Shana Merlin's Improv Blog
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Monday, February 01, 2010
Amsterdam International Improv Festival Day 4 -7 Wrap Up
Thursday was a day for tourism. Sven got a car from the carshare, picked us up and we headed out to the countryside. We were promised the local delicacy (pancakes) but the pancake restaurant was closed when we got there. So we got some coffee in this neato but chilly restaurant on the water and waited for the group to arrive.
We walked around the little historic village and saw the windmills, waterways and bridges. Shannon and Korai impersonate a sign.
Me and the windmills.
We went to a cheese shop where they make delicious local cheeses.
What time is it, Evran from Istanbul Impro? Time to eat Cheese!
Then we went to the Wooden Clog exhibit where they had all sorts of clogs on display. Avante Garde Art Clogs.
Wedding Clogs that the groom makes by hand for his bride.
They even demonstrated how they make clogs.
And had all kinds of clogs for sale.
Even giant clogs to model in! Korai and Zaynep from Impro Istanbul:
Me and Sara: See Sara's new Amsterdam hat:
Then we drove to a small fishing village for a late lunch. The tourists were all blown away by this big boat which was turned in to a fake castle with a real horse on top!
Me on the set. Note the tulips.
Anya in costume hosting the show, with slides behind her.
Thursday night we went to this awesome blues bar that had all these posters and stickers from Austin! We danced and partied. SO fun.
Sonya par-tays!
Some of our improv musicians got to sit in with the band.
From Austin to Amsterdam! See the poster!
Me and one of my hosts, Leiselotte. To be honest, we just picked up all the glasses and such nearby for this photo.
Friday we taught a workshop on Big Stories, Small Cast. We focused on characters, edits, ensemble, and story structure. It was a little intimidating because so many experienced improvisers and teachers were taking the class.
We walked around the little historic village and saw the windmills, waterways and bridges. Shannon and Korai impersonate a sign.
Me and the windmills.
We went to a cheese shop where they make delicious local cheeses.
What time is it, Evran from Istanbul Impro? Time to eat Cheese!
Then we went to the Wooden Clog exhibit where they had all sorts of clogs on display. Avante Garde Art Clogs.
Wedding Clogs that the groom makes by hand for his bride.
They even demonstrated how they make clogs.
And had all kinds of clogs for sale.
Even giant clogs to model in! Korai and Zaynep from Impro Istanbul:
Me and Sara: See Sara's new Amsterdam hat:
Then we drove to a small fishing village for a late lunch. The tourists were all blown away by this big boat which was turned in to a fake castle with a real horse on top!
There were also birds everwhere. Herons were very common and not afraid of people:
We were so hungry by this point of the day, Sara and I just chowed down on whatever food we could find.
That evening we went back to the theater for dinner. And then got ready to do the Music Night Show. This was a really different way of thinking about directing an improv show and I really liked it. Basically the director (in this case, Anya) set upights set, props, music (a full band), video, host character and script. Improvisers only know the general idea of the show and that we should sing songs when prompted. The theme of this show was the history of Amsterdam and Anya's character was in a tuxedo, top hat and mustache. It was a wonderful way to have a strong show from a mixed cast, to inspire the players, and to make posiible to really improvise with pre-set pieces that couldn't emerge organically.
That evening we went back to the theater for dinner. And then got ready to do the Music Night Show. This was a really different way of thinking about directing an improv show and I really liked it. Basically the director (in this case, Anya) set upights set, props, music (a full band), video, host character and script. Improvisers only know the general idea of the show and that we should sing songs when prompted. The theme of this show was the history of Amsterdam and Anya's character was in a tuxedo, top hat and mustache. It was a wonderful way to have a strong show from a mixed cast, to inspire the players, and to make posiible to really improvise with pre-set pieces that couldn't emerge organically.
The Band
Me on the set. Note the tulips.
Anya in costume hosting the show, with slides behind her. 
The second act was the amazing Kolectiv Narabov with Alenka and Sonya. The had 20 phone books hanging from the ceiling to inspire their character peices, supported by slapstick, movement work, and music. Funny, arty, amazing. Here is Alenka.
