Improv impressions from Germany

[Andreas Fabis]

Hi there...

During my stay in snowy Munich I got to see some improv at one of the local theaters and I just wanted to share...

First of all there was a lot of similarity between the games played here and the ones that are played at a typical Maestro. Even though it's not very surprising it warmed my heart to see that.

Seeing improv in my native language twisted my brain for the first 20 minutes. In my mind I came up with possible answers in English... and then had to translate it back to German. It was a weird experience.

The shows were interesting too. A ticket went for 15 Euro (Munich doesn't have as many improv venues as Austin), the theater had food and drinks (like an improv Alamo Drafthouse) and the shows ran for about two hours with a break in the middle. The shows consisted of games and one 30-minute longform story.



The theater I went to had a nice tradition about starting a scene: the audience counted down from five and the light went darker during that time - at "zero" the scene started with the lights coming up again. I liked it because it felt like the audience got pumped up again before every single scene.

The audience demanded (and received) encores and there was a lottery: one ticket number was randomly chosen and the winner had his or her tab picked up by the theater (no doubt this led to some gambling-induced gluttony).

The thing that struck me as odd:
- the actors were their own directors, and sometimes commented on their scenes, which was mostly good-natured, but took something away (for me at least) from the experience. Much like explaining a joke that everybody got. I always wanted to jump up and shout: "Yes, it was funny! We know! We just watched it!" Although in German it would sound much ruder, muah!"
- they weren't really nice to the audience when it came to suggestions or audience participation. Maybe I am just spoiled, but when a woman came on stage and did a truly boring job at positioning the actors - they were clearly disappointed. And I mean clearly. I had to wince a few times.

Cheers,
Andreas

[HerrHerr]

This is awesome. I want to hear more about this!

[KathyRose]

Awesome report! Thank you for the report and photo.

I really like the audience count-down idea.

Was there a problem with acoustics (hearing the show), given the Alamo-type venue? The room looks really deep.

[Miggy]

Thank you for sharing!

[kaci_beeler]

Very neat!

[shando]

Super cool. My goal in the next couple years is to get more international improv groups to Austin.

[valetoile]

there are a lot of international groups at cif this year that I am excited to see. I'll try to buddy up to them.

[shando]

there are a lot of international groups at cif this year that I am excited to see. I'll try to buddy up to them.

Please do, that would be swell.

[Andreas Fabis]

I watched another troupe in Düsseldorf, my home town. As it turns out, it is the only one. And they usually perform in neighbouring cities. Tsk, Düsseldorf, the black hole of improv. And it just got voted best town in Germany - preposterous.

The troupe I watched is called "Tatendrang" (www.tatendrang.net). They performed in a little public space in one of the local citizen centers (a place where informal classes and all kinds of events take place). They had a guitarist (who also did sound effects) and a drummer as support, which was awesome.
Again they counted down from 3 to 1 with the audience before each scene and dimmed the lights, on "go!" the scene started.

Around the little stage they had a lot of props, which was interesting. It was usually used to signify characters, not for actual use. It definitely helped with identification of characters, but it would have worked without too.
They involved the audience a lot. I got picked as part of the "cast randomizer". I and two other audience members where asked from time to time to show 1 to 4 fingers, which would determine who of the actors/characters would be in the next scene. Funnily enough it led to quite a number of monologues when we all showed the same number of fingers.
I talked to them after the show and learned that they have been playing for 11 years. That surprised me because they were... well... okay. There was a lot of wimping and soft blocking going on on stage. The audience liked it well enough.
I asked about formats like Maestro and they made faces. They had tried it a few times and it always ended badly: people being very competitive on stage (in an ugly way), the gap between quality painfully obvious, etc...
Damn... long form and theater sports do not seem to be the forte of Germans...
But again it was sweet to see how similar the games are in Germany and the US.

The one truly well known troupe in Germany, who has been around forever (with changing cast) is called "Springmaus" (http://www.springmaus.com/), and they regularly fill big houses for 30 Euro a ticket. They have a show tomorrow in Düsseldorf, but it is for subscribers of the theater only... darn![/img]