ShowBlog: The Un-Scripted Theater Company

Gender Special

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Goy) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:26:00 +0000

This Thursday's show has an all male cast: Alan, Christian, Clay, and Dave.

Next Thursday's show has an all female cast: Lyn, Mandy, Melissa, and Merrill.

Come to this week's show and you can come to next week's for just $10!

"Un-Scripted: unscripted" Opens This Week!

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:36:00 +0000

That's right, improv fans! The FIRST SHOW of our eighth season opens this week!

Un-Scripted: unscripted -- an improvised improv show.

This is a shortform show that we've done before, and we've had a great time -- and so have audiences. Basically, the goal is to challenge, surprise, and delight ourselves, each other, and the audience -- from the time the show starts, the improv doesn't stop. (Well, except for intermission, silly.) We don't even pause to talk to the audience or the other improvisors, unless it's in character! (Gone are those boring introductions and explanations.) And we don't always let our fellow improvisors in on what's going on . . . watch as we all figure out together how the show will unfold! Maybe scenes will come back; maybe they won't. Maybe someone in a scene is playing one game, and someone else is playing a completely different one, and they both have no idea. Maybe a scene will last 10 minutes -- or 10 seconds. And you never know, we might start to sing.

We're having a great time rehearsing for it; you can read more about those rehearsals on Alan's blog, "Something Like a Chicken Sandwich".

The show opens on February 18, and runs Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8pm until March 13. We're in a new location for this run, the Off-Market Theater in downtown San Francisco. Check out un-scripted.com for all the show details.

We have some really fun new castmembers that we've never worked with before, in addition to familiar faces. You can read the cast bios on our web page!

And, for those of you who are our beloved Un-Scripted supporters, have we got a deal for you! Subscriptions to our Eighth Season are on sale now -- AND, if you subscribe before March 1, you get an awesome bonus. Subscriptions purchased before March 1 will include two EXTRA tickets. That's six tickets for the price of three! Follow the link now to become a subscriber and new best friend!

And what's coming up later this season, you ask? Why, two brand-new longform shows!

In July and August, it's (working-title) What If? a show that takes place in a slightly altered reality from our own. As director Dave Dyson says, "it's a world where just one thing is different." The style could be like Harry Potter, Like Water For Chocolate, Mad Max, The Martian Chronicles, or . . . anything else! You let us know what you're dreaming of, and we make it real.

In November and December, it's (working-title) A Tale of Two Genres -- an improvised musical in the style of Charles Dickens PLUS another genre supplied by you. It'll be as if Dickens and his time-travelling collaborator, whoever that might be, wrote a musical together. We had so much fun at this summer's Temporary Improv Festival when we mixed Dickens and John Hughes (plus tragedy and horror), that we figure everything goes better with Dickens. Just in time for the holidays, come join the fun!

Leakesville!

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Goy) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:19:00 +0000

Opening night, November 27, a lovely family was in the audience from Leakesville, MS. Their town ended up being the suggestion that night. You can read a summary of the show here.

A few weeks later we received a care package from them! They sent us food, books, the local Coffee News, autographed photos of local beauty queens and a wonderful note:

So we made a little "Thank you" video for them:

Tara in Kellyville!

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Goy) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Back in 2004, the first year we did Let It Snow, our second show was set in Kellyville, OK. It featured what to this day is one of the catchiest opening choruses (if I do say so myself) in "Kellyville, so close to being famous. Kellyville, so close!" In the audience that night was Tim Bauer, who years later would perform with us in the Great Puppet Musical, and his wife who was with him gave us the suggestion Kellyville.

Flash forward to 2008 and Tara McDonough (who directed Let It Snow in 2004, 2005, and 2007) while driving across country goes right through Kellyville and snaps this photo!

From an Audience Member

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Goy) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:51:00 +0000

We had our first performance of Let It Snow! last night. You can read all about it and the town we featured over on my improv blog. Here's what an audience member had to say about last night's show:

I had so much fun at the show last eve. I'd never seen anything like it and was completely enchanted and awed by life unleashed on the stage by the simple suggestion of an audience contribution. I could appreciate how you all worked together to create brilliant flow with moments poignant and schmaltzy. Too, with the awkward times, the teamwork was heartening and a beautiful reminder of the humanity that lives in all our lives, improvisational as they are.

May you have a successful run . . .
Looking forward to future performances and, perhaps, another Let It Snow this season . . .

Thanks for being part of making this kind of experience possible.

A Let-It-Snow Letter from the Past!

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:38:00 +0000

While creating the program for this year's Let It Snow!, previewing this Thursday and Friday and opening the day after Thanksgiving, FYI,I came across the first program for the first Let It Snow! back in 2004, and re-read Tara's original director's note. It's a great reminder of the show's original concept, direct from the show creator!

Susan and I are directing it this year, and since we're different people from Tara, the show will be different, even though Susan and I have both been in the show all three of its previous runs. Doing the show so many times means we get to kick it up a notch, so we've been focusing on more singing and dancing, and we have Kind Of A Set (step unit, door, and windows!) in the minimalist spirit of Our Town.