Thursday night we went to this awesome blues bar that had all these posters and stickers from Austin! We danced and partied. SO fun.
Sonya par-tays!
Some of our improv musicians got to sit in with the band. 
Sonya and Alenka bust a move.
Sara makes a friend. Note: the "He Ain't Kinky, He's My Governor" sticker at the top of the photo.
From Austin to Amsterdam! See the poster!
Me and one of my hosts, Leiselotte. To be honest, we just picked up all the glasses and such nearby for this photo. 
Friday we taught a workshop on Big Stories, Small Cast. We focused on characters, edits, ensemble, and story structure. It was a little intimidating because so many experienced improvisers and teachers were taking the class.
Students playing Remembering Together in pairs around the room.
Shannon and I demonstrating a internally narrated split scene
After the workshop, we had a nice stroll back to the theater. Our Dutch friends bought Shannon some raw herring from a street vendor. Despite his face in this photo, he did really like it.
The first half of the shows was the Facebook Serial and This is How We Do It: a short form show exploring differences: male/female, tall/short, sensitive/insensitive, Turkish/Dutch, etc. It was surprising how much of the Dutch shows and people were comfortable discussing race, class, and difference.
The first half of the shows was the Facebook Serial and This is How We Do It: a short form show exploring differences: male/female, tall/short, sensitive/insensitive, Turkish/Dutch, etc. It was surprising how much of the Dutch shows and people were comfortable discussing race, class, and difference. The second half of the show was the Astrid Lindgren show. I felt pretty ill-prepared since I have very little knowledge of the genre, missed the first day of workshop because of my injury, and was working with people I had only met days before. But I ended up having a lot of fun. I turned out to be the hero and was trying to play the "anarchist character" they had taught us about. Someone who has a good heart but sees the world differently and often gets in to trouble because of it. Friendship is also very important to the genre, so I made sure to have a good friend, Maria, played by my host Leiselotte. Per played my father and we even got to sing. It was hard to play a child in an un-ironic style and time period without things turning in to Disney. But it was a good challenge.
Friday the after party was karaoke. Loads of fun. When we were ready to head home, it started snowing again. Here is Sara in front of the Rozen Theater in the snow with a back pack full of puppets.
Saturday was our last full day in town. We taught another workshop. This time, Special Effects to newer improvisers. Then we had another nice walk home, stopping in some stores and galleries and in the Leidesplien to see the Boom Chicago theater.
That night the first act shows were the finale of the Facebook Feuillton and The Troubadour, where the narrator is singing (though anybody can steal his hat and tag in) and the rest of the actors are acting out the medieval story. I had a ton of fun playing a brutal Knight that set out to defeat the Invincible Monk.
The second half was The Disaster Movie. Where Shannon led the full cast in an adventure through the Amsterdam Airport (which is below sea level) being flooded. Very fun to have everyone on stage at the end of the festival. The highlight was the whole cast serving as the luggage conveyor belt that the survivors rode on to safety.
The last night the party was a masquerade party at the theater with dancing, fortune tellers, storytelling and costumes. A grand time, but hard to say goodbye to so many wonderful new friends. At the end of the night, we stepped outside to get a Get Up photo in front of the theater.
I hope we can bring some of our new international friends to Austin and share all the good stuff with our old improv friends at home.
Amsterdam International Improv Festival Day 2 - 4 Wrap Up
I am back home from our amazing Amsterdam trip. I have never been to a festival so geared toward the enjoyment, education, and care of the participants. I highly recommend this experience to any improviser in the world and hope I can go back again someday.
So as you can tell, I definitely recovered well from my medical incident. I'm feeling fine and my face is looking better every day. See:
I didn't get to fill you in on what happened Monday. In the afternoon we had a workshop on Disaster Movie, which we were all to perform on the closing night of the festival. Monday evening we had dinner and then a show where each group in the festival was briefly interviewed and then got to do a 20 minute set to show a little bit about what they do and their style.
