Storybox Part 2: Sticks and Cloth

If you haven't yet read Storybox Part 1, it is available HERE.

As Jonathan gathered us into a circle to start our 5 hour rehearsal of Storybox I looked around and saw what a great cast had been put together. Our age range, gender mix and levels of experience were going to work together really nicely. I also noticed how everyone was really focused. I have been to a lot of workshops before where you have two thirds of the participants really paying attention, one or two have knowing smirks on their faces and the others have checked out a bit and are picking belly lint. This group was all ears and all eyes. Everyone was there ready to learn and ready to have a good time.

Jonathan started by telling us what Storybox is and how it differs from other forms of improv. This was vital to me because I do a particular style of improv ALL THE TIME and whatever was different about this from my norm I was going to have to grasp quickly lest I ruin the show that night for everyone.

I won't reveal the secrets of Storybox here in the blog but I will give the biggest difference between this style and regular long-form improv. Storybox at its core is about the story of one main character and how they CHANGE. If you aren't an improviser you can still appreciate the simplicity and difficulty that are inherent in this goal. If you watch movies and plays you can certainly figure out who the main character is and by the end of the show you should be able to see how they changed. The clarity of this point at the very top of the rehearsal was exactly what I needed for my own personal success. In long-form at Jackpie everyone is a main character and all characters are driven by wants. In Storybox all of the cast members are storytellers and they are there to change one main character.

The next phase of the rehearsal was my favorite. Jonathan brought out 10 - four foot tall, 3/4 inch wooden sticks made of sturdy dowel rod and passed out one of them to each player. He explained how we would use these sticks to give a strong visual to the audience, mark special moves within the show by pounding them on the floor and use them in combination with one another to "draw" locations and objects for the story and the audience. I have to say, the little boy in me flipped out a bit that we were going to get to play with sticks.

Jonathan told us he would give us 5 minutes and he would leave the room while we came up with 5 stage pictures using the sticks. We did this with relative ease. The group's first project together showed that all of the cast had strong brains in their skulls and we were not going to be at a loss for ideas in the workshop or in our show. Right away we started to trust each other and listen to our group "heart" as Jonathan called it. After we created a flat screen tv, a house, a raft and a few other locations we went on to our next addition... cloth.

Jonathan pulled out a big pile of different colored cloths and spread them around the room. He instructed us to do the same activing as with the sticks but to use just the cloth instead. It was slightly more difficult but we accomplished this goal as well within our alloted time and were pretty pleased with our results. The cloth worked so differently than the sticks for us. It added color and a malleable shape but lacked the strength and clean lines of the sticks.

We worked together for a third exercise using just our bodies to make locations and shapes and finally put all of these together to make use of the sticks, cloth and our bodies. It was during this time that we really saw the full potential of Storybox environment. Need a bed? Two sticks for the frame held by two storytellers, add a large draped cloth over the top and it really gave the impression of a bed. This is something that you would never see in a normal long-form show at Jackpie because we do everything in mime. The striking use of color combined with the physical strength of the cloth and sticks transformed our environment at a moments notice. If a storyteller said we were in a garden, different shades of green cloth came flying across the stage from all angles and was placed in lines and varying heights to show the rows and oranges and reds and it really did give the impression of a healthy garden.

By this point I was a hundred and fifty percent on board for the show. We hadn't even gotten to the storytelling and I was already bonded with the cast and psyched about the environment work.

I couldn't wait for our next section... luckily Jonathan only gave us 3 minute breaks every hour, so I wouldn't have to wait long :)

Coming up Next: Storybox Part 3: The Story