We like to shake things up and keep on growing -- BUT, we also want to stay true to the heart of the show, and Tara's original director's note encapsulates that really well.

We love you, Tara! Stay warm in Maine! Enjoy your letter from Tara From the Past!

A Musical for the Holidays

I grew up in Maine, one mile up on a dead-end road, with our nearest neighbors a quarter-mile away. My parents were two city-slickers from Boston (I refer to my dad as the “gentleman farmer,” which I think amuses him), and every Thanksgiving, carloads of city relatives would make the two-hour drive for a “real New England Holiday.” They delighted in collecting pine cones from the side of the road, taking walks in the crisp autumn air, and being made to wear bright orange outside—it was hunting season, after all! I don’t even think they minded the year an ice-coated hill necessitated an ad-hoc end-of the-road parking lot and a shuttle service from my dad’s aged Jeep
truck.

At the time, these country thrills were pretty much lost on me. As a teenager, I focused more on the fact that all my friends’ phone numbers were toll calls, a short trip to the mall could take all day, and safety orange was definitely not a flattering color. But now, I remember those Thanksgivings with a soft-focus warmth that tricks me into forgetting all the bad stuff. And isn’t that what holidays are all about?

That’s the sort of world we’re trying to create in Let It Snow! Living someplace where everybody knows you, where things are simple (at least they seem that way), where there’s a happy ending just around the corner. Sure, that world doesn’t exist, but it seems a little closer at this time of year.

And now, here’s the rub—we’re making this all up. Nothing that you’re about to see has ever been seen before. We’ll get some suggestions from you to start us off, and from there we’ll create a classic Broadway-style musical in front of your very eyes. We’ve been studying musicals, listening to soundtracks, even practicing a few dance moves. But we don’t know what’s going to happen any more than you do. So sit back, relax, and enjoy as we build a little snowflake of a musical for you. It fades away almost as soon as you can catch it, and every one is different.

Enjoy the show!

—Tara McDonough, director [from Let It Snow! 2004]

Let It Snow FAQ and East Bay Class

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Goy) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:33:00 +0000

With the first previews of Let It Snow just two weeks away, we thought it was time to answer some of the questions we’ve been getting about the show.

1. Yes, this is the fourth year we’ve done Let It Snow, but we’ve never done the same show twice. We’ve never even featured the same town twice. It’s always new, every night.
2. No, the show is not about any specific holiday, but meant to capture the feeling of the season as a whole. Although, we did do a show once that featured a town’s annual Halloween cross-dressers ball.
3. No, I’m not kidding (Madrid, NM, performed 11/26/2005).
4. Yes, we also did a show once about the Indian holiday Diwali (Fairfield, IA, performed 11/24/2007). So yes, occasionally a specific holiday creeps in there.
5. No, you don’t have to wear parkas, scarves, or mittens to come to the show. Although you can if you want to.
6. Yes, the show is improvised. We don’t have any scripts, songbooks, or carefully rehearsed dance numbers. Every word of dialogue, every song, and every dance number is made up as we go.
7. Yes, we will have free popcorn before the show and $1 fresh baked cookies at intermission.
8. Yes, tickets for the two preview performances are just $15 general and $8 student/senior.
9. No, the SPECIAL 25%-off coupon code is no longer valid, but…
10. YES! We’ve activated our economic stimulus package coupon. Use the code STIMULUS to get 15%-off tickets purchased online through our website now until the end of the day November 18!

Let It Snow!
November 19 – December 19
Thursdays & Fridays at 8pm
Saturdays at 3pm & 8pm
(No shows 11/21 or 11/26)

SF Playhouse, Stage 2
533 Sutter, 2nd Floor
$20 general/$10 students & seniors
Previews 11/19-11/20: $15 general/$8 students & seniors
www.un-scripted.com

Every Day Improv
with Susan Snyder

Enjoy exploring the world of improvisation in a low pressure, playful environment.
Increase your confidence, improve your public speaking skills, and enjoy the experience along the way. This class is for adults wanting their first taste of improv, and those returning to deepen their range of improvisational expression. Shy people welcome.

Dates: Sundays, November 8th & 15th
Time: 3-6pm (new time!)
Location: La Pena Cultural Center, Berkeley, CA
(street parking, walking distance from Ashby BART)
Cost: $40 single class/ $60 for two

Contact Susan to register

Course Reader: Mandy's Thoughts on "The Music Man"

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:02:00 +0000

The OTHER required reading (or viewing rather) for the cast is The Music Man, the 1962 production starring Robert Preston and Shirley Jones (and lots of FANtastic character actors: Hermione Gingold, Pert Kelton, Paul Ford, Buddy Hackett, Mary Wickes and all those other hilarious ladies in the pack -- and little Ron Howard!). THIS movie has all of the joy and spectacle that I want from Let It Snow!, with some handy ways to sophisticate up our singing and dancing. AND, it's about someone's town. Bonus!

