Long Form Improvisation has always
been a major interest of Loose Screws since our inception many years ago. The
purpose of this page is to provide some information regarding our involvement
with the improv form including our experiments and our productions. This
section also details the history of Loose Screws, as some of it pertains to our
forays into Long Form Improvisation.
THE EARLY DAYS (1993 - 1994)
In the summer of 1993 Lyn Ackerman,
manager of the now defunct performance space The Lizard Loft, contacted Harry
Wong III about forming an improvisational group to perform several times a
month at her space. Wong, excited about the idea but engaged in previous
commitments passed on the request to R. Kevin Doyle.
For some time now Doyle had taken over
coaching a free improvisation workshop initiated by Erny Figueroa at the
The group, which included Britton Adams,
Robert Bell, Stephanie Curtis (now Conching), David Oshima, Gabby Mendelsohn,
Eric Schmiedl, Eden Lee Murray, Mike De Ycaza, Sean T.C. O’Malley, and
Figueroa, debuted in July 1993.
Doyle introduced the group with fourtwo-hour performances in the beginning with O’Malley opening each performance
with original songs on the guitar. The shows consisted of a “cabaret style”
long form entitled A Turn of a Loose Screw. This show asked the audience
for a location and quirks for each member. The group would then perform a
single character based on these quirks for the first act and for rest of the
show. Through game scenes each character would try to incriminate each other of
a murder until the lights went out. At that time everyone was given a piece of
paper. Whoever received the “X” that character would die.
For the second act Britton Adams, the
detective, valiantly tried to recreate the events leading up to the murder with
the help of the audience to determine the guilty party. Reviews were mixed. A
Turn of a Loose Screw was not the success anyone in Loose Screws hoped it
would be, with only a week of preparation and no formal understanding of the
differences between short and long form improvisation under their belts.
However, the group decided that it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to stick to this
“cabaret style” of improv for a while until they got the hang of things.
The New Commedia (1994 - 1995)
To great dismay, The Lizard Loft
closed their doors in early Februray 1994. The first group of Loose Screws had
some interesting times in the past few months. Between their debut in July and
the end of the Lizard Loft Loose Screws went through several membership
transitions. After the first four performances, Curtis (Conching), Doyle, and
Schmiedl took a leave of absence from the group to work on another show.
In Loose Screw’s final month at the Lizard
Loft, the group added Leigh Callahan and David Rosner. This looked like the end
for Loose Screws, but it just so happened that the
The New Commedia - Training and Development
By this time, Curtis (Conching),
Doyle and O’Malley realized that there was more to long-form performance than
doing extended versions of cabaret games (ironically The New Commedia still
used aspects of cabaret games, though they were better hidden than in A Turn
of a Loose Screw). Several sources were used in developing The New
Commedia as each member did their part; Future Screw Tony Pisculli exposed
Doyle to Truth in Comedy by Del Close, Charna Halpern and Kim
"Howard" Johnson. O’Malley researched Augusto Boal, Fo, and the
invaluable Impro by Keith Johnstone, and Curtis (Conching) focused on
developing a strong structure for this form.
During the training period, The New
Commedia group focused on developing stock characters. Each member of the
group formed 3-7 character "skeletons" that could be fleshed out in a
performance through the use of a "spine," or overall objective. At
first, the group focused on games that were presumably aimed at developing
characters, but found these to be of limited use. It was far more useful to
discover characters within scene improvisations, to base them on animals, or to
observe people in real life.
Other training included exercises such as
the Conflict Scene from Truth in Comedy, and even attempted some
psuedo-Harolds. The group also experimented with various editing and directing
techniques; though this did not usually get much more advanced than "Don’t
speak at the same time," and "don’t leave the stage blank." Word
and Phrase association games were also an important element of training and
company building. It was at this time that Curtis (Conching) introduced the
concept of "the Golden Nubbie" to describe the theme of an
association circle. Basically, imagine an umbrella. Each spoke of the umbrella
shoots down from a central point and lodges itself firmly in the brain of one
of the seven performers. At the central point, holding the spokes together is a
golden Nubbie. Loose Screws also uses the term "seed" to describe
this central idea.
