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independent film and video on CAN Channel 19 The show that started it all... Twirly was a project that Allison Bazarko (the other half of Full Deck Productions at the time) and I came up with after we decided we were too lazy and too broke to put together a short film of our own. We figured there were a lot of less lazy filmmakers out there that were probably looking to have their film screened, so we created Twirly to facilitate that. The hour long show ran for about nine months on CAN (Chicago Access Network) Channel 19, and I'm told that they still air re-runs of it to this day when the programming is light. Twirly was actually responsible for the formation of Full Deck Productions, which has now gone on to do bigger and better things. For more information on Twirly, check out the archived episode guide and featured filmmakers on the Full Deck website. |
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an alternative improv showcase During our time on Kissing George together, Fuzzy Gerdes and I came up with lots of different ideas for improv shows we wanted to do. Most of them involved money that we didn't have to spend at that time... except for a little idea called Big Bowl of... Big Bowl of... was a monthly Full Deck/Fuzzyco Joint that featured alternative forms of longform improvisation. No Harolds, no montages - mostly stuff from the fringe - some that worked, some that didn't. Featured groups included Mission:Improvable (doing their signature form "The Trip"), Andy Eninger's "Sybil"(solo longform), Prism (a former 5B show), Pants Happy! (three men, one long scene), The Monologue Ponies (improvised monologue & storytelling), Kissing George (First Impressions, The Rashomon, and the ill-fated Flashlight Theater), The Laboratory (directed by Shaun Himmerick), and several others. It was my first venture into producing theater and I felt like it was pretty successful for a first time out. More detailed descriptions of the shows can be found in my improv journal, Sweet Justice (start in the January 2000 section, they end in the April 2000 section). |
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an improvised romantic comedy Dinner for Six, directed by Jason Chin, marked the beginning of the Director's Series and also my role as a producer at the Playground. The show had been performed a few years earlier at the Improv Olympic to not too many people. Jason had independently approached Fuzzy and I about producing something for him, and we countered his proposal by asking him to take the first spot as a director for the Series. He accepted and the rest is history. The show got several excellent reviews and ran for about 10 weeks before the cast moved it to the Improv Olympic. Reviews from our run can be found here. I enjoyed working on this, but I learned a few less than savory lessons along the way. |
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meisner meets improv During my time on Kissing George, I got to work with Rob Mello as a coach for several months. Rob had been playing around with the idea of fusing some of the Meisner acting techniques he taught at the Artistic Home with improvised scenework. Drive, the second show in the Director's Series, was the result of Rob's experiment. Drive was always interesting to watch because it was, in my mind, the complete opposite of what most improv strives for - it was theatrical and emotional, it was slow in pace and thoughtful in nature. The cast was superb - Lindsey Harrington (of Sirens), Lillie Frances, Justin O'Connor, David Castro, Ben Zolno, Cholley Kuhaneck and Christine Sinacore. A review from the run is archived here. |
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flying solo, improv-style During Big Bowl of... Andy Eninger approached me to see if I'd be interested in helping him put together a "Sybil" project where he could teach others his signature form. The result was Sybilization, the third Director's Series offering, a hybrid workshop and performance opportunity for six vetern improvisers. It was a success and we've repeated our "Sybilization" workshop for additional improvisers. Andy is an absolute delight to work with as a director and I'd have to say that putting together this show was one of the best experiences I've had as a producer. *1/27/02 - Sybilization is now an annual workshop program featured as a part of the Director's Series. We've had three different groups to date, and Andy has been featured at CIF as a teacher and performer on Sybil and solo improv. |
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dusk til dawn improv During the run of Drive, I was approached by Jonathan Pitts. Seems he had read my improv journal, Sweet Justice, and seen my comments about CIF from the year before. Long story short, he offered me a spot producing the Improv Til Dawn stage. It was an interesting experience, filled with last minute changes and minor emergencies (the Bailiwick became WNEP, my box office staff dumped the light board operator and didn't want to work the show, groups swapped time slots, etc.). I had an excellent crew that worked hard all night long, even during the 4am stupids that happen from lack of sleep and too much caffeine. |
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burlesque gone bad Burly-Q was a scripted show that I produced for Mike Flores, of Bettie Page Uncensored infamy. It was an "All about Eve" kind of story set during the last days of burlesque and starring Sarah Masters and an old college buddy of mine, Kate Lee. Ms. Lee is responsible for bringing half the population of Chinatown to the show. The show's highlights were the guest acts that rotated each week. Among my favorites: McHenry and Goldstein (Mark and Scott Woldman as an Abbott & Costello duo), the infamous Stump-Dog (wrangled by Kenan Derson) and Michelle Padgett's stand-up routine with a devil puppet. I learned a lot from it. And I'll leave it at that. |
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can you see the real me? Peter Gwinn created Faces in the Crowd, the fourth Director's Series show. Faces is a complex long form that highlights individual characters through a series of scenes. Peter brought me an idea summed up in a vague phrase - "exploring ensemble through individuals" - and turned it into a richly detailed form. It was a show that I wished more improvisers had seen. *1/27/02 - Faces in the Crowd was seen by more improvisers when the cast took the show to the Del Close Theater for a five week run during November and December of 2001. It received a great review in the Reader. |