I know this movie reeeeeally well, but watching it again with Let It Snow! in my mind was still inspiring. One thing I really enjoyed was the way the acting, singing, and dancing all blend together: the songs all begin out of speech and slide into full-fledged song. (Well, except for "Shipoopi.") And there's dance everywhere, with all the movement highly choreographed. Teenagers chasing each other make a little dance out of it, though a song is nowhere near and they're in the background! Marian and Charley do a little back-and-forth tango when she's trying to distract him. All of Robert Preston's movements look like he could be dancing at every second -- though he's not really a very trained dancer during actual numbers, his every movement is deliberate. And all the characters are so strong and identifiable, they feel very physically real and alive, whether it's just the workaday plainness of the boys' mothers, or the sharp birdlike movements of the Pickalittle Talkalittle ladies, or the ridiculously over-grand posturing of the mayor's wife.

It's also interesting to see how environmental the songs are: they don't take place in Fantasy Musical Land of clouds and shadows, they take place where the people ARE. They dance around the statue in the town square ("Trouble"), on the courthouse steps ("Iowa Stubborn"), in the barn ("Sadder but Wiser Girl"), outside the hotel ("Pickalittle Talkalittle"), in the gymnasium ("Seventy-six Trombones"), in the library ("Marian the Librarian"). The situation in that location just becomes too strong to talk about, so they slide into singing and dancing. They remain who they are, and they're having the same conversation -- it just morphs into song. When they're done, the conversation is over!

And because the songs evolve out of conversation, the songs are *like* conversations, like the characters decide to play with one another. There's some "teaching" of songs and dances, and some back-and-forthing to guide the song along as it's being "made up" by the characters. In "Trouble," Harold Hill *gives* the choreography to the crowd and indicates what they should do when, and in "Sadder but Wiser Girl," he and Marcellus (Hackett) trade off dance steps in a little flirty dance.

The other people onstage, meanwhile, are all sucked into the dance too. They're all participating, even if it's unknowingly. Those who are in on the song often "play along" with the singer's words, like Marcellus pretending to be a girl in "Sadder but Wiser," or the kids pretending to be a marching band in "Seventy-six Trombones." Sometimes they're part of the song without really knowing it: Mrs. Paroo rocks her rocking chair in tempo with "Sweet and Low," but she's not really singing or even paying attention to the song. Marian, in "Marian the Librarian," is dancing along with the song by refusing Harold's advances -- though soon she gets absorbed into the dance and is soon leading it -- before she comes to her senses, that is.

(This is my favorite scene! Well, one of them.)

Because the whole town is often sucked into a musical number, it creates a tangible sense of community in the film. The individually identifiable characters are strong and varied, and definitely memorable (like the girl who "plays" the player piano), and we get just enough quirk from them to know who they are without too much extra. When they come together as a group, either in subgroups or as a whole town, we see them as a whole family: no matter how much they may argue and bicker, in some ways they're united. The delightful contrast between the curmudgeonly nature of some of the characters, and the earnestness with which they band together for a cause, is a feeling I'd like to absorb into our show.

Individual vs. group; singing melting into acting and dancing; songs arising from the situation; family members who argue but band together; call and response songs and dances; counterpoint songs from different points of view (Lida Rose meets Sweet and Low) - I could go on about more specific details (delightful names of people and places, glimpses of town rituals, etc) but those are pretty good points to start with, eh musicals fans?

Course Reader: Mandy's Thoughts on "Our Town"

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:09:00 +0000

Since Thornton Wilder's Our Town is required reading for this year's cast of Let It Snow!, I thought I'd pre-pepper the discussion with my thoughts on why I chose to have people read it, and what I took away from it, reading it this time around.

There are things about the structure of the play that I *don't* want people to take away: the glimpse we get of the town doesn't delve all that deeply into any one person's experience; we get surface impressions, but the show is not from anyone's point of view, except maybe the narrator's (or the dead people).

But the fact that there *is* so much detail about the town and the surroundings is one of the reasons I thought of the play. Though the convention of the play is such that the stage is bare-bones (hey! just like OUR stage!), the language and actions of the characters fill up the world with color. They talk about landmarks such as the main street and the river, the hardware store and the doctor's house, schools and churches and the big butternut tree. The town has a newspaper and a police force. Off in the distance you can hear the train.

There are even characters in the play who are "audience members," asking questions about the town. (hey! just like we'll ask the audience member about the town!) Though Wilder may have meant them satirically, they ask pretty good questions for our purposes, about town activities and character: is there drinking? Do people care about social equality? What do they do for culture?

In thinking about a play that features a town as a main character, one of the temptations is for something to *threaten* the town, and for the town to be saved. But real towns don't quite work that way: in Our Town there are some minor changes afoot: they're building a new bank downtown and putting in a time capsule, horses are being replaced by "auto-mo-biles," some people leave and some people die -- but the town remains, in character, the same -- like a river it flows around obstacles and just absorbs them, until they become part of the town too.

