USS Show Review: Controlled Chaos
Posted by dandy | Filed under The Dandy, USS Show Review
A point of order: I have recently been zinged because my show reviews are, “Not very specific,” as I don’t break down specific scenes. That is a choice. Since nobody is ever going to play those scenes again I try to instead focus on the larger lessons I am learning as I go. But I will take the note and try to find more moments as I move forward.
On to the show: If I have been nit-picky in my reviews of the past two weeks, that will end now. I loved this show. Taped to the door of USS Rock N Roll’s top-secret rehearsal chamber in North Hollywood is a piece of paper with the following quote written on it, “I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.” This is a good mantra for an improviser to adopt. Last night’s show was excellent. It was not perfect.
It was big and chaotic. It moved fast much of the time and it had many full-cast moments. In shows like this listening is at a premium. Did we miss some things? Absolutely. We are not perfect. But we were excellent. When we missed, we were selfless enough to drop it and rejoin the group. That’s huge. During our notes Riki gave Dave props for this very decision. At some point during the show when we were all on stage Dave had an impulse to make a shift, but it got swallowed up. And rather than let it slow or damage the momentum, he simply and unapologetically folded back into the group and as a result we were able to go on without missing much of a beat. It is selfless play like this that defines “ensemble.” It is always about the good of the whole over the individual. Should we have seen Dave’s move? Yes. If we were perfect we would have. But we are not. We are human (most of us) and so we did the best that a human can do, we were excellent.
In rehearsal this past Sunday we worked hard on one of the most fundamental skills in improv: Listening. We all listen. But we knew we could be better at it. We wanted to be more accountable for sustained, active listening throughout the whole show. Not just the scenes we are on stage for. This is about owning your creation, all of it, and looking at all of it in this way. If each member of the cast believes that every second is equally their own we’ve got something cooking.
Last weeks rehearsal was a profound one for me. It reminded me how we are never finished with a skill. We simply move on to working on a new one in a constant effort at keeping everything in balance, in tune. But anytime you care to as an individual player, or as a team collectively, you can improve at every skill. We must be always striving to refine, to become more excellent.
The reason that I find improv such a worthy use of one’s time is that it is, as life is, entirely about the process. Improv is not end result oriented. If we try to make it be, we look foolish because the result, the show, evaporates as fast as it is created. It cannot be recreated or recaptured. It exists entirely in the now, tests your excellence in that moment alone and then is gone forever. What a beauty!
A closing thought: Last nights show had great moments of group-mind and connectedness. This is something that USS Rock N Roll puts a huge premium on. The moment that I will remember longest was a beautiful, and also horrific moment of realism and group-mind. Toward the end of the show Annie, playing a pregnant bank robber named Janet gave birth in the midst of her robbery. Bryan delivered the baby. Then Phillip walked between them. All at once, each of them saw the reality of this and realized that Phillip was stepping on the still connected umbilical cord. Simultaneously Annie screamed and dropped to her knees, Bryan lost control of the baby and Phillip reacted as Phillip might had he just stepped, accidentally, on the link between mother and newborn. That all three players, in the midst of all the chaos of the moment were connected enough to see, feel and respond honestly is group-mind. In this moment they were very excellent. (I hope that is specific enough for you Tuck.)
As ever, thank you for reading and thank you for coming to the show those who were able to make it. Have a dandy of a day!One Response to “USS Show Review: Controlled Chaos”
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Tuck Says:
December 11th, 2009 at 10:59 pmThat 'll do Dandy. That'll do.
