5B grading system.

DollarBill · Post by **DollarBill** » October 30th, 2007, 2:52 pm

Ok this is weird:
The whole thing is kinda shrouded in mystery and you get little pieces of info through the grapevine of the other students. I'm sure if I just asked somebody I could get a straight answer, but it's almost more fun this way. Also, a lot of the people from "the old days" have totally different stories about the way things were run. So I've got different information from all over the place. It's hard to know what to believe. Anyway, here's what I think I know...

Background:
There is a "Harold Commission". Noah Gregoropoulos teaches 5B. And Charna Runs the place.
Noah's the head honcho of the teachers. Like... If Charna is Dr. Hammond, then Noah is Dr. Wu, but Noah's more interested in the animals after they're hatched than Wu was. The Harold Commission's job is to watch the 5B shows and decide who is good enough to be on a team. Then you got Charna at the top.
In level 5B your class rehearses as a group for 8 weeks and comes up with a form. You perform that form for 8 weeks, and then it is decided if you are good enough to be put on a "Harold team".

The Decision:
The Harold Commission people don't come to every show, and neither does Noah, but I guess that makes sense, cuz neither do the audience members. I suppose the commission members cover most of the shows between them... so thats cool. BUT I JUST FOUND OUT... Apparently, Noah gives you a grade after the 8 week class. Like a letter grade. And the Harold Commission takes that grade into account when they pick a crop of new performers. From what I hear they usually pick about 4 or 5 people from the 50 or so students who are graduating at any given time. Pretty crazy stuff.

I've decided not to call and find out what my grade is until my run of shows is over. And maybe not even then.

kaci_beeler · Post by **kaci_beeler** » October 30th, 2007, 4:16 pm

I would want to know what the criteria is for the grading.
Talent can be an opinion. But hard work and potential can be observed.

arthursimone · Post by **arthursimone** » October 30th, 2007, 4:24 pm

kaci_beeler wrote:But hard work and potential can be observed.

And it follows what can be observed
can be

destroyed

Post by **bradisntclever** » October 30th, 2007, 4:49 pm

I give you an A for the obscure Jurassic Park reference.

York99 · Post by **York99** » October 31st, 2007, 8:52 am

kaci_beeler wrote: Talent can be an opinion.

I've never disagreed with you more, Kaci. There is a specific metric to judge talent: do you have a recognizable catch-phrase?

"Git-R-Done"
-John Travolta
"Carrie"
(wink to Lisa)

Asaf · Post by **Asaf** » October 31st, 2007, 11:59 am

But talent is what gets you in a Harold Team, not hard work. I know lots of folks that need time, as enthusiastic as they are about improv, before they should be in a team.

kaci_beeler · Post by **kaci_beeler** » October 31st, 2007, 4:43 pm

Asaf wrote:But talent is what gets you in a Harold Team, not hard work. I know lots of folks that need time, as enthusiastic as they are about improv, before they should be in a team.

But I'm saying that talent is an opinion, as is humor.

Asaf · Post by **Asaf** » October 31st, 2007, 4:49 pm

The grading system is probably a short hand that Noah uses to sort the candidates. Whenever I audition people, after their slot, their headshot goes immediately into one of three piles: YES, NO, and MAYBE. The YESses are automatically in. If we have more YESses than we need, we then look at dynamics, gender, style etc. to narrow it down. If we have fewer YESses, than we need, we dip into that MAYBE pile with similar criteria.

Chances are it is just a first cut maneuver and he will not consider anyone whose skills don't warrant above a B. And yes it is subjective but we are surrounded by that everywhere. Movie reviews, when our writing was graded in school, etc. Sometimes the criteria is not definable and may very well be based on impulse. That is how the entertainment business works.

ratliff · Post by **ratliff** » November 1st, 2007, 8:36 am

kaci_beeler wrote:
Asaf wrote:But talent is what gets you in a Harold Team, not hard work. I know lots of folks that need time, as enthusiastic as they are about improv, before they should be in a team.
But I'm saying that talent is an opinion, as is humor.

Well, sure, but what are you going to do, ask God for objective reviews of everyone who wants to be on a Harold team? Human beings tend to forget that every judgment we make is subjective. Some of them line up pretty nicely with everyone else's subjective judgment (e.g., the weight of water) but that doesn't make them any less subjective, because our limited and unreliable sensory apparatus is part of the world we're judging. I blame the Enlightenment for the idea that we can sit above reality and judge it objectively. We can't. And yet in order to function we still have to make judgments to the best of our ability.

Oh, I'm sorry, was this a thread about performing improv? I relinquish the floor.

York99 · Post by **York99** » November 1st, 2007, 9:03 am

ratliff wrote:Well, sure, but what are you going to do, ask God for objective reviews of everyone who wants to be on a Harold team?

If God is your accountant, then yes. You need go no further than the bottom line. Profit is no opinion; it's not subjective. Is anyone NOT sick of this joke? I can just pm you.