The New Commedia – Lazzi
A final point of some interest in the development ofThe New Commedia was the introduction of the lazzi. In
traditional commedia dell’arte, the lazzi were standardized bits
of comic business that could be introduced at any time in the action. In The
New Commedia, lazzi were mostly an excuse to introduce cabaret style
events into the show. While several lazzi were New Commedia
specific, several more came from cannon of cabaret games. Some of these adapted
cabaret games included Flashback (where the phrase "I remember
when…" sends the scene back to an earlier time), Rashomon (similar
to Flashback, except we see the same flashback from three perspectives),
and Slide Show (and its twin, Video, where a character on stage
introduces new information through the use of the old Slide Show games).
Non-cabaret lazzi were harder to find.
This Isn’t a Whatever involved a
player responding to another with the phrase "This isn’t a [fill in the
blank]," at which point that’s exactly what the scene turned into. For
example, saying "This isn’t a Tarantino movie" might result in a
sudden, violent shoot-out in which all the bullets miss the two people on
stage.
Monologue was both an editing
technique and a lazzi. Basically, an offstage character would walk in
front of the scene (which would freeze as soon as s/he started talking) and
deliver a monologue on pretty much any subject. The players in the scene would
immediately incorporate some element of this monologue into their scene. There
were about ten other lazzi, but these give you a basic idea of how they
were developed and employed within the show. Naturally, it was important for
the players in a scene with lazzi to use the information to move the
scene forward.
The New Commedia - Structure
After six months of rehearsal, The New
Commedia structure was more or less cemented as follows:
Audience Suggests a Seed - A
section of the audience associates a word or phrase off this Seed, and five
more audience sections associate off of each previous association. Actors take
the stage and develop spine statements ("My Character wants to
[fill in the blank]") based on the associations. They walk around, getting
into stock character as the Emcee solicits a location, a fairy tale, a first
line and a last line, then joins the players in walking around getting into
character. One by One, each character walks forward and introduces itself by
stating, in character, "I want to _____, like in that story [audience
suggested fairy tale]." The idea was that the different perspectives
on the fairy tale would provide the audience and the other performers with
information about each character. After telling the story, the character would
freeze and another character would introduce itself.
When all seven characters had introduced
themselves:
Supermarket scene #1 - In this scene, we meet all the characters at the
audience-suggested location. The scene begins with the audience supplied first
line. They set up relationships amongst each other and, ideally, a "big
event" that will bring them together later. This segues into the first set
of scenes:
Scenes
1-3: - Two of
these scenes were two person scenes, one a three-person scene. No character
that appeared in one scene would appear in another. Alliances were formed and
the plot was aimed, ideally, at some future event. These scenes could occur at
any location and frequently usedlazzi. This led to:
Big News scene - This was a round robin scene, which involved every
character in a single location (not necessarily the original one). The first
pair of characters would enter, and one would label the other with some
hitherto unknown trait (typically a physical or mental quirk). The character
that did the labeling would leave, and a third character would enter, whom the
remaining character would label. The most recently labeled character would
remain on stage, and each character would enter until everyone had been labeled
with a new trait.
This would
lead into:
Scenes 4-6- Again, two 2 person and one 3 person scene, as per Scene
1-3. This would in turn lead to:
Big Event! - Each character would enter this final scene with a piece of
news or information that topped the previous person’s news. Typically, this
scene ended with a bomb exploding. Supermarket Scene Redux -The initial
supermarket scene was replayed using the changes in character established
through the whole New Commedia. The improv was over when the audience-suggested
last-line was spoken.
The New Commedia - Comments
The New Commedia’s initial run was from
The structure ofThe New Commedia tended
to be constricting. New characters were difficult to develop and the inability
for characters in one scene to interact with characters in another scene
resulted in a lot of plots, which, in turn, resulted in all the characters
being blown up night after night.
