The Pitt: New York Improv Theatre
The performance took place at an improvisational theater called The Pitt located on 123 E 24th St, New York, NY 10010. Improvisational art is a performance that is done mostly without preparation. There are two types of improvisational theatre; the first is short form, and the other is long form. The difference between the two is short form has members on-stage playing games with each other or exercises that last about 2 to 5 minutes. However, long form ties in multiple scenes so an entire show can unfold from an initial suggestion. An example of short form improvisational theatre would be to use a word in as many sentences as you can. This type of activity is used both in a solo or group exercise, though the long form is only for groups. Both short form and long form use audience "word" suggestions. The performance I attended was long form improvisational theatre. At The Pitt, the performers split into two separate teams, one named Merkel, and the other The Kiss Goodbye. When first walking into this place, the setting in the background had a sharpie black tint to it, a red back door (for whatever reason), and no props besides a few chairs. Each group had a total of 30 min of performance with a variety of skits, and before starting the skits each time, both teams asked the audience for assistance.
First to perform was the Merkel group (6 performers) and the word chosen by the viewers was "spice." The first scene opens up with both a man and a woman acting as if they were pouring something and eating it. They both appeared to look very comfortable with this action; then the woman says
"This spiced up our marriage!"
and the man responds with
"Yeah, who knew having curry in India could be so exotic."
The scene ends promptly with just a tap on the shoulder by the other members of the same group. Again, a new man and woman are on stage, and the man yells
"Oh no, death row!"
They both act as if they are constrained to the chair while another male character is strapping them into their seats. The woman replies with
"Our electrocuted bodies would REALLY spices up our marriage now."
The whole audience is already laughing hysterically, and the expression on the actor's faces are priceless. There is no prior back-story given on whom the characters are beside the fact that they are married, and seemed to be comfortable with already knowing what to say next. In the scenarios, they use the word "spice" as both a noun and verb by giving the audience a more relatable circumstance like marriage. Therefore the effort of making a connection between actors on stage is just as important in keeping the audience intact with the performance.
After The Merkel group finished up their skit, there was a brief intermission with the lights dimmed for several minutes. The next group to perform was The Kiss Goodbye (8 performers), and the audience used "milkshake" as the word of choice. The Kiss Goodbye had a larger group than The Merkel, so it was interesting to see how the characters used their space wisely and coincided with each other. For example, there was a scene at the beginning where one of the actors hopped onto two chairs in the center of the stage to pretend to be a milking cow. The chairs were used to dramatize a major talk, between the farmer and his cow because Betsy the cow makes the best milkshakes. The performer also savored the use of stage noise to their advantage such as banging, knocking, and off stage shouting to intensify scenes.
Before attending this show, I have never actually been to Improvisational Theatre, and honest to say I enjoyed my time. I noticed a few times that some of the actors messed up at key points and forgot where they were going with the skit. Though, I saw that many of the actors seemed to be pretty confident, which led to being more flexible in case the other character slips up. For example, there was one scene with two guys sitting, and typing either on a computer or typewriter. Neither of them spoke for several seconds until one of them turned and said
"This is hell."
The other actor did not respond for a while, and when the performer tried again
"This is hell, right?"
He immediately snapped with a response, and scene carried on. The main thing I could take away from Improvisational Theatre is that we all improvise in our daily lives, and anything in a way can be relatable in some way shape or form.
