Did anyone else enjoy the frigid weekend? After sweltering Florida summers, I welcome a brief cold season.

It took me five months, but I finally attended another improv workshop at Limelight Theater! Last night's event was the first ever "playground" session. We used a different part of the theater this time. The session opened with showcase performances by improv level four students.  Jay, Meg, Geo and Diane were entertaining to say the least.  They had the audience laughing as they stayed on their toes, accepting a variety of emotions and settings dictated by the audience along with director Amy Angelilli.  One performance involved emotional quadrants. As the actors traversed from one quadrant to another, they shifted from elated to frustrated to confused. They also performed a beach scene, after which one actor was eliminated by the audience who served as judges - leaving the remaining cast to perform the scene again without the latest cast off. We took a page out of Survivor's handbook for this game.  In the end, one actor had to perform the scene originally done by four characters - it was a workout. Imagine one person opening a bottle of champagne, being hit in the eye with a cork, and giving and receiving a massage...hilarious.

After the performance, we the newbies took the stage. We played a bunch of improv games. My personal favorite was "Musical Hotspot". It felt like an episode of Glee. Here's how it worked...we formed a circle and one brave soul broke the ice by stepping into the center and singing a song, to which we all sang along (assuming we knew the lyrics). The first participant jumped in with "I Will Always Love You." As we sang, a "hotspot" lyric would eventually trigger the thought of a related song. For instance, the line "So goodbye--please don't cry" could trigger someone to enter the center of the circle, tag the current singer and transition into Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" (and I'll cry if I want to).  We kept this up for about ten minutes and sang everything from Bob Jovi to Third Eye Blind and Avril Lavigne to Britney Spears. 

We ended the night with the regular feature of what we call "Paper Clip". (See the photo from my first improv post) We collaborated to create a live still scene (mannequin challenge - eat your heart out). The first person to step in was a fly on the wall, then in came a fly swatter, then someone spraying pesticide. It grew and grew into a vast TV room with a peek of what was happening outside (a plant being watered).  Check out the finished product...soak it in...analyze it...identify the characters and objects...

My goal is to do improv again within 60 days...stay tuned friends.