Thinkertoes
While burning and printing stacks of printable and slideshow DVDs tonight I came across a great article on the real-world value of improvised sketch comedy. Aside from an unpredictable storyline or laugh out of the blue there were some good points about carrying on conversations and thinking on your feet.
Last weekend at two friends’ graduation open house I ran into some of the youngest students from my Christian Center School 2002-2003 drama class. All my students are graduates now, makes a drama and sub teacher proud. (I grew up at CCS and knew most of my students as kids or kindergarteners.) Every afternoon from 2-3pm I did my best to provide more than a 30-person audience for the junior high students’ improv. Our second semester we rewrote, casted, costumed and eventually performed the largest class production the school ever saw. (I can safely say that having attended from K5 to graduation and the school closed a few years after our production was done.)
During class, as a reward for hard work at rehearsals we had short improv / “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” sessions to foster creativity and wear out some energy. Anyone who studied at CCS or helped in the children’s church during 1995-2004 probably has the same guy come to mind when I say improv - Mike “Badger” McGehee, king of making stuff up and making it work. If you saw the Mike & Mike 2000 Olympics clip I posted last week you can thank Pastor Mike for not only giving us a starting idea but also letting us run loose with a camera.
Turns out that there were a handful of times that improv skills saved scenes during our class’ production, In His Steps. Classmates picked up or fed lines to students who drew a blank. The show must go on!
CCS’s very best: In His Steps cast, 2003
And if you made it though the reminiscing and want to read the article… it’s HERE. Enjoy!
