grown the most as a person, and why?

wow, good question. and a tough one, too (so tough that i've tried to write this half a dozen times now and had to stop every time...). pardon any rambling digressions...it's a bit difficult to organize my thoughts on this topic. i suppose every project changes you. you're not the same person at the end of any journey that you were at the beginning. but grown the most? two projects spring immediately to mind, both of them from last year (all told, last year was pretty banner...Showdown, Austin Secrets and the Marathon could have been very easy runners up). maybe it's that recent changes always seem more severe in hindsight, or that i'm more focused on recent transitions than those of the past. or just that you're more able to appreciate change and growth with age. i definitely felt more self aware at 30 than i did at 15 or 20. whatever the reason...

1. Live Nude Improv. both in rehearsal and performance, i felt like we pushed ourselves as individuals and a collective into strange new territories that were often uncomfortable and always revelatory. i know i was all over the place emotionally during that run and really discovered a lot about what triggers certain emotional responses. what happened here that made me feel deliriously joyful? what happened here to make me feel anxious and guarded? what infatuates me? what makes me jealous? what inspires me? what challenges me? there were times i felt more open and inclusive than i've ever been, when i was accessing depths of empathy that i didn't even know i had closed off in the years just before. there were others where i felt the protective urge to close ranks with the rest of you, to defend you all as my brothers and sisters in arms. and still other times where i felt isolated and alone even in a room with all of you. each of those experiences, each of those states, taught me something different about myself...and yes, that's useful as a performer. but even moreso as a person and a friend. we all went through that together, the ups and downs, and i feel bonded to you lot in a way i think only war buddies and ring fellowships can understand. i've only experienced that with one other group, Well Hung Jury, and i've known some of those guys since kindergarten. most of you i had only met that year. that's special. that's extraordinary. and i'll cherish you all forever.

2. Battleground. It's easy to say, because it was my biggest career success so far. but it goes beyond that. there was a reason i couldn't shut up about Madison when i got back, and it wasn't that i was bragging (as some accused me of). it was because those two months were a magical experience and it took me a while to come back to "real life" (man, i wish it would've taken longer.

), and try as i might i couldn't properly communicate that. i'm still not sure i can. i got on a bus with two old friends and four strangers. an hour later, we all got to the hotel as great friends. i got to work with one of my improv and acting mentors. i got to film scenes with one of my favorite character actors. i went from hanging out with a friend on set to going to see him in an Oscar nominated film at the local movie theatre. i ate Thanksgiving dinner with half the cast and their spouses in a converted farmhouse surrounded by the most vibrant foliage i've ever seen. i had burgers and beers that boggled the imagination. i met an incredible girl and we fell in love (and, yes, it ended strangely and my heart got broken, but that experience is so ridiculously valid, too!). we had rituals, we had pranks, we had food challenges, we had our regular bars after we wrapped, we shared cars and toiletries and detergent, we cooked for each other, we sang together, we went to huge dinners for people's birthdays, we had road trips to the local casino, we watched Packers and Badgers games together...all while being utterly professional and busting our asses on set with material we all LOVED! it was like someone designed a summer camp where you got to live your dream in an amazing city with incredibly talented people who inspire and support you. it gave me a whole new sense of what i want to do, who i want to do it with, who i want to BE with, and what kind of actor i want to be (read: a cuddlier blonde Jay Hayden.

). it redefined the standard and code of "professionalism" for me. and yeah, it's pretty cool to have close friends now who have actual fanbases and can qualify as folks' "celebrity crushes", i'm not gonna lie.

at the same time, both during the shoot and after i got back to Austin, i got a real sense of who my true friends and family here are and why whatever i do and where ever i go to do it, i will always inevitably wind up back here. and yeah, i'll miss the show (and the girl.

), but i'll always ALWAYS be grateful for the experience and what i got from it.

that...was oddly cathartic. this is the best i've felt in weeks.

thank you, Ruby. in appreciation, i hand you over to the howling mob of questioners.