But things *do* change on a SMALL scale -- small as compared to the town, but still large for those who are involved. George and Emily get married, which affects not only them, but their families. Big events happen, which may be the kinds which happen to everyone, but strike home for people nonetheless: the characters take time out to MUSE about events big and small: the full moon, marriage, youth, death, the weather. Everything that happens to you is important, if it's happening to YOU. It's important in the noticing. Emily says near the end, "We don't have time to look at one another" -- when we see characters *looking,* we see what's important to them in that moment, even if it's "just" the full moon or the coming rain.

Aside from all this big stuff about Life and Death, there's also useful practical character information to be gleaned. The characters live their everyday lives full of nuance: they gossip about people who live in town and who've left. They grouse at each other about hurrying up for breakfast. They chat while they're doing something useful like stringing the beans. They have pet hobbies and interests that are only mentioned in passing, but to them are whole lives: the chicken incubator, research about the Civil War and about Napoleon. Chatter, chatter, chatter. Gossip, gossip, gossip. It's the details that make stories specific instead of universal; aren't there endless stories about people growing up, getting married, and dying? It's all in the details.

And even more practical and technical than talking about details are the conventions of movement onstage. Thinking about how to make the stage seem bigger than it is. Characters bump into and talk to invisible townspeople extras. One young boy comes in from somewhere, throwing a ball up so high that sometimes he has to take six steps backwards to catch it. Theatrical convention is thrust to the forefront, with no scenery to speak of: climb a ladder and you're upstairs -- look over the top of the ladder and you're looking out the window. Lots of the action in the play is space-objects: stringing beans, washing dishes, even the doctor has a space-object bag. And the actors clean up their "props" before they leave the stage.

In short, I guess it's the abstract setting, but the total commitment to the characters' concrete reality that's a takeaway, plus the affection for the town, and the cataclysmic feelings that arise from the everyday. We're shooting for all of the nostalgia with none of the depressing. ;o) The real-town feel withOUT Wilder's abstraction FROM it (see Act 3).

Here's a clip from the drugstore scene between Emily and George -- from a Lincoln Center production starring Penelope Ann Miller as Emily, Spalding Grey as the narrator, and baby Eric Stoltz! as George:

Link to the Drugstore scene on YouTube -- no embedding for me!

And here's the part where George tries to go see Emily on their wedding day, and ends up stuck in the kitchen with her dad instead. (this is from some adorable college production, so the video is lo-fi -- BUT, you get the sense of the family being all irreverent with each other):

Cast Choreography

noreply@blogger.com (Clay) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:06:00 +0000

So each week, during dance warm-ups, an early 10 minutes is spent on learning choreography. It's not choreography we're going to use in the show, but each week, three members of the cast teach 16 to 32 counts of choreography to a small group, then we perform for the rest of the cast.

Tomorrow is my day to teach, so I've been spending tonight working on what I'm going to teach tomorrow night.

Now, it may be cheating a little, but I'm pulling a piece of choreography that I learned in highschool (*COUGH*twenty*COUGH*years*COUGH*ago*COUGH*). I seriously seriously doubt that the muscle memory still exists for this, but honestly, it seems much easier than when I learned it way back when.

Hopefully it'll be as easy to teach.

Mandy's Dance Warm Up

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Goy) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:45:00 +0000

Not sure if Mandy intended this for general public consumption, but then she shouldn't have posted it on YouTube. Here's the dance warm up we do at the beginning of every rehearsal:

No, we're not doing Let It Snow: Mumbai. She's just using a Bollywood song for the warm up.

Let It Snow Required Viewing

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Goy) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:00:00 +0000

Rehearsals have started for Let It Snow! Mandy's taking advantage of this crazy world of the interwebs and assigning required YouTube viewing to the cast. Here's what we were supposed to watch for last week:

From the Music Man:

I never realized "Shipoopi" was the Music Man's version of the dream ballet from Oklahoma!

Speaking of which, here it is with Hugh Jackman:

How about some actual ballet:

And now ladies and gentlemen, Bob Fosse:

Fosse was in to "sexy"

and was a good dancer himself:

Let It Snow Auditions

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Goy) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:45:00 +0000

Improvisors Wanted!

The Un-Scripted Theater Company is holding auditions for its next show, Let It Snow!, an improvised musical for the holidays, filled with good old-fashioned Broadway singing and dancing. (Think The Music Man.) The show is set every night in the hometown of an audience member, and over the three seasons that we've performed the show, we've visited small towns from North Pole AK to Manunka Chunk NJ to Wailua HI, and lots of places in between. It's a really fun show to perform, and always an audience (and improvisor) favorite.

We're looking for improvisors who ideally have longform experience as well as an enthusiasm for singing/dance.

** Auditions will be in the evening, on Monday, Sept. 14th, and Tuesday, Sept. 15th.
Rehearsals will be on Tuesdays, starting Sept. 29th; the show runs
Nov. 19th - Dec. 19th.
All of the above in downtown SF near Union Square.

