Parallelogramophonograph , Monday, April 16, 2007
Parallelogramophonograph is not even two years old, but you'd never know it to look at them. They perform weekly at Coldtowne, participate in the Double Barrel and Threefer and play regularly in Maestro. Some of them help run the Tuesday Improv Jam, help with scheduling the Austin improv shows, and help with loads of other stuff. In general they run around like crazy. For this interview, we locked each of them in a separate padded cell and forced them to answer their questions alone. Somehow, their responses were surprisingly similar.DB: PGraph started a weekly run on Thursday nights at the Coldtowne Theater last November. How has having a weekly show changed the troupe, in terms of performance, attitude, energy, etc..?
 | Kareem: I remember, in September, saying to the rest of the troupe that I finally felt like we were at the point where we could start to get *good*. I think having a weekly show had made us so insanely comfortable with each other on stage that we're almost always very playful and fun to watch. Having a predictable, regular schedule has allowed us to come up with new formats and show concepts, too. |
 | Kaci: Well, I can't quite remember how it felt in the beginning. We've been doing it for almost six months now. I know it really helped us to push ourselves and to do more thematic formats than before. We wanted to use our new time wisely and bring in old and new audiences to experience something unique to Pgraph. All of those performances have helped us immensely. We've gotten tighter on stage; performing with those dudes is a cinch now (in the way of just interacting and knowing them on stage), so we can practice more advanced forms of improv since we're already bonded pretty tight. I usually forget this until I'm with a different group of improvisers...it's never quite the same. Energy-wise, it's been a little bit harder. We have weekly rehearsal and a weekly show along with whatever other improv we're doing (which is usually a lot of stuff). I get tired and sometimes wish for a week off, but then when I actually get some time off I start wishing to do more improv. It's all cyclic and crazy. I really like our formats we've been doing so performing is never a chore. |
 | Roy: Having a Thursday night run has had a tremendously positive effect on the troupe. I can feel us getting stronger with each show. We're so comfortable playing with each other right now that a lot of things- when to edit a scene, when to wrap up a story, what we want in a given situation, all come effortlessly. Most importantly, the weekly shows have forced us to expand our range. We can't just rely on what worked last week. We need to be constantly exploring new characters, new forms, and new stories, or we'll get bored. The run's also been great because we're getting to see and work with a lot of great Austin improv groups that we'd only see intermittently before- Improv for Evil, Get Up, Spices, Kazillionaire*, The Available Cupholders. |
 | Valerie: I feel like it has given us a chance to grow a lot quicker, not only through having more shows but in having them more often. And it's given us a chance to explore things in way more depth than we would have otherwise. |
 | Wes: Having a weekly show has given Pgraph the freedom to explore new formats in an extended way. Instead of doing one-off shows, we can workshop a format, and run it week after week until we refine it as much as possible. |
DB: You guys have been putting on themed shows for a while now with specific formats- After School Improv, The 1930s, and Family Portrait. What's been your favorite format so far and why?
| Kareem: Hard to say. They've all gone much better than I thought they would. I think The 1930s was really fun for me because, in addition to having to study the 1930s as background information, we arbitrarily chose a different improv show format for each of the shows. We didn't even advertise that we were doing that. It was just sort of a technical restriction we put on ourselves. A few improvisers noticed it, though, which was cool. Plus, I got to wear a vest. |
| Kaci: Wow. Well, After School Improv was kinda my idea because I really wanted to see what an improvised After School Special would look like and I knew we could pull it off. I also LOVE period improv which is why I pushed so strongly for us to do the 1930s show, which was a blast. I wish it had lasted longer than four weeks. But Family Portrait is pretty damn awesome too. It's different from the others in that it's more open. I don't know. I've learned a lot with all of them and I'm not sure I really have a favorite. I guess maybe the 1930s is my favorite. I love the Dust Bowl. I wrote a paper on it once. |
| Roy: That is a really tough question. I've loved all the shows for different reasons. But I'd have to say that the 1930s run has been my favorite so far. We accidently stumbled into doing a brand-new show format for each week. For the Gangster/Prohibition show, we did 6 Degrees, for The Dust Bowl we did an interview format, for Riding the Rails we did one long scene that took place on a rail car, and for Technology/Changing times we did a show wrapped in a radio show envelope. Each format pushed our boundaries in different ways. And we'd done so much preparation for the run through extensive research into the 1930s, that we could just cut loose and have fun in the well-defined space we'd created for ourselves. |
| Valerie: mmmmm... I like Family Portrait the most because it gives us a chance to do a new kind of scenework and focus on things we haven't focused on before. And I really like character-based things. |
| Wes: The 1930's had the best press materials, the most costuming, and was the most variable in terms of show structure. Each week we had a predetermined "theme," like Prohibition, that we could research and then we chose a format that best fit that theme. So it was both highly refined and focused, but open to a wide range of improv styles and formats at the same time. |
DB: You've performed over 50 shows in the past year. Describe some of your favorite onstage moments that you can still remember.
