PSRMicetroWarmUps08.17.02

Micetro Warm-ups

08.17.02

Theory

Our warm-ups have been piss-poor lately.

Really, all it will take to whip it into shape is a little planning and a little discipline.

Here's what I think we should do on Saturday.

Getting Started Promptly

I am doing warm-ups as soon as I get into the theatre. I don't even care if nobody else does. I'm not gonna sit there for twenty minutes watching everybody go, "Meow, meow, I'm disorganized! meow, meow, something shiny! meow, meow..."

If Billy doesn't show up (again), see this page.

Warm-Up Experiments

I think it behooves us to try some new things every week during warm-ups. We don't want our players getting complacent or (worse) bored, and some of these could be prove very effective, especially for the large group we have for Micetro.

There's four things I want to try this week:

1. Get Shelly to lead a meditaiton exercise, preferably before all fifteen-or-so of us arrive.

   • That seems to work wonders for getting us focussed and relaxed.

2. The Status Pylon

   • Mark a spot on the floor with an object, like a chair. We all do a party scene, with the following rule: the closer you are to the spot, the higher your status is.

3. Wandering Environment

   • A caller calls out an environment.
   • Everyone wanders around the stage, silently mime-building and interacting with that environment.
   • We try to pay attention to what the other people are doing, so that we build the environment consistently.

4. Wandering Endowments

   • This is similar to the thing where we all wander around the space and occasionally call out 'women's names that begin with S.'

   • In this case, we have a caller with a similar role, except when s/he says "women's names that begin with S," everyone endows each other with the name, and gets that endowment accepted, instead of just calling it out into the air.

     • Just accept the offer for a few seconds and then go back to being you.

   • Other possibilities: "Characters in an airport!" "Positive emotions!"

     • Remember to endow the other person.

Yeah, that fourth one probably needs work. If we have a full cast of fifteen people trying to do it, half of them will get confused and angry. I'd like to try it before everybody is there -- say 6 or 7 people. Ideally we'd have our directors in on it, since Shannon and Kacey would be much more game to try something weird and different, whereas most of the cast will react with "<whiny> Meow, meow, I'm confused! Meow, can't we just play 'pass-the-clap?!'"

Non-experimental Warm-ups

All of the experimental warm-ups listed above could end in utter failure -- especially because we have a very varsity-poor cast this week. We need to be guaranteed of a certain number of normal warm-ups. Here's a list we can keep handy (it might should just carry over from week to week):

For lists of standard warm-ups, see the big lists page.

Getting Done With Warm-ups

Like studying for exams, I don't think there's anything to be gained by absolutely working right up until the last minute. I think, if we warm up effectively for forty minutes, we ought to just break it up and hang out for a bit before the show starts.

Or not. It's not like I'm the expert here. Seriously.