Some critics felt that the show also
needed to turn to the audience again once the show had started, as the initial
suggestions were the only ones solicited from the crowd. On the other hand, the
show was a tremendous popular success. The strongest example of The New
Commedia was transcribed from video by Sean T. C. O’Malley. Even Tony
Pisculli, frequent audience member and future Loose Screw, wrote a paper about
it.
Our "Harold" Period and the Commediette (1995 - 96)
The cast of The New Commedia
officially became Loose Screws Mark II (second version) at
Loose Screws primary venue during this
period was Ward Rafters, a lovely attic playing space in a residential area of
Basically, this was the same as the New
Commedia with a few less scenes. The core of the group decided that this
would be a good time to pursue the Harold as a long-form performance. FollowingTruth in Comedy pretty religiously, Loose Screws started performing
Harolds as the second half of their cabaret shows in the summer of 1995. The
audience reaction ran the gamut from tremendous enthusiasm to something
resembling the scene in "This is Spinal Tap" when the group performs
Jazz Odyssey.
Our one non-standard addition to the
Harold was the use of Rick Murphy’s sound game as an opener. Mr. Murphy had
conducted a two-day workshop in this period on sound-scaping and other improv
techniques. The Sound Game involved asking a person how they felt, and starting
a rhythm based on their response ("Blake feels Happy"). This
technique became vital to Loose Screws in developing The Wake.
The group continued performing Harolds,
though with less and less enthusiasm, as it could not compete with the quick
rush of cabaret laughs for performer satisfaction. The group started to break
into two factions, those who favored cabaret games and those who favored long
form work. Even with those differences Loose Screws pushed on.
The Wake(1996)
As Webster and
In its first incarnation, The Wake
took a cliché (for example ‘Dogs of War") and a movement phrase. Using
Rick Murphy’s sound game as a rhythmic starter, this new form would develop
into an abstract series of images and some words around the cliché and phrase.
The form was named The Wake for several reasons, including the idea of a
boat leaving its trail in the water, the idea of waking up from a dream, and
the idea of watching for the dead (the first few wakes had a ghostly quality to
them).
“The Wake” was presented once for an
invited audience at
As of March 1996, Loose Screws has been
discussing further exploration in this movement form for now.
Brainstormers - History(1996 - 1997)
With
During the spring and fall of 1996,
Pisculli’s research into interactive theatre had led he and Doyle to teaching a
form of improv called "endowment improv" in the Sunday workshops.
This form of improvisation allowed for more satisfying long-form scenes and
better quality time-slide work. Pisculli also looked into the work of Dan
Goldstein, such as Commedia Dell’High School and SITCOM. This research, coupled
with the new scene work techniques, led to the development of O’Malley’s Brainstormers.
Rather than putting the cabaret gigs on
hold while staging this new long form, the Core decided to audition both
current Screws and new people into the show. Any members of the Screws who did
not participate in Brainstormers would still be available for other
gigs.
After this audition process, O’Malley cast
Michelle Dela Cruz, Julia Gilman and Shannon Winpenny. They, along with active
Screws Anderson, Doyle and Pisculli, would form the Brainstormers group.
Sadly,
Brainstormers - Training and
Development
The initial work of the Brainstormers
group was largely based on playwriting technique. The endowment scene work
introduced by Pisculli was used as the basis for the scene work. One technique
that proved useful in early training was "the Action story," a game
that involves telling a story as a group based on what action occurs next.
For example, if the first line is
"John is opening Mary’s mail," the next person must provide a
one-sentence action that would follow logically, perhaps "John discovers a
love letter from her old boyfriend." The next action must follow from the
previous action, and all actions must have consequences for the characters in
the story.
The Brainstormers group also worked
on "intimate contact." Up to this point, love scenes, or even close
relationships, had been played at arms length by the group. O’Malley encouraged
the members to work familiar touch and stage kissing into the mix. Perhaps as a
result, many of the “Brainstorms” were centered on romantic entanglements.
