RAZOR SPIRITS
The idea of using improvisation to create serious scenes is not new. Like long-form improv, it goes back at least as far as the Compass Players, if not into the primeval origins of theater, where all performance was created ad lib for the tribe.
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Several of Chicago’s more progressive improv troupes–Ed, Annoyance Theatre, Cardiff Giant, Second City’s Lois Kaz–have recently begun pushing the envelope, yearning to create something more than mere comedy. And they’ve become adept at creating characters every bit as rich and compelling as anything to come out of a method-style workshop.
It’s always hard to gauge just how much real improvisation goes into an improvised scenario. (The plot line supposedly is set and the dialogue is not–but who really knows except the actor?) Yet judging by how capable these guys are of reacting with aplomb to stage mishaps (such as the folding chair that suddenly gave way under two actors in a make-out scene), they’re either good improvisers or incredible actors.