| Kareem: They're all a blur. I love it when my troupe-mates can read my mind, though. There have been an increasing number of moments where I will say something on stage, and I am intentionally more vague than improv training says you should be, but the Kittens know exactly what I'm saying. (I started re-telling an example, but it just came out as a "you had to be there moment." Suffice it to say it involved me as a child with cancer, and wanting Kaci's hair) One specific show/moment that sticks out is a Family Portrait we did recently where I was playing a very grounded father character (well, grounded for me.) There were some moments in that show that were getting absolutely no laughs, but I was totally comfortable with it because everything I was saying felt natural, even if it was more "dramatic" than "funny." The Family Portrait format's allowed for several of those moments. I love that shit. |
| Kaci: Hah! I really liked our hobo train car show as part of the 1930s. My hobo had a wooden spoon for a prop and Hobo court was held. You know what? Each show has had some great moments, so that it really is hard for me to remember specifics (seriously!). I had this really weird relationship with Kareem in one of the Family Portrait shows recently. I was an old Hispanic mother and he was my disgruntled American son. It felt very real at some part of the show. It was electric almost, this feeling I got. I also always liked when I forced Wes to play a cheerleader or some other high school girl in the After School Improv shows. I would just look over at him on the sideline and say something like, "Come on Marissa! Oma god!" and he would snap into character. Ah, the powers you can get from working with the same group for a long time. It's awesome. |
| Roy: It's really really hard to remember specifics. Johnstone said, and I totally agree, that with bad shows, you can remember every excruciating second, and with good shows you're like "W-what just happened?" That being said, I'll do my best. One of my favorite moments was the very first one, from our debut performance at Wafflest 2005. The lights went down, the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey (Also sprach Zarathustra) played, and a spotlight came up to an actual, lone cat sitting in a chair. The cat sat there, and glanced about nervously. Every time it moved its head, the audience erupted in laughter. There. One of my favorite memories was one we scripted, and ultimately weren't even in. Suck it. Besides that, my troupemates constantly amaze me- In the opening scene of our "Hobo" show, Kaci played an old hobo hiding in a barrel. She eventually jabbed a hole out of the barrel's bottom with a wooden spoon, and threatened anyone who offended her. It was just a pleasure to watch. For some reason, I love watching Kareem do solo work on stage. Some of my favorite scenes have involved Kareem being alone on stage while the rest of us talk to him from the wings. This has taken the form of interrogations, job interviews, talks with God, whatever. No one plays high status better than Wes, but I think my favorite Wes moments are when someone (usually Kaci) forces him to play a bouncy cheerleader-type character. Like everything he does, Wes commits and sticks it. Knowing him, though, just makes it hilarious. Valerie. Two Words: Sassy. Grandma. |
| Valerie: I don't remember any right now. Sorry! (editor's note: Valerie's interview was conducted over the phone while she was at her day job... making awesome, fancy jewelry. Everyone else though was in an individual padded cell, really). |
| Wes: I think one of my favorite moments was when Kareem handed me a shovel, got on his knees, and screamed at me to hit him with it. I did. Then I told him I was sick of doing this every Christmas and one of the most delightfully oddball relationships was born. Also, that time I endowed Massachusetts as being an imaginary land, which has become part of our troupe mythos. |
| Kareem: Available Cupholders and Tight were probably my big local influences (though AC weren't local at the time.) I've often thought that if a troupe could master the longform styles of both the Cupholders and Tight, they'd rule the improv world. I've loved Chris Allen's physicality since the first Micetro I saw him in, too. And The Knuckleball Now's playfulness is inspiring. I was in a "Knuckleball Now" show that ended up just being Craig, Chris Allen, and myself, and it somehow had the same crazy playful feeling that I've seen in the real TKN shows. Craig Kotfas must be some sort of Improv Elf with magical playfulness dust. |
| Kaci: I suppose I really do come from a Johnstonian improv upbringing. I stumbled into it because I saw others who were influenced by him and I really liked their stuff. I started seeing improv at the Hideout in the summer of 2002. I would frequently go see the Well Hung Jury, partially because they were alumni from my current HS at the time and mostly because they were just so damn awesome. I performed with a high school troupe called The PITS a year or so later and we were self-taught, mostly off of internet site, articles, watching improv, and reading some of Johnston's philosophies in Impro, his book. After awhile we got Jeremy Lamb to teach as a few workshops and they were great. I like for improv to sometimes mirror good scripted theatre/acting. Like for example, a fully improvised play that feels like a scripted theatre experience, you know, in the fact that the characters, plot, and situations are well flushed-out by the end. I come from a theatre background so that experience and knowledge helps me a lot as a performer. And in turn the improv helps my scripted performances. I like nuclear family dystopia situations. I also enjoy orphans. A LOT. |
| Roy: There's this chart in my mind that I think of a lot. It's got many dimensions, but I'll boil it down to just 2 for this discussion. There's the Available Cupholders axis, where as you travel down it you become tighter and more adept at longform narrative, playful formats, and group mind. Then there's the Frank Mills axis, where the higher you go the more grounded, realistic, and character/relationship-based your improv becomes. To me, both groups are beacons of good improv, but in radically different ways. I felt like for a long time we as a troupe were traveling down the Available Cupholders axis. Family Portrait is our blatant attempt to journey a little in the Frank Mills direction. But everything going on in Austin inspires me. The Knuckleball Now's playfulness is awesome, and works well in any situation. And of course the grounding in Johnstone's style I got from Andy Crouch's classes informs everything I do. I could go on and on. Oh, and even though I've only seen them once (at Out of Bounds 2006), Three-for-all had a profound effect on me. Those guys do some good work, and I hope to be like them when I grow up. |
| Valerie: Umm... I was really inspired by the Frank Mills and their style of improv- more low-key, but real. And they really get in depth in their scenes. And also going to Chicago and studying with Annoyance gave me a new perspective on improv and new skills in my toolbelt. I firmly believe that all the styles of improv aren't in opposition, they're just different viewpoints on the same basic tenets... that there's room for all types of improv- serious, slapstick, crazy. Stories, characters, relationships. It's all the same. |
| Wes: Andy Crouch taught me the basics as my first improv instructor and now he's teaching me to teach. I've taken workshops from a number of people and just playing with others in the community always teaches me something. Most recently, my biggest influence and teacher has been my girlfriend, Christina. She learned and approaches improv differently than myself. She has a good eye for finding the game in a scene and knowing what a scene or show needs at that moment. I always learn something new working with her. |
DB: If you were granted one troupe-related wish, what would it be?
