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| Steve and Don waiting for the action to begin. |
The weekend of June 27th was one full of fun and excitement for the Village Idiots. For the first time in over a year, the idiots got together for hours on end to learn forgotten concepts, practice rusty skills, and have tons of fun with each other.
Let's face it, it's been a bit of a rough year for the Village Idiots.
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| Steve and Curtis embrace. Irwin thinking, "Oh, to be a young man again." |
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| How much molestation can a poor pillar endure? |
This madness went on until we discovered our kindred spirit group, Bread & Water Theatre - they're our serious-theater equivalent of sorts.
We have now moved into their theater located at 172 W Main St. as artists in residence. We hope to be partners in crime for as long as possible, and have been sharing responsibilities of getting the place ready for all of our fans to enjoy!THE VILLAGE IDIOTS INTENSIVE WEEKEND
We kicked off the 3-day event with a Characters & Physicality workshop on Friday. We discovered our inner squeaky voices, monstrous strolls, and explored different ways to break the laws of physics!
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| Steve is like Superman... without any of the upper body strength. |
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| Laura, stop breaking things! |
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| Ed Keegan |
The fun was never ending and the whole experience felt like a journey from rhythm and melody to chaos and cacophony and back to pleasant music.
The whole group is already looking forward to another similar experience!
--- Thanks, Ed!
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| Irwin and Steve learning how to read. |
(¡sǝᴉɹɹǝqʍɐɹʇS :ɹǝʍsu∀)
We then had another special guest, Barry Kur, a renowned Lessac Instructor and Professor Emeritus at Penn State University. (Arthur Lessac founded the Lessac Kinesensic Training System for the Voice and Body.) Through the 6-hour Lessac for Voice and Body course, the Village Idiots explored how to create different realities with their bodies based on the potency, buoyancy, and radiancy of our actions. We then experienced how our voice truly originates from the nature of our movements and state of action. It was an innovative experience for our group that, at times, may have looked more like a hostage situation than a theatre workshop (in the words of Teacher Kur). |
| In Steve's cab, Izzie is dying and Brian just wants a compliment. |
"What kind of improv intensive would this be without the challenge of long-form?" many improvisors may ask. Well, it's not like the weekend hadn't already surpassed the expectations of the participants already, but we did want to cover as much ground as possible. So, without further ado, the Harolds & Long-Form Techniques workshop came around.
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| Swithun = security guard. Martha = "I don't care!" |
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| Curtis and Molly perform their e-commerce dance. |
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| Steve just waiting around. |
After that, we polished our musical bone with the Creating Songs workshop. Some of the evening's favorites were:
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| Swithun, Cris, Steve, and David = "Dystopia in the Key of E" |
"♪♫ ~ Old people... We can't get into our pants ~ ♫♪"
and
"♪♫ ~ Don't do crack... Uncle Joe, put that needle down ~ ♫♪"
If you'd like to listen to some of our musical hits, let us know! We're thinking about creating a completely improvised song album if the demand for it is high enough ♥
The last (but not least, by any means) event of the intensive weekend was the Sketch Writing Review workshop. The very talented improvisors also have writing chops, if you didn't already know, and because of the great ideas shared at this event we may dabble in sketch if the conditions are right. (To our fans far away from Rochester - No worries, we would probably put the videos up online instead of performing them live~)
Now that the weekend is over we realize how truly *INTENSIVE* this series of events was. Nevertheless, despite the exhaustion and burnt-out brain cells, we already have a follow-up intensive in the works. Hopefully it will be just as good or, who knows, could it get even better?
As a final note, the Village Idiots would like to thank Rachel Baumgarten for her wonderful photography skills and Molly Hill for playing with us throughout the weekend. It was clear to us that this event would not have been the same without them!
That being said, we now leave you with the complete album of the Village Idiots Intensive Pictures - Enjoy!
