jillybee72 wrote:It can be its own course if you already know how to do good scenes and make patterns and find games.
Precisely why ColdTowne Conservatory teaches it at Level 4
Level 2 gets your scenes right where they want to be then Level 3 teaches patterns and games and how scenes can fit together
Level 5 starts with all the different longforms (bat, deconstruction, armando, etc), and having Harold under your belt by that point sure does help
but there is no Level X, everyone stop asking about Level X
"I don't use the accident. I deny the accident." - Jackson Pollock
jillybee72 wrote:It can be its own course if you already know how to do good scenes and make patterns and find games.
Precisely why ColdTowne Conservatory teaches it at Level 4
Level 2 gets your scenes right where they want to be then Level 3 teaches patterns and games and how scenes can fit together
Level 5 starts with all the different longforms (bat, deconstruction, armando, etc), and having Harold under your belt by that point sure does help
but there is no Level X, everyone stop asking about Level X
I'm no Jedi. But, I would love to teach a class of what I know and the principles behind Harold. I could TA too if someone crunk wanted to do it instead. Shit, I would take it if someone else taught it and didnt need a TA.
It would have to be to people that had base skills and there would be heavy emphasis on commitment. If anyone wants to take that ride with me, I will totally make up a curriculum and i'd base it on the iO.
I've taught it several times, and love it. I wouldn't quantify myself as an expert, but I know what can make it work well. I will throw myself out there if someone has a space and wants this bozo to do it.
I don't know if it was mentioned or not, but when I was at iO they changed the curriculum adding a 4b class that was another 8 wks of Harold training. I think it was a form of quality control, and a friend of mine that went through classes with me there, then made it on a team, is taking it again and loving the hell out of it.
OK, so I have found someone that is willing to teach it in two six-week segments (six weeks for free and then six weeks paid).
I would LOVE to do this if I can find a group of people committed to such a long endeavor. Please message me if you are interested. We have not decided any location, time, day, or payment details yet.
While working with Del Close and the Committee in L.A. in 1967 the legend had it that this conglomeration of spolin games beatnik freudian sketch comedy civil unrest and pot smoke was ppresented to a producer who, after watching politely, asked " So,what do you call that?"...a silence. then.."we call it Harold" It was a lampoon of the answer one of the Beatles had given to the reporters question "what do you call that haircut" George[?] says "we call it Arthur" which in itself is a parody of a mad magazine drawing of a plant with a sign on the pot saying "Arthur",circa 1956 or so, when it was cooly funny [craaazy baaaby!!!} to name your plants. I had one named Mary Jane.
Harold was born in a time of intense political strife and social turmoil. The baby boomers were in college and challenging the norm in every facet of American life. Rebel music rebel art rebel poetry rebel theatre.
In it's original application Harold was intended to reveal the human condition in a new way, to escape the 'system'. IN our work comedy was almost the anti-christ,,guys like Del and Paul Sills et al insisted on "the true funny"only,no artifice. In those days we would practice spolin games and scene work and other group games and devices we dreamed up for gathering the greatest amount of info from the audience. Our performances were done at the service of a serious question from an audience member When will I find God? you know something heavy,man! and the whole thing was totally made up using the knowledge we gained from playing the games and applying it to the question. You must remember this all happened in a sort of 'lovely bubble" and we often would say stuff like "if Nixon could just do a Harold with the Russians,man the whole nuke thing could just be gone!! no,I'm serious!! Well commercially it tanked which of course it was fated to do by it's very nature. But it lives on in the hearts of the faithful. I am currently doing it w / addicts and alcoholics and it's a great deal of sober fun!!
As a reminder to anyone interested in studying the Harold, the ColdTowne Theater curriculum is largely geared towards the study of the Harold and the underlying mechanics therein. Also, many of our instructors are iO veterans (including members of the Frank Mills and ColdTowne).
We have a Groupon coming out on 10/31 for $99 level one classes. Also, if people want classes but don't have cash, we offer internships to anyone willing to help us out.
2011 class schedules will be released by Monday. Wooo(?)
--Jastroch
"Racewater dishtrack. Finese red dirt warfs. Media my volumn swiftly" - Arrogant.
Michael - It's so awesome to have perspective from someone who was in it.
(Side note: Bob and I were teaching organic openings at Coldtowne a few years ago and Michael walked in. Not knowing who he was, I prepared to get all firm and start redirecting an uninvited guest. It turns out, he had overheard the class doing an opening and recognized it. We talked shop and minds were blown (mostly ours). *Sigh* Man. Improv is a small and wonderful world).
"I suspect what we're doing is performance art, but I'm not going to tell the public that."
-- Del Close
erikamay wrote:
(Side note: Bob and I were teaching organic openings at Coldtowne a few years ago and Michael walked in. Not knowing who he was, I prepared to get all firm and start redirecting an uninvited guest. It turns out, he had overheard the class doing an opening and recognized it. We talked shop and minds were blown (mostly ours). *Sigh* Man. Improv is a small and wonderful world).
I was there and I actually think we were doing an Invocation. It was like we woke up the spirit of the Harold.
erikamay wrote:
(Side note: Bob and I were teaching organic openings at Coldtowne a few years ago and Michael walked in. Not knowing who he was, I prepared to get all firm and start redirecting an uninvited guest. It turns out, he had overheard the class doing an opening and recognized it. We talked shop and minds were blown (mostly ours). *Sigh* Man. Improv is a small and wonderful world).
I was there and I actually think we were doing an Invocation. It was like we woke up the spirit of the Harold.
I think I was there too that day sitting in. I have a hazy remembrance of this occurring.
We are exploring the Splolin Games and some other awarness and trust and group agreement games as a way for folks in recovery to get together to have sober fun and do some new things .The games wake up the spirit of play and we get out of self and into the game. We have meetings and they are good, but too rarely do we gather for activity outside the "program' It's not clear that this has any great effect on one's sobriety ,it's just fun and who knows a star may be born! mpm
michaelmcgeary wrote:We are exploring the Splolin Games and some other awarness and trust and group agreement games as a way for folks in recovery to get together to have sober fun and do some new things .The games wake up the spirit of play and we get out of self and into the game. We have meetings and they are good, but too rarely do we gather for activity outside the "program' It's not clear that this has any great effect on one's sobriety ,it's just fun and who knows a star may be born! mpm
