Synopsis:

BOGSAT (Bunch of Guys Sitting Around Talking) telling anecdotes based on an audience suggestion. Scenes develop organically from the conversation.

Description:

See http://www.austinimprov.com/~apthorpe/improv/living_room/description.html

Who's in?

Am I missing anyone?

Class Notes

Mac's class went well with a good warmup of:

After that, we ran through the format two or three times.

We played on the larger stage downstairs and set a bench and a few chairs onstage in a horseshoe stage right, leaving stage left open for scene work. Players not in a scene stayed seated and the scene was tagged-out by hitting a bell (near the horseshoe.) Scenes were timed, so players stayed in-scene until Mac hit the bell. For instruction's sake we did not edit or wipe scenes and lights were static. We played 3-4 scenes per set and 2-3 sets over the class.

I noted that while we had the conversational aspect down, the focus on anecdote versus impression or emotion tended to encourage reenactments (Level 1) rather than tangentially-inspired scenes (Level 2) or metaphorical or allegorical scenes (Level 3.) NB: Mac ranked scenes as to their depth, skill displayed, or truth; this is my interpretation.

Particular to this class, I think people were less sure of themselves than usual and there was a slight resistance to jumping up into a scene. It could be because we felt we were being judged or because the scenes were timed, or maybe it was because of the cast composition, I don't know. I believe that transistions would be more fluid in a performance setting, especially when the cast can vary the scene duration.

Overall, it was a very challenging class and very helpful beyond learning the format.

What's next?

One page links to LivingRoomShow: