Comedy without nets
By Michael G. McLaughlin April 11, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Theater
Spanglish Imposition
Fri–Sat, Apr 18–19, 9pm
El Viejo Topo Café-Teatro
Stirling Dickinson 28
150 pesos

Improvisational theater descended from Commedia dell’arte (play of professional artists), which originated in sixteenth-century Italy.

At that time there were two venues for paid actors—the church and the aristocracy—so theater was very limited in subject matter and audience. Church productions were passion and moral plays and performances before the aristocracy were most certainly “class correct.” The servant never got the better of the master. Eventually actors not wanting to perform within those limitations took their show on the road and performed any place else they could make a meager living. Outside the law, outside the church, they were alive in the laughter of the people, and that laughter was their religion and their law. Their subject matter was neither morally nor politically correct. When the commedia players rolled into town, they quickly sought out local scandals, current events, the affairs of state and inserted recognizable names in their universal material for the audience. Lambasting and sa

tirizing recognizable figures and events was the meat of their performances. Of course, the actors incurred the scorn of the church and state and no doubt were jailed for provocative acts, disrupting the peace and corrupting the morals of the people. Sounds like fun, eh? The life of an improvisational actor!

Modern improvisational actors enjoy much more freedom and say things that are offensive, inappropriate and beyond the pall of good taste sometimes. As I like to say in a show’s warm up, “I apologize to anyone who might be offended by tonight’s performance. If I didn’t offend you, I also apologize. I can’t get to everyone.”

One of the questions I get most about improvisational acting is: “Hey, if you guys are improvising, making it up, how do you rehearse?” Good question. Basically we practice at freeing our minds of preconceived ideas, trusting our instincts, not judging what comes out of our mouths and adding to what is created already. Sounds easy? It isn’t. In improvising you are forced to become yourself for better and worse. It is hard enough that an improvisational actor directs, writes and choreographs his presence on stage, but he or she has another actor on stage who likewise is doing the same thing. They have to learn to cooperate to make the scene work. Unlike drama and conflict, the aim of an improvisational scene is to get along and not argue. The actor must subordinate himself to the demands of fellow actors, while giving his own abilities full freedom. His task is to control that freedom. Characters are worn very lightly in improvisation. An improv actor can never say, “My character wouldn’t say that.” Your role is to justify spontaneously the action or words of others before you.

Now the bad news. Stage actors expect their performances to be good nine times out of ten; a good improvisational performance is six out of ten. Two out of ten it’s so-so. And two out of ten it’s stinky. Failure is an option for an improvisational actor at all times. But…one is most imaginative and improvises most audaciously when in the heat of danger. When it does work, when you hit the punch line and bring down the house with laughter there is no greater feeling in the world. You and the audience are sharing the creation at the same instant, both experiencing the intimacy of the moment. You both are in on the joke. 

A good improvisational actor needs to be: Loud, fearless, apolitical, trusting, chivalrous to the other actors on stage, clever, a good listener and a smartass. Notice I didn’t say funny. Improvising is not telling jokes or trying to act funny. It will be funny if you trust in yourself and the other actor on stage. Night after night, actors go out alone on stage armed with their own imagination and creativity and try not to fall off that high wire. Comedy without nets. 

Spanglish Imposition is an improvisational comedy troupe founded in 2006 and is now in its third season. The group was started in Ajijic, Jalisco, by two veterans of improvisational theater: Jayme Littlejohn and Michael McLaughlin.

Littlejohn was a member of the Monday Night Company at Dudley Rigg’s Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis. She is an actor trained at the Tony Award-winning Children’s Theatre Company in mime, all forms of dance as well as singing, voice and acting. She is a former member of Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television & Radio Artists

McLaughlin performed over 20 years in Sacramento, California with RSVP Theater. He studied with Del Close, past director of Second City and with members of The Committee in San Francisco. He was also a member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and has appeared in films as well as the print media.

Spanglish Imposition mixes traditional improvisation with comedy sketches written by its members and the troupe sports a brand of humor uniquely their own. All the actors are full-time residents of the Lake Chapala area and have, for various reasons, escaped to Mexico—some waiting for the statute of limitations to run out before returning north. The show is a high-energy melee of fun with audience participation.

Enhance life skills through acting
By Ana María Muñoz

Acting Workshop
Wed & Fri, Apr 23–May 30, 11am–2pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25

“The Pleasure of Acting” is an improvisational acting workshop open to everyone who wants to have the experience of acting while feeling safe from fear and frustration. Acting is such a rich experience that anyone who is searching for self-expansion should try it. Several people who attended workshops in 2007 found that they were very talented and reported enhanced life skills as a result of acting.

The workshop is six weeks long, twice a week, and you will learn to improvise scenes, step by step, under the method shared by Monroe, Brando, Newman and Nicholson. This kind of improvisation is not “improv comedy” but can include either drama or comedy. Classes will begin with gentle coaching to prepare body and mind for living fictional situations as though they were true. Everyone will play scenes on stage as a part of every class, and will learn about theater appreciation through my comments, while being part of the audience. Classes will be bilingual, English and Spanish as needed.

I have coached professional and amateur actors for 22 years in Chile and Mexico. I teach organic acting through my coaching technique based on deep body work and the Actors Studio Method enriched by the Physical Action Method created by Raúl Serrano (Buenos Aires). I taught at National Center of Arts’ Acting School in Mexico City for 11 years.

After a year living in San Miguel, I direct Impulse Theater, composed of actors who attended workshops in 2007. Those who join the class will have lots of fun and find there is much more about themselves than they knew. For further information and registration, email munoz_anamaria@yahoo.ca.