They take the hosting very seriously and each night the hosts got dressed up in fabulous costumes. Here is Shannon and I getting interviewed by Hank. Notice the costumes and the height difference.
We performed The Adventurers, our 1930's Indiana Jones style adventure serial. It was a fun show, but with a distinctive fast talking style that did not go over that well with an international audience. They only understood about 60% of the show. So my puns and mixed up aphorisms were lost on them. It was interesting that most of the Dutch described our show as very verbal, when in Austin, I think we are one of the more physical troupes in town. In this scene Katarina Von Eivel is interrogating Maurice Kincaid:
On Monday we also realized that our new friend Sven was Michael Joplin's (and Shannon's) Dutch Doppelganger!!!
Tuesday you've already head about for the most part. After spending the afternoon resting, we went in to town for dinner and to catch the evening's shows. Everyone was very sweet and sympathetic, but I wasn't that eager to have all the attention.
That night I got to watch the shows:
The opening of the Facebook Feuilleton: a serial where there were episodes every night of the festival. It was a great idea and fun to watch all week. The performers started by getting suggestions to inspire their characters, then we met their characters through their Facebook Status updates, then we saw scenes of the characters interacting. Shannon performed in this show as Bruce McGovern, a lonely aspiring professional Wii Bowler.
Here's an opening tableau from the show. Notice the host's beautiful outfit.
The next act was the troupe from Sweden, Stockholms Improvisationsteater doing Tales from the North, inspired by traditional rural stories and settings. It was a fabulous show, like a Swedish Get Up with singing. They started with narration, went in to scene work, and sometimes into singing. But it was a slower, bleaker pace, yet still engaging and hilarious.
I really enjoyed the friendship I developed with Per and Janne during the week. Here they are, before their show. We were all told to bring colorful outfits, since the theater is a black box. Since they normally wear dark colors, they brought these plaid shirts for performance, fitting for the old stories of the North.
After the show there was an open stage, lead by the amazing, larger than life Marijn. It was probably the best festival jam I've ever seen. Istanbul Impro led a singing competition, then something else, then I led a triple dance diamond. Great. Here is the band for the jam, with Marijn on the left.
It had been a long day, so I went home straight after the show.
Wednesday we went to the Astrid Lundgren (Swedish author of Pippi Longstocking) workshop, to learn about the longform we'd be performing on Friday night. It was a good workshop, though even these experienced improvisers had a hard time letting things be positive and normal in the opening of the show. (The classroom scene was full of cut-ups and clowns, etc).
After a quick lunch at the theater, Sara and I went to the Van Gogh Museum, like we were supposed to the day before. It was very nice, seeing all his works in chronological order, along with his influences, letters, etc. There was even the actual vase that was featured in a still life of flowers. We sat in the museum cafe afterwards to relax and see the snowy museum square.
Then we walked around the square and the ice skating rink and hopped no the bus to the theater for dinner. After dinner we did a tech rehearsal for the Get Up show that night. Here is our dressing room door!
The first half of the show was Smashing Shortforms, featuring players from all the countries. Sara played with Jim Libby, an ex pat living in Austria, to represent the USA. The women from Slovenia rocked the opening with a clown version of Dolphin Training. The Dutch teams had some amazing singing and a choreographed Jump and Justify game that was completely new to me, but to them was an old standard.
The second half was all Get Up. The track the audience picked was from the medieval folder and had some bagpipes. So the audience suggested kilts, whiskey, and revolution. Shannon put the show in the American Colonies with Scottish and Irish settlers. It became an epic 3 way battle between the Scotch/Irish Colonists, the British Imperialist, and the Native Americans. It was a great show in that it really represented our work and our goals for the show: multiple characters, edits, physical storytelling, slower pace, theme, symbolism, epic, etc.
Here I am as the strong headed son of the Indian Chief, leading my people in to battle and putting on war paint:
Here is the Indian Chief with his soon to be bride, an Irish barmaid who had run away from her village.
After the show, we went to a tiny local bar that we filled up with festival people. The owner brought snacks around on trays. As the night got later, the Amsterdam songs came on louder and louder as she got on the microphone and sang songs and the crowd joined in.
