Week Three, Day One - The Reign of Napoleon?

I have exactly ten minutes to give a lickety split update between my after-school shower (Hello??? It's 100 degrees in Chicago right now?! WTF?) and running out to see a friend's show....

We arrived at the theater today eager to discover who our Level Three teacher would be. Due to a weird last-minute change, nobody told us who we would get, so we went in blind and hopeful. Turns out it's the musical improv guy, Dave Asher. He's a little man with a big voice. Straight away, it was clear that he didn't hold back or sugar-coat his feedback. A far, far cry from our dear Level One teacher.

I have no doubt we have important and useful skills to learn from Dave. This is a chocked-full week in which we are meant to study the two-person scene, the cornerstone of improv. Though his feedback is harsh, he often makes good points albeit without grace or tact. For example, he told one pair today that their scene was "painful to sit through." (I wouldn't go that far, but it wasn't the best scene for sure.) He seems to be easier on women than men (which both relieves and angers me) and he plays favorites-of-the-day. One woman broke down in tears at one point in the afternoon which seemed to scare the dickens out of him. And worst of all,  he pits people against each other by comparing scenes and players. This last one is a great concern to me as our groupmind and unusually high supportive vibe is what makes our group such a stand out.

Fortunately, he recognized the talent in our group. After only a couple hours, he said out loud that he would have to re-tool this week's curriculum in order to skip some stuff we didn't need and challenge us more. For all his bluster, unnecessary verbosity and tactlessness, he does have a very good eye. So I'll try to keep that in mind when he turns his fangs on me.

Personally, I had a good day as far as performance went. I did some good work. Believe it or not, the best scene I had was a musical, non-verbal (just musical noises) "singing" scene which he accompanied on the piano.  Who would have guessed that, huh?!