"Micetro Issues" Discussion Area

This might get catty in places -- just keep in mind that it's all IM{or O}HO and corrections and emendations are what a wiki is all about.
Those with feline allergies might should just move along to another page.
-- Peter

Competitiveness

"Ha. I've won Micetro. I can relax now."

The fact that I even had this thought indicates something really wrong with the system. We shouldn't give a flying rat's ass who wins, since, as with "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" the points really do not matter.

And yet they do. Why?

As has been told to us over and over and over, caring about the outcome ruins the show. It kills the good nature of the performers, reduces bench support, and it transforms the show from an hour or two of people affably goofing off to a gauntlet in which (n-1) people bitterly lose.

But what can we do about it?

It's all well and good to say, "Well, just stop feeling competitive," but human feelings are like gorillas, not often subject to rational-minded control. I'm not particularly competitive, and I still get caught up in it.

(Bob): It's like telling players not to funny or telling the audience not to laugh.

One factor will be to find more opportunities to improvise, thus reducing Micetro to "just another show." Bob's DaylightSavingsTheater is a good plan. Taking more of the workshops and regular classes is a good plan.

If Shannon can bring on some more cross-troupe social activities, it would continue stifling the "I must defeat these strange people" instinct.

New rule: whoever wins has to buy everyone drinks afterwards :)

Risk

When was the last time a director sent somebody back off stage in Micetro? Does it happen maybe once every other show? And rarely to the Rookies?

I think it should happen a few times every night. At least.

I don't take the sort of risks that elicit that from our directors -- it doesn't matter if I'm on the bench or in a scene (particularly with the 'big kids.') Generally the vibe I internalize is that this is a serious theatre show being put on by serious theatre people, and they don't need a Random Rookie wandering on-stage as (say) a drunken Gilbert Gottfried to gum up the works, and any such appearance will only lead to seething resentment and an exacerbated "who invited these people?" feeling. 1?

Bob & I have discussed several times the effort to get thrown out of Micetro; i. e., take bold risks end in such massive, spectacular failure over and over and over, that the director has no choice but to subdue you with electro-shock poles and push you screaming through the stage door.

Another problem is that, unlike what Johnstone recommends, we never just shoot a failed scene in the head in Micetro, wave the lights down, and get on with our lives. Every scene has to come to its conclusion, and we play the game with the full, weighty knowledge that, whatever we do, we'll have to live with the consequences. I don't know about you, but that's not how I wanna play.

Maybe we need CrappyShowNight, where we all do what it takes to give the audience far, far less than their money's worth, and make the directors do everything they can just to keep the show vaguely still a show.

Placing bets before the show (see the promises page) could also help us loosen up.

Bench Support

I still feel timid about offering bench support. I've been trying to stand up while offstage, but I still don't ever make it on stage. The reasons are described in the "Risk" and "Working With Your Dirctors" sections.

Are there any pre-show warm-ups we could do that emphasize bench support?

If not, can we invent any?

Working With Your Directors

Before the most recent 'ctro, Amy asked us performers what setups we were interested in doing.

It took a second or two for it to sink in: I really could suggest things to Amy that we had wanted to do, and she might well bring them into the show.

Now, the fact that I required that mental adjustment hints to me that we the performers don't feel like we're in the show with the directors. Instead, the directors become this authoritative Other 2?, kind of like your high school principal.

Now of course, somebody has to be in charge of Micetro, and if not the directors, then who? Yet still, if the Rookies support each other with healthy esprit de corps, but look askance at the directors, it's less fun for everybody.

List'o'things this screws up in the show...

What can we do about this?

I keep thinking of it in terms of consciously imitating the behavior until it becomes genuine (sort of like smiling to put yourself in a good mood). Carry out Bob's threat of trying to get thrown out of a show. Tell the directors what you want to do that night, whether they want to hear it or not. Make life hell in the short term, hoping that it all sorts itself out later.

Long-Form Influences

My favorite sketch-comedy shows intersperse long-form elements across their sketches.

First-season MAD TV was brilliant in adding a level of meta-story -- the performers were characters, doing sketches as themselves, interacting in backstage sequences -- providing a level of backstory that ran continuously behind the skits. (Of course, SCTV was the original, and did it far better.) Monty Python would have running gags both within a show (Spanish Inquisition) and throughout the seasons (the "It's" man). 3?

Micetro, on the other hand, is just a series of skits. Very good skits, arranged well by the directors, but they exist without context.

Crazy idea of the day: when you do Micetro, pretend you're doing long-form.

Now, how can you pretend you're doing long-form if you're assigned a different character half the time? I think what I'm trying to get at is that, in your own mind, you pretend that all these events, all these different characters, are giving us different facets of the same world. Whether the audience ever perceives this or not is moot. Reincorporation comes of scenes revealing an awareness of other scenes as appropriate (c. f. the Kevin Smith ouvre).

Cool things about this:

A Variety of Short Forms

Watching The Intergalactic Nemesis got me thinking -- now long-form episodic radio serial is something I had never, ever gotten to see done live.

It made me think that Micetro has the opportunity to have an even wider variety of formats. I mean, how often is the show just 'skit,' 'skit,' 'skit,' 'skit,' 'monolog,' 'skit,' 'announce the winner'? Don't get me wrong -- the show's great, and the people love it, but don't we have the chance to do something more?

What if we...

One can argue that this takes us further away from the austere beauty of two people on a stage inventing a scene from nowhere (and I don't say that sarcastically), but wouldn't it be great if Micetro had some of the 'anything goes' quality of No Shame? Wouldn't it be great if the slow 'train wreck piece' that we use for shape of show wasn't "He Said, She Said," which is slow because it's hard to do, but was instead something so wild, so out there, that we'd have to slow down just to understand this f*cked-up new setup?

I just want an audience to come away from Micetro -- any Micetro -- feeling like they'd seen at least one thing they'd never seen before. I want them to feel like Micetro is necessary. And I want them to come back again and again. 4?

For any performer, Micetro's usual setups can start to feel stale after a while. When faced with those, it's up to us as performers to:

Footnotes

1? My sense of insecurity, troupe. Troupe, my sense of insecurity. Get to know each other.

2? Hi, my name is Peter... and I'm a recovering English major. "Hi Peter."

3? Even SNL -- a conventional and timid show -- would occasionally run a sketch across a commercial break in its older, better seasons.

4? As it stands, Micetro strikes many people as being the sort of thing that's worth seeing... once.