Sven, Sara and Marijn having a good time.
So as you can tell, I definitely recovered well from my medical incident. I'm feeling fine and my face is looking better every day. See:
I didn't get to fill you in on what happened Monday. In the afternoon we had a workshop on Disaster Movie, which we were all to perform on the closing night of the festival. Monday evening we had dinner and then a show where each group in the festival was briefly interviewed and then got to do a 20 minute set to show a little bit about what they do and their style.
They take the hosting very seriously and each night the hosts got dressed up in fabulous costumes. Here is Shannon and I getting interviewed by Hank. Notice the costumes and the height difference.
We performed The Adventurers, our 1930's Indiana Jones style adventure serial. It was a fun show, but with a distinctive fast talking style that did not go over that well with an international audience. They only understood about 60% of the show. So my puns and mixed up aphorisms were lost on them. It was interesting that most of the Dutch described our show as very verbal, when in Austin, I think we are one of the more physical troupes in town. In this scene Katarina Von Eivel is interrogating Maurice Kincaid:
On Monday we also realized that our new friend Sven was Michael Joplin's (and Shannon's) Dutch Doppelganger!!!
Tuesday you've already head about for the most part. After spending the afternoon resting, we went in to town for dinner and to catch the evening's shows. Everyone was very sweet and sympathetic, but I wasn't that eager to have all the attention.
That night I got to watch the shows:
The opening of the Facebook Feuilleton: a serial where there were episodes every night of the festival. It was a great idea and fun to watch all week. The performers started by getting suggestions to inspire their characters, then we met their characters through their Facebook Status updates, then we saw scenes of the characters interacting. Shannon performed in this show as Bruce McGovern, a lonely aspiring professional Wii Bowler.
Here's an opening tableau from the show. Notice the host's beautiful outfit.
The next act was the troupe from Sweden, Stockholms Improvisationsteater doing Tales from the North, inspired by traditional rural stories and settings. It was a fabulous show, like a Swedish Get Up with singing. They started with narration, went in to scene work, and sometimes into singing. But it was a slower, bleaker pace, yet still engaging and hilarious.
I really enjoyed the friendship I developed with Per and Janne during the week. Here they are, before their show. We were all told to bring colorful outfits, since the theater is a black box. Since they normally wear dark colors, they brought these plaid shirts for performance, fitting for the old stories of the North.
After the show there was an open stage, lead by the amazing, larger than life Marijn. It was probably the best festival jam I've ever seen. Istanbul Impro led a singing competition, then something else, then I led a triple dance diamond. Great. Here is the band for the jam, with Marijn on the left.
It had been a long day, so I went home straight after the show.
Wednesday we went to the Astrid Lundgren (Swedish author of Pippi Longstocking) workshop, to learn about the longform we'd be performing on Friday night. It was a good workshop, though even these experienced improvisers had a hard time letting things be positive and normal in the opening of the show. (The classroom scene was full of cut-ups and clowns, etc).
After a quick lunch at the theater, Sara and I went to the Van Gogh Museum, like we were supposed to the day before. It was very nice, seeing all his works in chronological order, along with his influences, letters, etc. There was even the actual vase that was featured in a still life of flowers. We sat in the museum cafe afterwards to relax and see the snowy museum square.
Then we walked around the square and the ice skating rink and hopped no the bus to the theater for dinner. After dinner we did a tech rehearsal for the Get Up show that night. Here is our dressing room door!
The first half of the show was Smashing Shortforms, featuring players from all the countries. Sara played with Jim Libby, an ex pat living in Austria, to represent the USA. The women from Slovenia rocked the opening with a clown version of Dolphin Training. The Dutch teams had some amazing singing and a choreographed Jump and Justify game that was completely new to me, but to them was an old standard.
The second half was all Get Up. The track the audience picked was from the medieval folder and had some bagpipes. So the audience suggested kilts, whiskey, and revolution. Shannon put the show in the American Colonies with Scottish and Irish settlers. It became an epic 3 way battle between the Scotch/Irish Colonists, the British Imperialist, and the Native Americans. It was a great show in that it really represented our work and our goals for the show: multiple characters, edits, physical storytelling, slower pace, theme, symbolism, epic, etc.