If you're interested in auditioning, email Susan (click here) for more information or to reserve yourself a slot -- make sure to mention which date you'd prefer. Our auditions are conducted more like a rehearsal or class, so be prepared to stay for at least an hour. If you're wondering whether you should audition, the answer is almost always yes! We pride ourselves on our fun, low-pressure auditions, and we always love meeting improvisors, so come on down and give it a shot!

www.un-scripted.com

The Toiletries That Ate San Francisco

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Goy) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 01:38:00 +0000

In 2006, the Un-Scripted Theater Company did a show called the Impossible Film Project. The show worked something like this:

A team of improvisors and a director wih a camera get a suggestion from a live audience and then take to the streets of San Francisco to shoot a movie guerrilla style. As they finish a tape, it's run back to the theater where the audience sees it almost live.

For this film the suggestion was an actual object, a bag of toiletries an audience member had with them. The improvisors had no pre-planned script. All they knew was the style of the movie: 1950's B-Movie.

Featuring:
Kimberley MacLean as Buffy
Maggie Farril as Bambi
Christian Utzman as Dick Moondoggie
and in an uncredited role:
Brian McBride as The Mad Scientist

and countless extras from the streets of San Francisco

Directed by Alan Goy

Improv For Everyone

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Goy) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:47:00 +0000

Susan's teaching a class in the East Bay in September:

Improv for Everyone with Susan Snyder
Enjoy exploring the world of improvisation in a low pressure, playful environment. Increase your confidence, improve your public speaking skills, and enjoy the experience along the way. This class is for people wanting their first taste of improv, and those returning to deepen their range of improvisational expression. Shy people welcome.

Dates: Sunday, Sept 13th & Sunday Sept 26th
Time: 12:30-3:30pm
Location: Temescal Arts Center, Oakland, CA
(street parking, walking distance from MacArthur BART)
Cost: $40 single class or sign up for both for $60

Contact Susan

Keep us Best of the Bay!

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:35:00 +0000

Aw man, winning Best Theater Company in the Bay Guardian last year was the coolest thing ever! We were totally stymied by it. The surprise went down like this: we were putting together our flyers for Un-Scripted: unscripted (I think), and Christian sent the Bay Guardian people a few emails saying, "Hey guys, did we win Best Theater Company, 'cause we have to put together our next flyers on deadline!" And I was like, Oh Christian. How silly you are.

And then the guy emailed us back saying ". . . Um, when exactly do you need to know by?"

And we were like, wwwhaaaaaAAAaaa? And then the whooping started.

As I say, not bad for a small theater company trying to make it in a big city. It really means a lot to us that we, a company that performs exclusively theater without a script, could make enough of a difference to people that they voted for us as the Best Theater Company in the city! (runner up: ACT!!!) We've been performing as a company for almost seven years now, and we do just keep getting better and better, and coming up with ever more awesome kinds of theater to improvise: film? puppets? Bollywood? Shakespeare? Yeah, we've already done that stuff. What the heck do we do next? Don't worry -- we'll think of something. After all, we're professionals.

Help us experience that giddy surprise again! Vote for us for Best of the Bay 2009, in the Guardian poll!

It's here: Best of the Bay poll 2009, www.sfbg.com/bobpoll2009

You don't need to register or anything, and while you're there you can vote for all sorts of your favorite Bay Area stuff. The Best Theater Company category is on the second page, with the arts organizations.

And tell your friends! Let's make it happen! Last day to vote is June 30th!

The World Is Mad (Saturday, May 9)

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:58:00 +0000

Another synopsis by the eminently-memoried Michael Fleming!
The show on Saturday, May 9th, 3pm, called in the email, The World is Mad

Characters (roughly in order of appearance):

* Madman 1 (Alex)

* Madman 2 (Michael)

* Madhouse attendant (Mandy)

* Reginald (Christian): a thief and accomplished pickpocket; Jack's best friend

* Jack (Michael): a thief and not-so-accomplished pickpocket; Reginald's best friend

* Duke (Alex): a leader frequently at war and resorting to conscription

* Susan (Mandy): daughter of the duke

* Melissa (Clay): daughter of the duke

* Penelope (Alex): daughter of the duke

* General (Michael): the duke's baseborn military chief of staff

* Lord Kentfield (Christian): the duke's chief advisor / counselor

* various servants, guards, madmen, soldiers, surgeons, messengers, etc. (a goodly lot this time!)

[yes, sticklers, this is a Hogarth work, which is entirely the wrong era. BUT, it has the right mood. So there.]

Setting:

Somewhere not in France :). The duke is conscripting people into the army under threat of being placed into the madhouse. Some are choosing the latter, so that the mad and the insane are packed in together.

Synopsis:

The duke is ambitious, but the primary bad guy is the advisor, Kentfield, who plots to have the throne to himself by luring the duke into a foreign war and having him ambushed there. Then the advisor plans to marry one of the daughters to gain the ducal seat himself. This plan embroils the two thieves - they are best friends who get caught separately by the conscription net, one going into the army (Jack) and the other into the madhouse (Reginald). The duke takes the bait and goes off to fight in France. He is ambushed and almost slain, but escapes with a small group of survivors, including Jack.

Back in the duchy Susan and Melissa are told by Kentfield that he is taking power and that they should choose between them which one will marry him to give him legitimacy - the other will marry an inmate of the madhouse (the third daughter, Penelope, is already married). To encourage them to choose he throws them into the madhouse themselves. There they meet Reginald and the other inmates, who are planning to escape. Reginald and Melissa fall for each other. Susan decides she will be the one to marry the odious Kentfield.