B. Tribe · Post by **B. Tribe** » September 9th, 2012, 2:38 am

Yo, Ruby, yo. What's your biggest success IN LIFE EVER AT ALL AND THEN DETAILS.

Spots · Post by **Spots** » September 9th, 2012, 5:03 pm

valetoile wrote:can i claim a place in line to ask Ruby a question?

Ruby gets to answer two questions!

valetoile · Post by **valetoile** » September 9th, 2012, 11:36 pm

Ah Brett butt out always butting in! No JK Ruby you just answer whatever question is better. Here's mine:

Ruby! How has your life in Austin, especially your perspective on it, been different since you've decided to leave for several months?

B. Tribe · Post by **B. Tribe** » September 11th, 2012, 9:45 am

I didn't know there was a line.

Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell · September 11th, 2012, 10:02 am

B. Tribe wrote:I didn't know there was a line.

i guess now it's a Queue and A!

THANK YOU!

::mic drop::

::SMOKEBOMB!::

::ninja vanish::

Ruby W. · Post by **Ruby W.** » September 11th, 2012, 11:30 am

I'm answering both and there's nothing any of you can do about it!!!

B. Tribe wrote:Yo, Ruby, yo. What's your biggest success IN LIFE EVER AT ALL AND THEN DETAILS.

Hm - alright. Well when I was 18 I decided not to go to college. Instead I got a house off of Craigslist and moved to Santa Rosa, CA. I joined Americorps in this program called CalServes. Socially, the adjustment was a bit difficult - I was only one of three high school graduates to be accepted. Everyone else were college graduates. Nonetheless, I completely thrived in the work environment. We were based at a Title-One elementary school, and I tutored five children throughout the school day in one-on-one tutoring. Then after school I led a classroom of 24 at-risk first graders. There was a pretty huge Hispanic population so many of them had just arrived from Mexico and spoke no English.

Okay - so that's context. My biggest accomplishment, however, was that for my second year I was asked to return as the Literary Team Leader, which meant that now, instead of being within the program, I ran the tutoring section of the program at my site. I was personally in charge of 17 mentors (all of whom, again, were 4-8 years older than me) and 65 students. During that year I dealt with mentors who didn't like having a younger boss, teachers who didn't respect me and elementary students who were already in gangs. All year I dealt with the Child Protective Service reports which ranged from a 1st grader having to stay at home alone until her mom got home at midnight, to a fourth grader getting carved by razorblades by his gangster cousins.

So I guess I'm really proud about how I handled that job in general. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but by the end of the year I had the respect of my mentors, the teachers no longer bullied me to try to get their particular students in the program, I made hard decisions and stuck with them, I connected with a ton of amazing students and, despite being the youngest team leader, at the end-of-the-year review, I was the only team leader in the program to recieve a perfect score in every single category.

It was a pretty amazing and spectacular (and hard) time in my life. It's funny - because it was so influential for me, but I don't think anyone in improv really knows anything about it. haha. so thanks for the question Brett!

valetoile wrote: Ruby! How has your life in Austin, especially your perspective on it, been different since you've decided to leave for several months?

This is actually a really hard question because there are a lot of layers that go in to leaving your home.

But to just be honest I've been growing a bit resentful towards the fact that I'm still living in Austin (not to be confused with growing resentful to the improv community - I love the improv community).

I was born and raised in Austin - never moved ONCE my whole life. And then I moved, by myself, to California when I was 18 and while I was in CA I swore to myself that I wouldn't move back to Austin - I wanted to see the world. And I always assumed I'd come back to raise kids here, so until then I wanted to be gone gone gone. I got into NYU but then had the brutal realization that I couldn't afford it - and so I wound up going to UT. It's been great, and of course everyone knows how much improv and the improv community has meant to me. I don't regret moving back here AT ALL, but staying here has had its own emotional tolls on me.

I guess someone can just choose to either ask Brett or Val a question!!!