Here I am as the strong headed son of the Indian Chief, leading my people in to battle and putting on war paint:
Here is the Indian Chief with his soon to be bride, an Irish barmaid who had run away from her village.
After the show, we went to a tiny local bar that we filled up with festival people. The owner brought snacks around on trays. As the night got later, the Amsterdam songs came on louder and louder as she got on the microphone and sang songs and the crowd joined in.
Marijn and the bar owner singing some songs:
Sven, Sara and Marijn having a good time. 
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Amsterdam Day 3: Medical Edition
After a late night ride home on the night bus, we got to bed around 3am. I woke up at 8am to get ready to meet Shannon at the Van Gogh museum, before anyone else in the apartment was awake. Everyone here is really tall, and the house is built for them. So I had to climb up on the counter to get the cereal for my breakfast. In the shower, I was reaching up to adjust the shower head when it slipped and fell and hit my head. I went to pick it up and saw in the reflection of the hand held showerhead that I was bleeding. A lot. So I started to freak out. I finished my shower and woke up my host, Ilona, for help. We looked at it and we were worried because although the cut on my cheek wasn't deep, it was wide. She offered to call her doctor and got an appointment for me in 20 minutes.
Sara got up with all the noise and saw me and said, "Did I do that to you?!? In my sleep?!" I told her now, I got hit by the shower head. Sara called and texted Shannon while we got ready to go.
I took a quick pic:
We went to the doctor, who said it would need stitches. That's when I lost it and started crying, being upset about getting stitches in my face in a foreign country when I'm supposed to be performing at the festival. I remembered advice my mom gave me the last time I got stitches: the doctor is okay, the dermatologist is better, and the plastic surgeon is best. I was scared about getting a scar, so I asked the doctor if he would refer me to a plastic surgeon. I felt very vain and very american, but it's my face so whatever. He said he could take care of it himself and there was no guarantees with a surgeon, but he wouldn't try to convince me to let him treat me. Then he called the hospital to refer me to the surgeon and gave me a letter to give them at the hospital. Then his intern cleaned it up and covered the wound.
We took the metro to the hospital and when we checked in at the emergency room the receptionist was fairly rude, told us there were lots of traumas that day and she couldn't tell us when we would be helped, but that it would be a long time. I tried to settle in for a long wait in the ER, but a nurse called us back in about 20 minutes. She said it was a good cut because it was a clean line along the grain of my skin: better for healing. But it probably needed stitches. So I waited some more in the exam room and sulked.
Then a surgical nurse came in with great news: they could glue it closed! No stitches! I was so relieved. Then the surgeon came in and glued it shut and I could barely feel it.
Afterwards Sara took me to a bakery and we got some well deserved treats.
I'm resting up this afternoon and skipping the classes. I'll see how I feel tomorrow if I'm ready to do the show. The Doctor said to keep it try for 2 days, leave the bandage on as long as possible and not put anything on it. So Sara and I are hanging out at the apartment, watching Jersey Shores and hanging out until we go to the theater for dinner tonight.
Sara and Ilona were such big helps today and I am so grateful to be with them.
Sara got up with all the noise and saw me and said, "Did I do that to you?!? In my sleep?!" I told her now, I got hit by the shower head. Sara called and texted Shannon while we got ready to go.
I took a quick pic:
We went to the doctor, who said it would need stitches. That's when I lost it and started crying, being upset about getting stitches in my face in a foreign country when I'm supposed to be performing at the festival. I remembered advice my mom gave me the last time I got stitches: the doctor is okay, the dermatologist is better, and the plastic surgeon is best. I was scared about getting a scar, so I asked the doctor if he would refer me to a plastic surgeon. I felt very vain and very american, but it's my face so whatever. He said he could take care of it himself and there was no guarantees with a surgeon, but he wouldn't try to convince me to let him treat me. Then he called the hospital to refer me to the surgeon and gave me a letter to give them at the hospital. Then his intern cleaned it up and covered the wound.
