PANELS?!?

[beardedlamb]

What are some panel or roundtable discussion ideas that people might have for Out of Bounds this year? What topics do you need more info about? Think big!
and think small.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

shows based on existing properties: storytelling generator, or glorified fan fic?

[trabka]

Taking Things Meta: Pros and Cons

I'm talking the range of hamhanded references to the fact that those involved in a scene are actors in an improv show within a scene, all the way to breaking out and addressing the audience as the improvisers on stage and not in a Living Room show context.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

Taking Things Meta: Pros and Cons

I'm talking the range of hamhanded references to the fact that those involved in a scene are actors in an improv show within a scene, all the way to breaking out and addressing the audience as the improvisers on stage and not in a Living Room show context.

as someone who's started doing this a lot lately (sometimes more than i'd like), i'd be very interested to see a panel on this...

[trabka]

Taking Things Meta: Pros and Cons

I'm talking the range of hamhanded references to the fact that those involved in a scene are actors in an improv show within a scene, all the way to breaking out and addressing the audience as the improvisers on stage and not in a Living Room show context.

as someone who's started doing this a lot lately (sometimes more than i'd like), i'd be very interested to see a panel on this...

Same, more towards the latter end of the spectrum than the former though. I think it's a valid choice, but I'd be interested in a discussion on it and how it's changing what a valid improv show could look like. If you're interested in discussing further we should probably start a new thread in Theory so we don't derail this thing before Jeremy gets any other suggestions besides our own though.

[beardedlamb]

this gives me an idea, though adam. i will also scope the theory thread for topics that light people up and deserve more in-person discussion. thx.

[Mike]

Improv - How much of it is really Improvised?


I know this is an odd title, but let me explain:


I have seen some shows where the improvisers look as if they are doing completely new characters or scenes, then saw almost the same character choice or scene performed a month later by the same group or improviser. I'm guilty of having a bunch of stock "go to" characters in my mind to use when I blank.

I was wondering if that violated the "everything is made up" tenet of improv or if you can even put on a purely "Improvised" show. Is improvising in a genre or specific format considered 'cheating' or are we using the guidelines of the format/genre/etc to guide us in creating totally organic material?

[Spots]

Mike: Somebody recently told me "Yeah that was a voice I wanted to do because I tried it out in the parking lot before the show."

And I was like, "wait, people do that?"

[Mike]

Mike: Somebody recently told me "Yeah that was a voice I wanted to do because I tried it out in the parking lot before the show."

And I was like, "wait, people do that?"

That's what I'm going for; do we violate the spirit of improv because we use things we have used before or have come up with before the show and want to try in the performance, or is that all a part of what improv really is?

[happywaffle]

Mike: Somebody recently told me "Yeah that was a voice I wanted to do because I tried it out in the parking lot before the show."

And I was like, "wait, people do that?"

That's what I'm going for; do we violate the spirit of improv because we use things we have used before or have come up with before the show and want to try in the performance, or is that all a part of what improv really is?

Yeah, on a similar basis, I've gotten in trouble with my directors for discussing the action onstage too much when I'm in the wings during a longform. And it's like, where on the spectrum does *true* improv lie? Should we not even be thinking about what we're going to do until we plant a foot on the stage? Or should we be constructing entire narratives in our head, walking onstage, and informing our work with it? Or are all of them valid ways to do it?

[EmilyBee]

I'd like to see some exploration of how the smartest improv often comes from a non-intellectual, or subconscious, place, how to access that place without fear and how to teach others to do so as well. How to get back there when the monkey mind starts screeching.

[SarahMarie]

I would love to see a panel on the growing emergence of genre specific improvised long form narrative and what that means for the improv movement as a whole.