The day dawns.
After burning off most of the morning and grabbing lunch, we headed over to our 2pm tech meeting at The Playground. We met the venue manager and the tech improviser (who Jim knew from his time there).
The room itself is longer than it is wide. As you enter the front door, the main seats stretch in front of you in four or five long rows facing the stage, which is to the right and raised. It's roughly 16'-18' wide and 8-10' deep. Black curtains hang along the upstage edge of the stage and there's a 2"x4" railing also along the back that is about 3.5' or 4' tall. Behind the stage is a narrow pathway between the wall and the curtains. You can access the stage from either wing or through a part in the curtains and a gap in the railing upstage center. Backstage left there is a stairway that leads down to the basement/green room. It's cool, but a tad claustrophobic down there. The ceiling must be almost exactly 6'2.5" high. Part of the basement is directly below the stage, so that's not the ideal place to warm up. Fortunately, there's a back door upstairs that leads into a little fenced loading area outside. There's only one bathroom. With the added seats for the festival, the entire capacity was probably 95.
We went over the only cue we have, and that was that. They have two little lights in the booth. The blue light is turned on when you have 5 minutes remaining. Then, with 2 minutes remaining, the red light is also lit. The duos had 30 minute slots.
At 3pm, we had an appointment to meet Todd Stashwick, an experienced actor and director of Hothouse STC in Los Angeles. The Lincoln Tap opened at 3pm and since we were early, we popped into a small, antique shop to browse. The most interesting thing was a $50 collection of old 8mm porn reels and a small stack of 70's style porn coasters. Careful...you don't know where that hair in your drink came from...
At 3, we met Todd. Some photos from this meeting are located among Jim's threads. He's a very interesting fellow. We basically knew of him because he seemed to be the ring leader of The Doubtful Guests, our favorite show from last year's CIF. Jim sent him an email the weekend before CIF and he happily agreed to let us buy him a beer and discuss. So, we did. He has about 15 years of improvisation experience of all sorts. He was a performer at IO and Second City before moving to New York where he was part of Burn Manhattan. He moved to LA and found some like-minded folk who played around and put together The Doubtful Guests. Now comes Hothouse STC, a training and performance group Todd organized with the director of The Player's Space. It's a relatively new venture, roughly our age and size.
This guy who had never met us, probably never heard of us, rapped with us about theater and improvisation for 3 hours. I can't give a blow-by-blow of the conversation, but it included a lot about the history of improvisation, the present state of improvisation, and what might be coming next. We talked about television, the effect of SNL and WLIIA on the public's perception of what we do. It was a great conversation. For me, it clarified a lot of what I feel about the role of improvisation in art and the performance experience. I'm still processing a lot of it. Corrin and I were jazzed because we had managed to get into his Saturday workshop where we could put some of this to work.
After our brains were full, we parted ways and Todd said he might stop by to check out our show. We headed off to change and prepare.
This is a huge post and I haven't even gotten to the show. We had a blast. I can't say anything else about our show. There was an air from the beginning that led me to believe it would rock, and I guess it did. I'm sure there were some in the audience who hated it, but for the most part I think everyone had a good time. The whole thing felt good. I didn't feel like I was thinking, analyzing or working. It just had a flow...an absurd flow, but an entertaining one. I know that at one point in the show, I felt we must be nearing the end of our time...the show had been through so much already...I looked up, and neither the blue nor the red lights were on. Wow.
The end came on its own. The tech improviser saw it, called it, and it was over. Coming out of the show was like descending a mountain too fast. My mind was blurry. I had trouble for a couple of hours afterward recalling the show with any sort of detail. I don't even think we did a routine bow or anything after the blackout, but I didn't miss it.
We crept out into the back of the house for the final two acts...Men in Shirts and Monologue Ponies. The audience certainly got to see three very different shows. I'm pretty sure I prefer going first in situations like that. John D. and his duo buddy Matt came to visit despite having a play reading at Northwestern the next morning. We all went and had desserts at a little 24 hour diner place. That was it. Nothing to do but relax and enjoy the rest of the weekend.
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