We took the metro to the hospital and when we checked in at the emergency room the receptionist was fairly rude, told us there were lots of traumas that day and she couldn't tell us when we would be helped, but that it would be a long time. I tried to settle in for a long wait in the ER, but a nurse called us back in about 20 minutes. She said it was a good cut because it was a clean line along the grain of my skin: better for healing. But it probably needed stitches. So I waited some more in the exam room and sulked.
Then a surgical nurse came in with great news: they could glue it closed! No stitches! I was so relieved. Then the surgeon came in and glued it shut and I could barely feel it.
Afterwards Sara took me to a bakery and we got some well deserved treats.
I'm resting up this afternoon and skipping the classes. I'll see how I feel tomorrow if I'm ready to do the show. The Doctor said to keep it try for 2 days, leave the bandage on as long as possible and not put anything on it. So Sara and I are hanging out at the apartment, watching Jersey Shores and hanging out until we go to the theater for dinner tonight.
Sara and Ilona were such big helps today and I am so grateful to be with them.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Amsterdam Day 1
Such an excellent start to the Amsterdam International Improv Festival.
Shannon and I arrived at 8:30 Am on Sunday morning and our host, Ilona, was there with a poster to greet us. Here is Sara and Ilona holding the sign at our host's apartment in suburban Amsterdam
Our Host Kitty Gato:
I took a little nap and then we went in to Amsterdam to walk around a bit in the cold near the theater.
Here's me in front of the theater.
Then we went to the Rosen Theater at 3pm for Coffee, Tea, and homemade treats. Everyone was introduced by the festival organizer, Anke.
Then we had some icebreaker games led by a local teacher who works with at risk youth, college students, and multicultural groups. There was a focus on the international nature of the festival. We played some physical games, brain fart games, and games exploring prejudice and stereotype. In one game we had to very quickly put our hand on the shoulder of the person in the group we thought was most likely to "____" We didn't know anybody, so we just had to make snap decisions. Later people from each country watched as the other groups impersonated their culture. Then you got to say what they got right and what they got wrong. It was a lot of fun.
Then we had a soup course and the festival organizers went over the week's schedule. Then we went back in the theater for games, this time anyone could lead them. I really liked this rock paper scissors game where everyone who lost instantly became the cheerleader of the person who beat them, supporting them in the next round of competition.
Then we had a main course, again all cooked from scratch by festival volunteers in the kitchen and dining room of the theater. After dinner we were invited out to a nearby pub, but we decided to make it an early night, get some good rest, so we'd be ready to party for the rest of the week.
Shannon and I arrived at 8:30 Am on Sunday morning and our host, Ilona, was there with a poster to greet us. Here is Sara and Ilona holding the sign at our host's apartment in suburban Amsterdam
Our Host Kitty Gato:
I took a little nap and then we went in to Amsterdam to walk around a bit in the cold near the theater.
Here's me in front of the theater.
Then we went to the Rosen Theater at 3pm for Coffee, Tea, and homemade treats. Everyone was introduced by the festival organizer, Anke.
Then we had some icebreaker games led by a local teacher who works with at risk youth, college students, and multicultural groups. There was a focus on the international nature of the festival. We played some physical games, brain fart games, and games exploring prejudice and stereotype. In one game we had to very quickly put our hand on the shoulder of the person in the group we thought was most likely to "____" We didn't know anybody, so we just had to make snap decisions. Later people from each country watched as the other groups impersonated their culture. Then you got to say what they got right and what they got wrong. It was a lot of fun.
Then we had a soup course and the festival organizers went over the week's schedule. Then we went back in the theater for games, this time anyone could lead them. I really liked this rock paper scissors game where everyone who lost instantly became the cheerleader of the person who beat them, supporting them in the next round of competition.
Then we had a main course, again all cooked from scratch by festival volunteers in the kitchen and dining room of the theater. After dinner we were invited out to a nearby pub, but we decided to make it an early night, get some good rest, so we'd be ready to party for the rest of the week.
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