12th
Guest Writer: Caspar Schjelbred (Paris)
Caspar Schjelbred is a Dane who has made France his home. Specializing in physical comedy and drama, he is the artistic director of Paris’ The Improfessionals and the co-director of Impro Academy.
There’s a lot of shit on stage in the world of improvised theatre. Why? Because we’re trained to pay more attention to others and what goes on around us than to ourselves. We are trained to react. Most improvisers are highly advanced pavlovian dogs. Trained to rely on other people’s offers, suggestions, set ups, game structures.
It can be amusing for a while. The new dog is interesting because he’s a new dog. New face, new way of wagging his tail. But soon you find that his reactions are more or less the same as the others. It’s the same walk around the block. Improvisers behave as if they were on a leash. They don’t take their freedom and run!
Imagine the improviser dog in an unfenced garden. Beyond are fields, creeks, lush vegetation, plenty of trees - a haven to explore. The garden is full of tennis balls, s(h)ticks, rubber toys, all the stuff that dogs enjoy playing around with. Someone in the garden throws a ball. It goes outside the usual boundaries. Many improvisers don’t even see the ball out there. It simply disappears. One dog follows the ball in the air for a second, then quickly picks up one of the other toys. Another improviser dog runs after it, but stops at the edge of the garden. And there he stands, barking. Few dogs dare run after that ball. Few of those who do run after it actually brings it back into the garden. They run away.
We desperately need the cool cats. More feline qualities.
Previous guests: Sean Michaels, Kareem Badr, RobYn Slade, Ian Parizot, Rachel Klein, Dave Morris, Alex Wlasenko, From the old blog
