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Award-winning play hits the road
SCSU's improvisational "The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves" won Best Ensemble Cast at regional American College Theatre Festival. Now, they take the show to local high schools to continue its success.
The John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. recently honored six SCSU actors and their director with the Meritorious Achievement Award for their Commedia dell' Arte improvisational-style production "The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves."
The judging took place at the regional conference of the American College Theatre Festival in Lincoln, Neb. in front of a large audience that found the show very humorous.
The student actors � Tracy Bergsholm, Eli Ebb, Jason Dressen, Adam Lesar, Jon Lundberg and Penny Pugh � and Professor of Theater, Brenda Wentworth received the Best Ensemble Cast award and presented a 10-minute scene at the conference.
Bergsholm, who plays Columbine, a witty nursemaid, said the audience at the conference continued to "burst in laughter." She said the audience was bigger � three times more people than the audiences the group performed to at SCSU in November.
Wentworth said when there's a bigger audience, the laughter is longer and louder, and gives the actors a sense that they are doing their job.
The award gives the actors and director "morale" to tour the area high schools this semester.
"Students who auditioned had to commit to three credits for two semesters," Wentworth said. "It's a three-hour class on Tuesday from 9 to noon. We just tell the schools we can perform any day of the week as long as it's Tuesday and any time that day as long as it's between 9 and noon."
For the high schools, "we'll have to redefine what a swear word is," Ebb said, who plays the actor Capitano. "Instead of 'crap,' we'll have to say 'darn.' We have to be selective, especially for anyone in the audience who is anal retentive."
The shows the crew performed in November at SCSU were aimed toward the college crowd. Said Bergsholm, "It was interesting and colorful and added to the characters.
"My mom liked it. We took it as a compliment if someone left the play early � usually older people would leave. We started with 25 and stuck with 16."
"We'll adapt to the location," Ebb said. Instead of the bar scene, Ebb said they might talk about the cheerleaders.
"That's what improvisational theory is," Wentworth said. "Every time they've performed, they'll (the six actors) try something new and different." There is no script to memorize.
"Thus the actors had to be thinking every time they perform," Wentworth said.
"The play changes from town to town," Ebb said. "We have to research the location, who the principal is, what the inside jokes are, so the audience will get the jokes."
Since the actors researched the characters and established their identities, the actors might keep the little quirks in behavior but come up with new jokes, Ebb said.
"We tailor to the audience," Bergsholm said.
Besides learning about the characters in depth � the actors needed to have some camaraderie and trust so they can act as a team, said Bergsholm.
"We used trust exercises like getting in a circle and getting to know one another," Bergsholm said. Another exercise was standing and then while eyes closed fall back and trust another actor would catch "the fainter."
"We got to know each other very intimately," Bergsholm said.
Can one relate improv to everyday life?
"It's a good background for any situation in life," Bergsholm said.
And as far as the scripted plays, "If someone messes up in a scripted play, you can talk your way out of it," Bergsholm said.
One can tell that Bergsholm "fell in love with it (improv.)."
Before the show, the crew will "warm up" with the audience. If someone in the audience heckles an actor, or "throws a curve ball at us, we hit back," Bergsholm said.
"Audience reaction and theory is part of the class," Wentworth said. "The actors do not let audience take control. Since they studied each character, the actors are able to react in any given situation."
Performing at area high schools is a great "recruiting technique," Wentworth said. High school students will get to know about SCSU and "we get to tour."
Bergsholm hopes to perform next year at SCSU. In the meantime, she watches "Who's Line Is It Anyway." It is what comes closest to improv for Bergsholm.
Ebb hopes to continue to produce, write, act and/or direct in some shape or form.
Tom Meyer can be reached at: [email protected]
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