The primary emphasis on character
development in “The New Commedia” had been in developing stock characters for
later use. For Brainstormers, O’Malley wanted the group to produce
different characters every night as per the demands of the show. The primary
character exercise was called "Character Cascade". A very useful exercise
(though painful none-the-less), Character Cascade involves choosing two lines
of dialogue ("You’re standing on my foot," "So make me
move") and repeating them in pairs over and over again. The trick is,
every time you say one of the lines, you must say it as a different character,
using body, voice, attitude, status and whatever other tricks you may have to
communicate this new character. O’Malley also had the group do a nightly
question circle to help generate a company feel. The group used the Close/Halpern
exercise called "Hot Spot" as a regular energy/mental warm up.
Brainstormers - Structure
The structure of the Brainstorm
was much looser than The New Commedia. The performers would enter the
room forming a Kinetic Sculpture with weight sharing (each member would
find a place of balance on in the sculpture and freeze, with members constantly
being tagged out, which meant that weight was continually being redistributed
with sometimes catastrophic results).
While this was occurring, O’Malley would
solicit three suggestions from the audience: a name, a mood, and an
action (i.e.: something that might occur between people that has
ramifications). Once these were all provided, O’Malley would freeze the
sculpture, the group would repeat the suggestions three times, and O’Malley
would tag all but one performer out of the sculpture. O’Malley would label the
one person left on stage as the name the audience suggested.
This person would now initiate the Plot
scene. Typically a two-person scene with some other participants this scene
would employ all three suggestions from the audience, and set up a central
relationship. After the scene reached a freezing point O’Malley would ring a
bell to freeze it and solicit another name, mood and action. Two new performers
would tag in for the two frozen performers, assuming their exact positions (a
la Freeze Tag).
These two performers would now initiate
the Subplot scene, using the information provided by the audience. This
scene would typically segue back to the plot sequence by some typical
improv-editing device. At this point, O’Malley would again ring the bell and
turn to the audience. The audience would be asked to provide a first
question about what they, based on what had happened so far, were most
curious about. If necessary, different performers would tag in for the players
onstage, and the question would be answered immediately, propelling the show
into a few more scenes, during which time the plot and the subplot typically
started inter-relating (if they hadn’t already!). O’Malley would ring the bell
one final time. The audience would now be asked to provide a second question
about what they were curious about in the show.
The “Brainstorm” would then be propelled
along to a natural ending, typically by showing how the plot relationship had
changed through the course of the improvisation. One of the most valuable
improv tools employed in the “Brainstorm” was reincorporation, the idea that
things can and should be brought back. Brainstormers also offered a minimum
of outrageous information, preferring to stick a bit closer to reality than our
earlier long-form work.
Brainstormers became a popular and
critical success for Loose Screws. Read the thrilling Honolulu Star-Bulletin review,
or a feature
article complete with pictures. The work doing Brainstormers changed the way Loose
Screws approached cabaret. Basically, the techniques of reincorporation and
slow scene starts could be applied to most cabaret games, especially soft-focus
games. For the first time, Loose Screws decided to schedule a cabaret show in
an actual theatre, specifically
Loose Screws Sing!? (1998)
In the Spring of 1998, the Loose
Screws core again decided to sponsor O’Malley in the development of a new long
form improvisation, this time a musical. The basic structure of Loose Screws
Sing?!? grew out of O’Malley’s Brainstormers experiments and his
desire to confront the challenge of staging an improvised musical.
Whereas Brainstormers asked the audience for input at several different
points, Sing?!? only required input at the start of the show.
Host O’Malley would typically ask for an
“action that occurs between people that affects their lives” and then ask for
an unrelated word. Since all musicals begin with a song, and O’Malley
wanted the opening tune to occur somewhat randomly, audiences drew from a
series of colored cards. The cards dictated tempo, key, “faster, slower,
or as it is,” and the second chord in the progression. In this way Plumb
was given the basic building blocks of his opening number.
