From Hot Mess To Harold ~ An Improv Workshop for Denver's Grafenberg Productions

jacobts (65)in #improv • 6 years ago (edited)

I don't know anything but maybe the Improv Audience wants to have fun. Ladies and Gentlemen show up to share a few drinks with friends. They want to witness the sparks that only come from embracing improv's uncertainty and have fun. And if they're lucky, there might be a belly laugh moment which reminds them of an emotional unpredictable hot mess in their own life. Maybe. I don't know anything.

Chances are Longform Improvisers have all heard of Harold. Most improvisers have learned and played the 1,2,3,Game format within a show, and most have appreciated what the form's simplicity offers to teams and players. While the idea started with Del Close and Charna, any festival or road trip even around town will show you Harold's limitless possibilities.

Disclaimer: Many ways exist of doing improv and a Harold. This is just one suggestion for approaching a Harold. This approach is an invitation to technically "think" less. This particular approach gives players an opportunity to focus more on trusting one's feelings in order to discover and appreciate character, relationships, story, and theme.

-The HOT MESS HAROLD Outline-

HOT MESS OPENING - Emotional Hot Mess
FIRST SCENES - Inspired by Emotional Physicalities from Opening
HOT MESS RESET - Reheat Emotional Hot Mess
SECOND SCENES - Inspired by first run of scenes
CALLBACK CITY - Emotional Callbacks to Themes & Stories.

HOT MESS OPENING. This can be anything that stirs up emotions within the group. Examples include using View Points and Organic Group Work to discover and appreciate emotionally inspired physicalities. A group could build on this by adding scenic vignettes, short 3-5 line scenes within the opening or they could heighten into a group scene. The goal is simply to stir up a hot mess of heightened emotions from which to inspire & fuel the first few scenes.

FIRST SCENES. The first run of scenes are emotionally charged 3-4 two person relationship based scenes. There are preferably no walk ons or tags. This is to give the players in the scenes a chance to discover and appreciate their own scene, while giving supporting players a chance to discover and appreciate themes and stories they hear from outside the scene.

HOT MESS RESET. After 3-4 scenes, the team returns to emotionally charged organic group games, or goes on an physical and emotionally charged run of vignettes. The function is to give the audience a mental reset and emotional boost.

SECOND SCENES. The second run of scenes are inspired the first run of scenes. They can be literal continuations in story, heightened bits, or simply en homage to a previous element. The function is to discover and appreciate greater themes and stories.

CALLBACK CITY. Players call back emotional bits, memorable moments, and anything they appreciated from earlier in the piece. The function is to help tie the show together as a whole for audience and players.

The Hot Mess Harold Invites Players to trust their emotional memory, trust the things they emotionally remember will help them discover and appreciate their scene's character and relationships as well as their show's stories and themes. The Audience is likewise treated to an emotionally charged show with feelings that reflect on everyday life of a human being.

I got a chance to share this with Grafenberg Productions in Denver. We rehearsed in a bar called El Charito. The owner opened the building late, never said a word, filled the ice buckets then sat at the bar during the whole 3 hour rehearsal.

The Comedy Room Room is in another room of the bar. But we rehearsed in the room with the karaoke stage, with the soggy spot in the floor, surrounded buy christmas lights, beer signs, and deer head. Had I been knocked unconscious and woke up here I'd have thought I was in some Chicago dive bar for improv rehearsal.

We zip zap zop'd some feelings around. We lone wolf'd some emotional pairs into scenes. We kept an eye and ear on what we liked. I made up some scenarios to set up relationships with some other potential nearby: Shhh The Baby's Sleeping, Panicky Puppy, & The Long Goodbye.

Before and after the break we discussed the 5 steps to consider when attempting the imaginary variation of an imaginary show form, The Hot Mess Harold.

Some things I discovered from the workshop, besides I talk too much about bitcoin, are how interested the group was in playing and adding to the conversation. I particularly appreciated comments on causes, sensations, and desires that come with emotions. It was interesting to hear how alive and diverse the improv scene is in Denver, but they're not quite pooling their resources to promote the greater stage, yet. Earlier in the day, driving for Postmates I got to see how lived in and vibrant Denver is. The city is a local mix of young homeowners and affluent visitors on both vacation and business. Everyone is looking for fun, easy, and interesting places for live entertainment. People will always be hungry for what Justin Franzen calls the last real Living Art, Improv. I think he's right, and I think people simply appreciate the simple spectacle that is the unpredictable moment.

Grafenberg was a welcome unpredictable moment in Denver. I arrived in Denver thankful to visit my brother who was in town on business. Him and his team take care of tech for days and weeks at a time and if they get time off, I can see how a night at a Graffenberg Show in town would be a fun night out. I welcomed the time to hang, catch up, and pow wow over mexican food with Justin. We talked improv's ups and downs in Denver but the peaks are so much higher and the valleys are greener than any shadows in the past.

St Louis's incredible community at The Improv Shop has their homage to old iO Chicago woven into their story. Their mainstage is almost identical to the old Del Close Theater blue wall gold trim stage. Denver likewise discovers it's own appreciation of old iO nostalgia, which is it's own homage to a distant cabaret pasts in Gaslight Districts around the country. Once home to speakeasies, the bro bars are marching in next to the ballpark which towers over old brick buildings that would be found just as easily in St Louis, Chicago, Brooklyn. El Charrito continues to maintain its identity, and improv continues to flourish nearby. The Voodoo Lounge is just around the corner, a sign that improv continues growing in town. But just as old i was once in a Swedish Social Hall, the new Grafenberg Theater will be in a former social speakeasy. The owner of the building used to let psychedelic trippers hang out in the two story space. The walls were painted in chalk and paint in cosmic swirls, dream maze riddles, and bursts of color. Del would be proud. Yet only the restroom mural of an ocean tsunami is professional enough to survive to opening night. The stage will be a simple thrust, like old iO's Cabaret and have what some people called the Lorne Michael's Couch in the corner. The theater is walking distance to the ballpark, something Charna still might not like. And at the heart of the new theater is genuine devotion to it's training center.

Shows are fun, and the new space will host all kinds of Harolds, but Justin and his crew are committed to continuing education. They bring in talent and look to continue attending festivals around the country. They have their own vision within their improv blockchain protocol. But at the main net of their new stage launches so too will new opportunities for Denver audiences, performers, students, teachers, investors in improv.

~@jacobts~