The duke and his band of survivors find their way to a port and Jack wins them passage on ship by cheating at dice. News of the coup and the impending forced wedding reaches them and they decide to sail as quickly as possible.

Susan goes to tell Kentfield she will marry him, but the general is already there protesting the plan saying neither he nor his men like what's going on. Kentfield says he doesn't care. The general confesses his love for Susan, duels Kentfield and loses. Susan joins the general in trying one more time to kill Kentfield, but they fail again and the lovers are themselves killed.

The inmates of the asylum finally escape with Reginald at their head, causing pandemonium. Though wounded, Kentfield survives and is plotting to wed Melissa (presuming of course he can find her now that the madhouse has been breached) and finish his plotted course when the duke returns and confronts him. Another melee ensues and, although Kentfield fights like a madman himself, he is slain.

The duke grieves for his lost child, but there is also joy to leaven the sorrow. For their parts in the events, Reginald and Jack are ennobled: Jack is made the new master-at-arms/chief of staff, and Reginald is made chief archer and given Melissa's hand in marriage. It's a new day!

The Fires of Brotherhood: an improvised plot (Friday, May 8)

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:41:00 +0000

A Show Synopsis from Friday, May 8th, by castmember Michael Fleming. I find this soo interesting, both to read as a story that's been improvised onstage, AND because I always have such a terrible time remembering what the heck I'm improvising. I mean, I was IN this show! Go Michael! ;o)

[In the weekly email, we called this show "The Fires of Brotherhood."]

Characters:

* Gerard/"Jerry" (Trish): younger of fraternal twin sons of the duke.

* Bernard (Alex): older twin

* Duke (Michael)

* Nancina/Nance (Mandy): one of two high-born sisters forced to the coast by the fire.

* Lancina/Lance (Michael): the other high-born sister.

* Henry (Mandy): nefarious 'friend' of Gerard planted by Eye-Patch-Man (EPM). Turns out to be EPM's brother.

* Eye-Patch-Man/EPM (Alex): shadowy figure plotting to control the ducal seat through Henry's influence over Gerard.

* EPM's wife/paramour (Trish)

* various servants, guards, vendors, etc.

Setting:

Town of Valista on the coast - pretty, with a beach (modeled after Santa Barbara, an audience suggestion). Crowded with newcomers due to a fire in the countryside.

Act I: a fire has run through the local countryside leaving people bereft and wandering, driven down to the sea and the towns there. The twin sons of the duke are in one of these towns (Valista), competing as they always do. The elder one (by mere moments) will inherit and the younger is being steered into the clergy to his dismay. Their long-suffering father (the Duke) tries to quell their bickering. We meet the sisters, Nancina (Nance) and Lancina (Lance), who are also quite competitive. We learn that they, too, have been forced to the town and suffered loss in the fire, most especially Nance who lost both the wedding dress she made and her betrothal along with it.

Henry appears and insinuates himself into Gerard's good graces - is he a true friend? The duke decides to solve his sons' competition issues by dissolving primogeniture and declaring that the first son to find a high-born wife will be his heir. The catch is that the sons must do this in the guise of common men. The duke remarks that if neither can accomplish this in good order, then he'll make Henry the heir!

Meanwhile, in an attempt to cheer themselves up, the sisters decide to go out and look for men. Then Eye-Patch-Man appears and reveals that he planted Henry with Gerard in order to gain influence over the duchy. The intermission happened around here.

Act II: Henry, EPM and EPM's wife/mistress discuss the situation - due to the duke's sudden pronouncement, Henry might end up as the heir! That would simplify the whole 'influence the ducal seat' thing. The rub is that the young men cannot be allowed to succeed in their search. There is a question of Henry's loyalty to EPM should he become the duke himself, but after some wrangling and protestations Henry departs to disrupt Gerard and Bernard.

Gerard professes ignorance in the art of wooing, so Henry advises him to be forceful to the point of brutishness ("throw her on the ground!"). Gerard exits to put this advice into practice, and then Bernard asks Henry for advice of his own and receives the news that he should stalk his prey like a hunter, following her everywhere and then delight her with his inventive invective by insulting her roundly and repeatedly.

Gerard meets Lancina on the beach and though at first he is off-puttingly violent, he relents and the two fall for each other. He presses her to meet him later and elope; they kiss and he leaves. Bernard's (pur)suit of Nancina does not go so well, ending with her distraught and fleeing in fear. Later, Lance is comforting Nance and sharing the news that she has found someone when Gerard himself breaks into the house. After some kerfuffle the two kneel down to pledge their troth. Behind and above, Bernard sees them and decides in something of a panic that he must take steps to halt this lest he lose to his brother. He shoots an arrow at them striking Lancina. (I suppose this means that they were in a courtyard?) Then he, too, breaks into the house (bad security :) and is horrified at what has happened. The brothers duel, and Gerard wins, though the thrust was not fatal (Bernard was "only bruised", I think). Lancina is wounded, but not badly. The couple decide to wed. In all of the hullabaloo Nancina discovers that Bernard is actually pretty cute :).