The opening number was basically a two
person song. Person A would enter in an activity and sing a simple
un-rhymed song (all songs were un-rhymed) which would follow a “A-A-B-A”
structure. Basically, A is a sung line of a certain shape and tempo, and
B is a bridge. Songs, including the opening song, required a change or
revelation about character between the first and fourth line. Typically,
the bridge was used to lead to this change. After the first person sang in
the opening number, a second character would enter and sing a different melody
to the Plumb’s music, also in an A-A-B-A structure. Both players would
sing their opening A-A-B-A structure simultaneously to end the number.
Here is an example: (Male player enters, walking "weightlessly" and
sings)
The gravity simulation chamber is the one place where I'm not a klutz
I hope I can see the general's daughter tonight at the big dance
If I can just talk to her without totally destroying the night
Then maybe I can giver this ring that my mother used to wear ... (Female
player enters, trying on shoes)
I don't know if I should wear pink ... or maybe blue ...
I hope that I see that cute private tonight at the big dance
He's so graceful ... I see him there in that gravity simulation chamber
He's so smooth when he moves across the floor.
(Male player exits chamber and stumbles. They sing the same lines
together)
In this case, the last two words of the
second line are conveniently identical, creating a cool effect when sung
together. This didn’t happen often, but was a sometimes goal of the
opening number. The opening song would immediately leap to the scene described
(in this case, the big dance), and the two characters would play a scene as perBrainstormers. A second scene would edit in with the subplot.
Any time Plumb felt like it, he could
start playing, at which point the one of the characters on stage would have to
sing. Songs could be solo’s, duets like the opening number, or
occasionally other variations. The only caveat was that the song had to
produce a revelation or relationship change. At this point scenes with songs
would edit in an out of each other continuing the story established in the
opening scenes.
When Plumb felt that an ending had been
reached, he would start playing the music from the opening scene again, at
which point the original characters would “reprise” the opening song, except
through their new altered viewpoint. For example, in the performance where
the described opening song occurred, the now no-longer-klutzy private and his
lady love were married in the course of the closing number. During the
simultaneous reprise, the other three cast members would sing some sort of
appropriate backing vocals.
The primary criticism leveled against Sing?!?
was that it avoided rhyme, and that the songs inevitably ended up sounding much
the same. However, having established the structure, further
experimentation will no doubt allow for a greater variety of songs, and the
option to rhyme. At any rate, Loose Screws Sing?!? was a popular and
critical success. (Read the Star-Bulletin feature
article.)
The 5th and 6th
Loose Screws Anniversary Shows: Hard Wood (1998)& Six Iron (1999)
Starting with our fifth anniversary
in July 1998, Loose Screws decided to put on an anniversary show. For Hard
Wood (named so because the fifth year anniversary gift was – you guessed it
– wood) the group asked the audience to bring an unusual object. The
audience gladly complied, and Kumu Kahua Theatre was filled with audience and
wood.
In July 1999, Loose Screws presented “Six
Iron.” (named so because – you guessed it again – the sixth year anniversary
gift is iron)Six Iron consisted of three sets, a short form set, a
Harold, and an “audience participation” set.
Loose Screws: Masquerade (1999)
Tony Pisculli directed the next
Loose Screws long form experiment. Pisculli, who had developed a strong
interest in Commedia dell’Arte, wished to explore masked improv due to directing
“Guano dell’Amore” for his MFA in directing. For his starting point in using
this format, Pisculli looked into Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey.”
The show format eventually used the Brainstormers
editing techniques and scene structure with a few additional changes. The
audience was encouraged to bring unusual objects. At the start of the
show, one of the objects was chosen as something that would be used in our
hero’s quest. The audience was also asked to provide another piece of
information to get the show started, but I can’t for the life of me remember
what that was.
All five performers were masked to start.
After the first few scenes, a hero was identified. At some point, an event
in the show would lead to the hero being transported to an alternate
reality. The hero would remain masked, while the other players would
remove their masks, revealing red and blue make-up underneath. These
players would generally correspond to their character in the other world (a la
“Wizard of Oz”), though they would be transformed in some way.