| Kareem: An actual review of one of our shows. The lack of a review feels like a big gaping hole in our Improv Bucket. |
| Kaci: I'd like us to have packed audiences for all/the majority of our shows. Perform more at large venues. Get paid a living wage. Is that too many wishes? Screw it. |
| Roy: A large, enthusiastic fanbase with nothing to do on Thursdays. I truly feel we're doing our best work right now, and I would love for more people to see it. I love performing with my troupe, but it's so gratifying to entertain a packed room full of strangers. |
| Valerie: To all have matching pajamas. |
| Wes: That we win a lottery large enough to build a top-notch theater, advertise, and take a year off our jobs to study improv with coaches we've flown in from around the world all day... or a talking pony. |
DB:What will the next year hold for PGraph's future?
| Kareem: We'll continue to bust our asses. I'd like us to come up with a new show concept and perform a run of it at a theatre doesn't typically have improv shows. We'll probably submit to some more festivals, too, if we're not set on fire by the audience at OoB West. |
| Kaci: Well, we're performing at OOB West in LA in the end of May. We plan to continue to create more new formats and perform weekly. We'd like to do some shows at more venues, and find more creative ways to advertise. I don't know, we're pretty much open to any idea. I'd like to get matching windbreakers and duffle bags. I think a small part of me wishes still for that gymnastics/cheerleading squad mentality with the troupe. We could have embroidered names on them!!! |
| Roy: Trying to make my wish of a large fanbase come true. We'll be putting on more formats, performing in more traditional theatre venues, performing in festivals (OOB West, woo!), filming more stuff, and in general making everything bigger and better. |
| Valerie: I hope we'll be continually challenging ourselves, trying new things, exploring new modes of storytelling, shadow puppets, and becoming well respected and well known... in Austin and beyond. |
| Wes: Our first troupe baby! Basically I see a lot more shows, several new formats, our first out of state performances, increased advertising, and ever-increasing performance quality. |
DB: Ask yourself a question and answer it here.
| Kareem: (editor's note: Kareem refuses to talk to himself on the grounds that he's not an idiot) |
| Kaci: Q: Why was the dadaism movement created in the theatre? A: That's a good question, though it's funny that you ask that. Dadaism in theatre was basically a reaction against the World Wars. People were appalled that such a world could be so cruel and violent, and so things reverted back to nonsense as a reaction against reason and morally (which didn't seem to be all that reasonable or that moral). It sadly had an end built into it from the beginning, because like the avant guard movements, the message of "nothing has meaning" doesn't give a movement a leg to stand on. If things don't matter then why bother going to see them more than once? It was a short-lived movement but an influential one. It led into the surrealist theatre movement and a lot of the techniques seen in modern theatre today have roots in dadaism. Cyclical cat bag, you hetero polish stick person. Take my unhappy motion and grapple the sip. |
| Roy: Q:If you had a time machine and could travel back to any time in history, when would it be and why? A: You would think I'd say the Age of the Dinosaurs, but you'd be wrong. If I went tromping around with dinosaurs, I'd probably wind up very very dead. I'd say the Renaissance, but I'd probably be burned for a heretic. Actually, pretty much any time before the 1950s, I think that my weak, flabby body would wind up bloated and discarded in a ditch. So screw it. Dinosaurs it is! I'd gather up some of the smaller ones and train them to fight one another. |
| Valerie: Q: What's on your skirt right now? A: elephants. |
| Wes: Q:What invention has seen the most improvement over the last 20 years? A:I'm going to have to go with the elevator. Some of the new ones run absolutely silent and are so smooth that you never even realize you're moving. On the best ones, you can barely feel them stop. Amazing! |
Labels: interview, parallelogramophonograph