Gerard takes all of this news to his father the duke, adding that he does not need to be heir, but has found a deeper and better purpose in his love, asking only that the duke help the people rebuild for they are suffering. The duke is impressed and declares that Gerard has truly become a man, and has developed the tools and character to be a good ruler - he shall be the heir.

EPM, EPM's wife/mistress and Henry meet in several scenes. I'm a bit unclear as to what happened when, but there is the following amongst this little band:

* we discover that EPM set the fire in the countryside.

* Henry muses to himself about brotherhood and how the two brothers are reconciled. He wavers.

* EPM's wife suspects Henry of wavering, and is convinced of it upon hearing from a guard who spied on Henry earlier. She convinces EPM to have Henry killed - she sends the guard as an assassin.

* The guard has failed, it appears, so EPM's wife/mistress leaves to do the job herself.

EPM is in a state about the situation and decides to take matters into his own hands by poisoning Gerard before he can wed Lancina. Henry appears - not dead at all - and reveals that he is EPM's brother. Henry tries to convince EPM to relinquish his dark purpose, but to no avail.

Now we're at the wedding. Lancina has a moment with Gerard speaking to him from behind, but won't let him see her; she departs. Gerard is wandering about the seating area and encounters a disguised EPM who tries to give him poisoned wine. Henry appears and intercedes, trying to convince EPM to stay his hand. EPM is unmoved, so Henry takes the wine into his own hand. EPM tries to intervene again, but Henry decides the matter by drinking the poison himself, to EPM's horror. Henry goes off to die, followed by EPM.

The wedding goes forward, and we learn that both couples now plan to wed. The duke has given assistance to the people who are already rebuilding. The lovers are joyful and content. All is well in Valista and beyond!

Creating the world

noreply@blogger.com (Susan) — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:00:00 +0000

My favorite phrase in improv might be "trigger your partner's imagination." As we perform, we are c0-creating a world and need to communicate the details to each other and our audience. A big (and yet sometimes subtle) piece of the creating the world pie is in space objects.

Even in this show when we have a set and costumes galore, we rely heavily on space objects to create specific settings and objects.

Two weeks ago in rehearsal, we spent some time on space-objects and creating richer environments.

Bryce brought in some wooden swords, an axe and a pike-thingy (I imagine he'll cringe at it being called that, it probably has a real name!). It was eye-opening for me (and a little nerve wracking). Having a somatic experience with a space object changes everything! The swords were much heavier than I'd imagined AND spending time walking around with one on me changed my walk, my stance, my attitude. Certainly gave me more confidence to play more in the sword fighting in the show. (Although I don't think I'll achieve the level of Mandy who was able to sing and fight at the same time in an earlier show in the run.)

And then we did scenework with a dual focus of letting emotions move us into action AND being in environments (really being there and interacting with them). My favorite one of these was when Trish, Bryce & Alex did a scene on a riverbank. Trish began by plucking petals off a flower and watching them float downstream. When Alex entered a few minutes later, he washed his face upstream of where Trish had been. The river was so clearly created that even when none of the characters were interacting with it, it still existed as setting. I love that!
- Susan

"But it's the same guy!"

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Tue, 12 May 2009 02:05:00 +0000

Can I just say, it makes me so happy that in this show (Shakespeare: The Musical), people hardly realize that the four people in the cast are playing multiple characters and that meeting yourself would be funny and/or impossible?

On at least two separate occasions, there've been instances where, say, Trish and Michael are onstage (to name one), and Trish says, "Father! I do hope one day you will meet the woman I am to marry!" And Michael (the father) says, "Son, I do hope I will." Except the woman is ALSO played by Michael. Reaction from the audience in that moment? None. If he had said something schticky like, "Ah, she must be so beautiful and smart and fantastic," there probably still woulda been no reaction. (cause it happened in another show.)

I mean, even Clay's hilarious marrying of himself wearing two separate hats didn't go over like wildfire the way it would have the last time we did Shakespeare. Hmmm!

Is it that they don't realize that it's him playing both characters until we bump up against it? Or that it doesn't occur to them to laugh because they've suspended their disbelief? Or that . . . something else? I mean, even I forget the same things sometimes, and I'm ONstage.

I'd like to think that for the audience, it's just all about the characters and the story, and we've transcended the stage and put the story directly into their imaginations.

Go us. :o) I love this show!

Shakespeare: The Musical: The Schedule!

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:53:00 +0000

It hath come to my attention that we have thus far neglected to post the schedule for our remaining shows. Copious apologies, fair readers! Here this ill shall be remedied!