The alternate world could be nearly
anything; the past, an “It’s a Wonderful Life” reality; the afterlife; literally
another planet; etc. When the journey to the alternate world had somehow
transformed the character, they would now return to “reality.” The hero
would emerge in the original world mask-less, while the other players would
return in their masks. Now transformed by their experience in the other
world, the hero would solve whatever problem had been created in the
“pre-fantasy world” scene. The evening was complemented by a selection of short
form games, performed in full make-up.
The Brink (collaboration with Cabaret Tiki;
1999)
In October of ’99, Loose Screws
collaborated with a local short play group named “Cabaret Tiki.” Featuring
some instant plays, some rehearsed plays, and a variety of plays that attempted
to walk the line between script and improv, this performance will be described
in more detail at a later date.
The Last Laugh (Dec. 31, 1999)*
At the end of the year The Last
Laugh, another short form show, was the last improv show, perhaps the last
theatrical performance, of the second millennium. Yes, it is at best a
historical footnote*, but it’s ours and we’re glad to have it.
Game-o-Matic & Arena (2000 – 2001)
As a couple of new people were cast in the summer of 2001,
Loose Screws prepared to perform a silent movie style improv show. The show
never materialized. Instead, Loose Screws started a short form structure called
"Arena."
Now, Dan Kois, formerly of
ComedySportz, joined Loose Screws in the winter of 2000 and brought with him a
classic method of creating short form games calledGame-o-Matic. He also
introduced a dozen or so other ComedySportz staple games. Since there was no
desire to rip off ComedySportz directly, we developed our own competitive
improv structure - Arena.
8 players started, 1 player won. Points were determined by audience response
and by a judge. One audience members was deemed "Caesar" and had the
right to save or slay players on occasion.
The format proved to be very popular, though we only ran it for about 8 months.
We decided we wanted a better venue for our shows. Alas, such a venue was not
to appear.
Screwbuki (2003 – 2004)
By 2004, it was clear that we needed to get a new long form
show off the ground. What better way to start a new long form show than by
reviving an old one and messing with it! Through sleepless nights and long
“funfests”, Loose Screws pride and joy was born – Screwbuki. Screwbuki
was the faster, leaner version of Loose Screws Kabuki (an earlier
attempt to improvise a Japanese kabuki play). In fact, it was two different
faster, leaner versions of Loose Screws Kabuki.
Screwbuki – Sewamono & Jidamono
The first act was a sewamono or "domestic
play”. This was a play that occurred in a single location in "real
time." The group had to develop several new long form edits to make this
structure work, including a "push" edit, a hanamichi edit and a
stalker edit.
Push Edit: Similar to a slacker edit, a performer enters and
"pushes" another player out of the scene.
Hanamichi Edit: The hanamichi is a kind of ramp that leads up to a
kabuki stage. Lacking this actual bridge, we would come to the corner of the
stage and freeze in a random pose, which would indicate to the people on stage
that it was time to exit. A new scene would begin fr om the freeze.
Stalker Edit: Players would enter from upstage, overhearing what was
occurring in the previous scene. The players on stage would exit without
noticing the stalker players.
The first scene would begin with
five people on stage. A focal character would be discovered. The scene
would shrink to a two person scene, one of whom was the focal player. Thetakemoto (narrator) would identify a question surrounding the focal
character - a question that the rest of the show would attempt to answer.
A related subplot would begin shortly thereafter.
A koken (a conventionally
unseen stage assistant) would provide music and the occasional special effect.
The takemoto would provide "poetic" and literal narration and
pose questions for the players to address.
The more "fantastic" of the two shows, jidamono
followed a more "masquerade" like structure. One or more characters
would typically transform into a ghost, demon or spirit, with appropriate
make-up changes.
There were multiple locations and
scenes would sometimes leap forward years in time. Typically, the performance
ended when the ghosts were defeated - or triumphant.
Harijuku All Girl Ninja Force (2006)
A show that has potential, but for right now let us not dwell on it.
Loose Screws Today(2007 – present)
Loose Screws continues to strive on
becoming the best improvisation group they can be. We perform regular at the
first Friday of every month and develop new and exciting shows regularly. If
you would like to come to one of our shows, please sign up on our e-mailing
list on the Contact Us page.
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