FST Improv is celebrating its new campus home in Bowne’s Lab, built especially for improvisation and other creative experiments, with a program of tried-and-truly loved sketch games and techniques.
Before the show starts, audiences are asked to write famous quotations from films or TV to be possibly used in the first act. The initial improv develops a new musical based on something in a garage. Steve, Christine, and Patrick presented the show “Lawnmower,” using only one word each at a time. Nathaniel punctuated each line on the piano.
Following suggestion 2 (what don’t you want to hear in your doctor’s office?), Emily got a lot of laughs coughing -- as many as the guys did discovering scalpels on X-rays. Everyone joined in finding a psychotherapist who is psychotic: What rushing about! And things didn’t calm down when the actors demonstrated what happens when you’ve had too much to drink.
Valentine’s Day poems celebrated the event two days later -- but were still lovely, even if the real and imaginary recipients were not. Recalling Sarasota’s recent Chalk Festival, the remnants of which have caused problems on some busy streets, the improvisers showed ways to rid them of chalk designs. Efforts were rewarded with much applause (must have been lots of locals in the room!).
Four scenes for one action involved the whole group in twos but alternating partners and picking up the last line of each’s last speech to begin a new one. This was the least comically successful, but not bad. The uproarious ending showed Christine as a Middle Easterner being interviewed by Emily on the subject of camels. Patrick acted as the mime translator for the hearing impaired. Will one ever forget his camel with the long eyelashes? All in all, a nice start in a new space.