The Cast Entire:
Bryce Byerley * Alex Curtis * Michael Fleming * Merrill Gruver * Mandy Khoshnevisan * Clay Robeson * Susan Snyder * Trish Tillman * Christian Utzman

Thursday, May 7, 8pm: Alex, Mandy, Merrill, Susan
Friday, May 8, 8pm: Alex, Mandy, Michael, Trish
Saturday, May 9, **3pm**: Alex, Christian, Clay, Mandy, Michael

Thursday, May 14, 8pm: Bryce, Clay, Merrill, Michael
Friday, May 15, 8pm: Christian, Clay, Merrill, Michael
Saturday, May 16, *3pm*: Alex, Bryce, Michael, Trish
Saturday, May 16, 8pm: Alex, Christian, Susan, Trish

Thursday, May 21, 8pm: Bryce, Christian, Mandy, Merrill
Friday, May 22, 8pm: Alex, Clay, Mandy, Trish
** Gender-Bender Day!**
Saturday, May 23, *3pm*: Alex, Bryce, Christian, Clay, Michael
Saturday, May 23, 8pm: Mandy, Merrill, Susan, Trish

**Closing Weekend**
Thursday, May 28, 8pm: Alex, Bryce, Merrill, Susan
Friday, May 29, 8pm: Christian, Clay, Trish, Michael (Mandy?)

Saturday, May 30th: Dave and Amber are getting married, so there's no show! Congrats, guys!

Ummm . . . Awesome!

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:43:00 +0000

Can I just say: Shakespeare: the Musical is Show: the Awesome?

Awesome things we've done so far:

Painted the floor to look like awesome flagstones.

Put up our fancy set.

Improvised rounds during warmup. ROUNDS.

Sounded awesome while singing.

Pulled off 4-person Shakespearean improv such that everyone, including the audience, and the people onstage, didn't realize that two characters could never meet cause they were being played by the same person.

Angered at least one Goldstar attendee because we had an "obviously preplanned show" and "one person didn't always remember their lines very well." HellOOOoOooo? It's totally improvised. What more can we say to convince people of that? I guess we're that awesome.

More things that are too awesome for me to remember.

We've got four weeks left, and the awesomeness has just begun. I'm super excited to see what happens next.

(fyi: if you're coming in week 2, you can save $3 with WEEK2, on our website. Rock!)

PS. Awesome.

Shakespeare: The Musical -- Opening just in time for Bill's Birthday!

noreply@blogger.com (Mandy) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:32:00 +0000

Happy 445th Birthday, Shakespeare!

Happy biiIIiiirirrthhdaaaay, dear Willl-iammmmm,
Happy biirrrrrrthdaaaay, tooooooo youuuuuuu!

In honor of this, Chicago's mayor has declared today "Talk Like Shakespeare Day!" If you wanna get in on the action, you can try out a flash application that apparently someone wrote on our website years ago! Just go to the site, and then use the flashcards (and the reload function) to serve yourself random words that you can then incorporate seamlessly into your conversation. Hey, it's what we do during warmups for the show. If we can do it, you can do it, in sooth!

(Also in honor of this illustrious date, you can get $4.45 off tickets to our next show! Get it -- 445th birthday? Isn't that adorable? Just use the code SHAKES when you buy tickets from un-scripted.com; it's valid until opening next week.)

Hope we do you proud, ol' Bill! We'd like to think that if you lived long enough to write musicals (and were prescient enough to write them to music played in the 21st century style) they'd have been pretty darn close to these!

Check out Shakespeare: The Musical! Playing April 30th through May 29th. That's right -- May 29th is a Friday. But we can't have shows on the 30th -- that's when Dave is getting married! So closing night is on a Friday. Suck it up. :o) And wish Dave and Amber congratulations!

More Eurpoean Billboards

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Goy) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:42:00 +0000

Continuing with our popular advertising campaign in Britain, we've unveiled a new billboard:

(make your own anti-terrorism billboard here)

Shakespeare: The Musical - Rehearsal Week 3

noreply@blogger.com (Clay) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 05:58:00 +0000

So this was a really intense week. I think that I learned more about Shakespeare in the last 3 rehearsals that I did my entire High School career (sorry Ms. Mottern).

When one thinks about Improv rehearsals, one tends to think "Zip Zap Zop" and "Logical Word Toss" and "What Are You Doing?" -- but with this show, we've actually spent a significant amount of time in chairs discussing things. Things like Shakespeare's World View, and the importance of Death in comedies versus tragedys, and how every single one of Shakespeare's characters has their own dignity. There are no (or few) caricatures, but only characters, each with their own solid sense of self (sorry Will Farrell).

We're also completely reconstruction the openings we use for our musicals, because the "opening number" really doesn't mesh well with how Shakespeare told stories. So we're experimenting with the Opening Action Sequence, which, like in many of Shakespeare's plays, consists of a throw away scene with characters we may or may not see again, who are there only to set the stage. They are there to get our attention, and tell us what's been going on in the world that we're about to explore. Their scene then leads into an opening song that is ALSO just there to tell us about our world. It's really bizarre in how liberating it is not having to worry about "Will singing this make me the protagonist?" and things like "What if I set up something too important that I don't remember later?"

On a personal note, I was completely blown away by the raw talent that this cast has. Seriously, this is rehearsal #5, and the songs that were getting cranked out were "CRAP! Why don't we have a video camera running?" good. This is going to be an awesome show.