2010 Part 1: Improv.

A few weeks into 2011 and I want to think of 2010 as a play-doh ball where all the parts of it consist of memories that come together nicely but apart from eachother makes me want to, I don't know, emote somehow or something. There are parts of 2010 that I want to proudly parade around. There are parts I'd like to toss back into the confines of my own personal memory banks of my brain and look back on when I'm farther removed from 2010 and consider my growth since then. I'd actually like to remove it from the ball and change the shape but it's in the past and, due to lack of technology, that doh has gone hard and can't be re-shaped. And then, there are the parts that I want to take out and ponder them as to what exactly they are doing in the ball...and then remind myself that, yes, it is a part of what makes up 2010 and therefore, it's in the ball. I call these 3 parts "Yay! Awesome!" "Aww crap, man!" and "Wait, what?!?!"
Unfortunately, this is all a very simple way of looking at it. The "Yay! Awesome!" part has sprinkled in with it parts of the other two.
The highlights to 2010 for me revolve around improv and reading. Some of the Improv highlights, in my opinion, in clude the new but short lived Dimensional Rift which was strong for a while but didn't survive to the fall. Joining the group going to Chicago...although I took a different workshop than everyone else that went to Chicago, I actually enjoied
the workshop I took. It involved doing a long form improv show with an audience member. Almost everyone else that went were accepted as an apprentice team members taught by a guy who, if I understand it correctly, didn't know improv well enough to teach but knew it well enough to wind up on SNL. I think John might have apprecieated the workshop I took because it wasn't until he and Keith went to Phillie in early October that he got inspiration to do a show called Special Guest Star. Special Guest Star is a long form show that John does with an audience member that, by now, he has done 4 times. My mom, pictured, was the first. Anyway, the group didn't recover from that until they took a class in May with Dave Razowsky. This was a class that, due to lack of exspierence, I wasn't able to take. And due to misunderstanding, I didn't take the workshop that I would have been able to take with him. But the spring turned into summer. Then a lot of changes started to take place between July and September.
In July, I did my last Dimensional Rift show. I also started doing the powerpoints for the shows and keeping track of show totals. Then I got to join R I Spectacular and had my first show with R I Spectacular in mid to late August. Then in September, I got to be back stage at the KCiF. Also around this time, I started to take on more responsabilities in the tech booth. But about a week before my first R I show, Nifer moved to Chicago which switched caused a lot of things to switch around schedlewised and what not. It also lead to the breaking down of some groups, like Red Rubber Ball and the new but even more shortly lived Dimensional Rift reboot. Within a month of Nifer's moved, Hannah moved to England and Patrick dropped out for school and job stuff. All of them taking with them there unique style...good news though, Nifer and Hannah still return...just few and far between.
As Summer turned into Fall, I found I got stronger in short-form games but I wasn't getting casted in longforms that much for reasons that I still need to work on. I found myself having a knack for games like Shakespeare Switch...Thank you
English major! I also got to perform in Dial-A-Show for the first time during the 2nd annual Imp Fest!
But I also, as I said, got more tech responsabilities. I wound up helping with lights for Omega Directive, Deep Space Emily, and Dictionary Soup when they performed at the Living Room...even though, unfortunately, the lights didn't help with the theater background of Kansas City. I helped set up the tech for a scripted show at the Roving Imp that dealt with traveling shows in early October. I also did the lights for Dictionary Soup and Biblioclast during Imp Fest 2. I'm proud of having done the tech for Dictionary Soup for making the appearence of the fire dance along the back wall. I'm proud of having done the tech for Biblioclast because I found and played the game. The unfortunate thing is, I have also learned that weird light things affects the focus of the camera. Live and learn.
As fall turned into late fall/early winter/holiday time, many people couldn't make it out to the Imp due mostly to prior engagements and family related stuff...and a few can't do the drive things. I wound up performing in someone's place in an elimination round of The Next Big Improv Show. Thankfully, I wound up in the middle so I didn't need to worry about getting judged...something that laid heavily on my mind the entire day that day. I also wound up performing almost once each
weekend, which is fine with me, and winding up in the tech booth a lot...a few times for the entire night, once again, fine with me.
This is winding down part one of my review of 2010 part 1, the one all about my 2010 involvement with improv. To end, I'm posting a picture of me in the Halloween show as Arthor Dent from Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy. By the way, lesson learned, while it may be good to keep your towel with you at all times, it'll just get in the way in improv scenes.

Next time: 2010 Part 2: Books, Movies and Music.