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my mitten licks languidly I got an email from Dan Izzo during the Faces in the Crowd run about doing a Director's Series show, and a few months later Free Mason Jar was born. Dan worked with the idea of creating something that touched on as much pure free association as possible, sort of like chaos in a jar. The cast featured a lot of newer improvisers, many of which I had never worked with before. That was great - it's nice to see new faces at the Playground. Oh, and Greg Inda rocks. If you ever need a stage manager or AD for a show, call on Greg. He rocks. Did I mention that he rocks? Good. |
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the story behind your news Cholley Kuhaneck, a Playground member from the team Malice, directed this exploration of the events leading up to what we think of as news. Day in the Life kicked off our first official "season" of Director's Series shows, which was pretty cool, and also marked the first show to be directed by a female director (and also Cholley's directorial debut). We got one of the strangest, yet oddly complimentary quotes from the Reader reviewer Lawrence Bommer, who stated that Day in the Life was "disconcertingly abstract" and "painfully human". Such a good cast, too - a good mix of serious and not-so-serious players made the show dramatic and still whimsical, even when dealing with heavier issues. |
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sketch at an improv fest - who'd of thunk it? Mark and I jointly ran the first ever CIF Sketch stage which took place at the Playground. It ran very smoothly and the groups were all very good to work with. Due to some restructuring in the CIF hierarchy, I didn't have a lot of extra stuff to do concerning the shows except running the venue during the nights we were open. I had some good interns, especially Matt who struck all the extra chairs on Sunday night, and some hired help in Stephanie "Speedy" Hoerner, who helped Mark with the tech cues and other stage management work. The highlight of the festival was the story of Rebecca Langguth and Yellow Man Group. Just ask Don Hall to tell you the story. |
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on stage, nobody can hear you scream Bedlam was the first attempt at a midnight show at the Playground. We're trying to slowly take over more and more of the programming time to give back to the membership for their own shows, projects and other performance things they're developing. Andy Eninger, one of my favorite directors to work with, was kind enough to let us put his one act, Bedlam, up as our first little experiement in late night entertainment. The show was fun, but probably would have benefitted more at an early time slot. The cast was excellent and included some of my favorite folks from past shows, like Pete Fitzsimmons, Mare Runge and Steve Scholz, as well as some folks I know but haven't had the opportunity to work with, like Mandy Price and Liz McNaughton. It was also Lindsay Saunders' big debut on a Chicago stage, and both Andy and I appreciate in huge amounts her parents willingness to let her drive out from Arlington Heights every weekend to do the show. |
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i desperately want... It's Not Me... It's Me was a Director's Series show directed by Joe Bill. Joe took some ideas he had in his head from The Throwdown and other experiments he'd been wanting to try and mixed 'em up to create a brand spanking new improvised piece. The cast was excellent and featured many talented performers from the Playground and the rest of the improv community. We ended up extending the show in "prime time" spots during the summer, but due to the nice weather the second run wasn't as successful. Summer is theater death. |
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trina throws the party of the century 1000 Monkeys has been one of my favorite Directors Series shows to date, mostly because the cast was put through an incredibly intense rehearsal experience in which they developed a fully functional (or dysfunctional as the show would show) world with amazingly detailed characters and relationship. Jen Ellison directed the show and is by far one of the most talented directors (and performers) in Chicago. Jen worked with a scripted outline form - anchoring a one act play to a series of events with set characters, but improvising the dialogue and dynamics of the relationship each night. I saw the majority of the shows and was impressed at the improvisers' abilities to continue discovering new things despite having lived in that fateful hour for over two months. The cast was incredibly talented as well mixing some veteran improvisers from Improv Olympic, The Playground, ComedySportz and WNEP together. The result was a beautiful piece of theater that lead a lot of audience members to demand that we create a second act to resolve the build up of the hour long show. Who knows, maybe some day we will? |
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four monkeys humpin' a football Loser's Bracket was the writing debut of Nate and Clay Sanders to very funny guys that are part of WNEP. It was also my debut show over at WNEP as well, assisting Don Hall with the promotional and marketing of the play. The play is a comedy - a blue collar, working guy type comedy - that did well with audiences and garnered some great reviews. A sequel or prequel is in the works for next season. It was strange for me not to be in charge of the production, but assisting, and it left me feeling like I didn't do enough for the show. Changing gears and hats, I guess. |
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drama Awake in the Night was a stab at dramatic improv. Dramatic meaning tackling more serious subject matter. Nancy Howland Walker took suggestions that corresponded with one of Georges Polti's "36 Dramatic Situations" which are often used by writers. It was a very risky show because it had to walk a fine line to not end up as melodrama. I will admit that this was my least favorite Directors Series show to date to work on. |
