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 ROLE
PLAY
Impromptu skits hone comedy
skills at workshop.
Palm Beach Daily News
August 14, 2005
By Michele Dargan
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Jeffrey Langlois |
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Adam Lescht of
Lake Worth, left, and Ryan Ikonen of
West Palm Beach perform an
unscripted skit during an
improvisational workshop Saturday.
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Jeffrey Langlois |
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Adam Lescht of
Lake Worth, right, is shoved by Jeff
Quintana of Miami during a simulated
confrontation in an improvisational
workshop Saturday at the Kravis
Center's Cohen Pavilion as part of
the fourth annual South Florida
Improv Jam.
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A guy
and a girl are working in a rice cake factory.
Guy:
"I thought we were going to work at K-Mart."
Girl:
"It didn't pay well enough."
That
was just one of the fast-paced, skits performed
during an improvisational workshop held at the
Kravis Center's Cohen Pavilion Saturday.
Twelve
participants – some with stage experience, others
without – received a two-hour crash course in long
form improv from David Christopher, a co-founder of
the Miami-based Just the Funny troupe.
The
way Christopher explains it, long form is just a
series of scenes that run into each other with no
break in the action. The scenes can start with a
word, a setting, a facial expression or a situation
and the performers must develop a scene totally
off-the-cuff.
"The
hard thing about improv is that we are the actor and
the writer and we're doing the writing on the fly,"
Christopher said. "Trust yourself. You don't have to
be funny. You don't have to be perfect. Slow it
down. Physicality can be your best friend."
Christopher began the scenework by suggesting
different settings to pairs of performers, who
immediately launched into 60-second skits using the
suggested setting. Some of the later scenes called
for the actors to start a scene as far away from the
other actor as possible, with one person remaining
silent the entire time and ending up as close as
possible.
"There's a lot of power in silence," Christopher
said. "Actions are more powerful than words."
The
actors progressed to learn "sweep edit," where one
scene rolls into another. Six people stood on the
stage, four in back, with two actors performing a
scene in front. When another actor circles in front
of the scene, that actor then begins a new scene
with someone else. The actors were given the word
"cheese" to start the ball rolling.
Jeff
Quintana of Miami and Adam Lescht of Lake Worth
became two guys selling cheese. When the
conversation led to Lescht confessing his interest
in Quintana's sister, a near fight erupted. From
there, the scene changed to hell with Alek
Kaknevicius of Tequesta and Patricia Perry of Palm
Beach Gardens ending up in the inferno.
The
scenes changed fast and furiously, with some of the
themes returning to the cheese theme, while others
did not.
The
workshop led into the fourth annual South Florida
Improv Jam, a show held Saturday night by five South
Florida improv troupes. Proceeds from the show
benefit Gilda's Club in South Florida, which
provides support in a home setting for people living
with cancer. Gilda Radner, who rose to fame on
Saturday Night Live, died of ovarian cancer in
1989.
"Gilda Radner was a
comedian," Christopher said. "This is like giving
back to someone who gave so much to this art form."
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About
The
South Florida Improv Jam
The
South Florida Improv Jam is an annual improv benefit
performance that
celebrates and promotes
improvisation throughout South Florida. The goal of the event is to
raise money for charity, and to get local improv groups to
get together and work together in an effort to get
local audiences to support theatrical improvisation as an
art form.
The South Florida Improv
Jam is not a competition and is not geared towards the
promotion of any one group, but to all of the improv groups
that participate, and improv as a whole in South Florida.
The South Florida Improv
Jam is used by permission from the Miami based improv
group, Just The Funny to
local improv groups wishing to host the event. The
event is held once a year, with proceeds from the event
going to local and national charities, and for the
maintenance of
improvsouthflorida.com.
Improv South Florida is
the official information outlet and resource for The South Florida Improv Jam. |
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SFIJ 4 Stats |
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Date:
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Location:
The Kravis Center for the
Performing Arts - Cohen Pavillion
Palm Beach, FL
Hosted by:
Mod 27
Organizers:
Dave
Hyland
Tom O'Donnell
Participating Troupes:
Impromedy
Just The Funny
Laughing Gas
Mod 27
They Improv
Charity:
Gilda's Club of South Florida
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SFIJ 4
Press |
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Palm Beach Daily News 8/7/2005
New
Times - Broward/Palm Beach
8/11/2005
Palm Beach
Post
8/12/2005
Palm Beach Daily News 8/14/2005 |
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SFIJ 4
Photos |
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