Shana Merlin's Improv Blog

Merlin Works March Newsletter: Blog and Buzz

2010-03-09T16:43:00.001-06:00

Blog & Buzz

NEXT ROUND OF IMPROV CLASSES: The next round of improv classes is starting up March 22th. If you register by March 15th, you'll still pay the usual $150 price. After March 15th, prices go up to $175. So register by March 15th and save $25.
Improv 101 Saturdays 2:30pm - 4:30pm March 27 - May 15
Improv 201 Wednesdays 8pm - 10pm March 24 - May 12
Improv 301 Wednesdays 6pm - 8pm March 24 - May 12
Improv 401 Mondays 6pm - 8pm March 22 - May 10
Improv 601 Mondays 8pm - 10pm March 22 - May 10
Improv Singing III Saturdays 12pm - 2pm March 27 - May 15
To register or for more information visit our website.

MERLIN WORKS IMPROV MIXER: It's already time to mix, mingle, play and audition again at Merlin Works. Along with our regular instructor-led warm-up and scene work jam, it will also serve as open auditions for upcoming Gnap! Theater Projects shows and troupes. Sunday March 14th at 2pm - 4pm at SVT.

HEIST!: See our crack team of improvisers pull off a the crime of a lifetime. Expect elaborate schemes, special skills, desperate men, and double-crossing deals. But be careful, while they lift your spirits, they just might steal your heart. This original format developed by the graduates of the Merlin Works Institution for Improvisation Narrative Longform Series will debut in the Saturday Night Special at Salvage Vanguard Theatre March 6, 13, and 27, 2010.

IMPROV SINGING GRADUATION SHOW: Come watch a full cast (13 people!) sing and dance their way through two full length musicals. For each musical, half the cast is the ensemble, doing back up singing, dancing, and characters, while the other half takes the leads in the story. In the second half of the show, they switch places and do it all over again. A live musician accompanies the completely improvised characters, songs, dances, and stories. Friday March 12, 10pm at SVT.

DUSK GOES NATIONAL:"Dusk: Improvised Tween Erotica" has been accepted to the Chicago Improv Festival April 19 - 25 and we'll be performing in New York City at the Tank Theater July 9, 10, and 11. To get ready for our trips, we're going to be having some special fundraising performances in Austin at 10pm Friday April 9 and 16 in Austin at the Salvage Vanguard Theater. And we'll be doing a full 5 week run again next Fall, October 22 - November 19, 2010.

Twitter: My twitter feed is up an running. So if you're looking for someone to follow and you'd like to get updates about shows, classes, and what I'm cooking for dinner, look for my username ShanaMerlin.

IMPROV BLOG: AMSTERDAM AND ANNIVERSARY: If you want to read all the recaps on my trip to the Amsterdam International Improv Festival and the Merlin Works and Gnap! Second Anniversary Weekend at SVT, read all about it on my improv blog.

T-SHIRTS FOR SALE: Merlin Works now has stickers and T-Shirts for sale. Designed by the fabulous Jon Bolden, these shirts are printed on American Apparel Tri-Blend fabric: comfy from day one. And check out the great model!

LAFF: The Fourth Annual LAFF: Ladies Are Funny Festival, is coming May 5 - 8, 2010 to the Salvage Vanguard Theater. The schedule is set and this year is bigger than ever. We're expanding the festival a day and moving in to the larger space at SVT. Plus we have our fundraiser: the Ladies Underhand Skillet Toss (LUST) April 18th. Keep an eye out for announcements about our amazing lineup of all-female improv and sketch troupes, one-woman shows, dance troupes, stand-ups, variety acts, anything funny as long as it's a live performance by females.

INTERGALACTIC NEMESIS at the ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE and the LONG CENTER: The scripted 1930's science fiction radio drama I was touring the country with last year is now a comic book and a live action graphic novel. I'll be performing in 10 minute epsiodes every month at the Alamo Drafthouse before a movie and this Fall I'll be performing the full show in the Dell Concert Hall at the Long Center For the Performing Arts.

GNAP! SHOWS AT SVT: Gnap! Theater Projects is rocking through their 2010 Season. It's The FamilyFridays and Saturdays through March 13 at 8pm The Saturday Night Special, Saturdays at 10pm in March will feature Merlin Works Institute Graduates performing Heist!. 1st Fridays is No Shame Theater, an open mike performance series.Apocalypse! runs March 26 - April 17. For tickets and show information go online.

March Newsletter Article

2010-03-09T16:40:00.001-06:00

Feature Article
What's the First Thing You Think of When I Say...
by Shana Merlin

I sometimes joke that my improv name is "Sheila." For a long time people would call me "Sheila" in improv scenes because my scene partner would look at me and think "Shana," but then remember that we aren't supposed to use real names in improv scenes (we should be playing characters) and so they would start saying "Sh.." and turn it in to "Sheila." It's a small example of a problem that arises in an art form where you respond spontaneously to your scene partner. My scene partners just see short, brown haired, glasses-wearing Shana. And in the moment it's hard for them to see anything else. So improvisers often end up pigeonholing each other.

In general, the first thing on a person's tongue is often stereotypical. The first reaction we have to each other is usually based on externals or labels. And when you are teaching people to go with their first instincts and not censor themselves, it's not uncommon to get responses that are full of stereotype, bias, and even discrimination.

This negative byproduct is unfortunate because one of my favorite things about improv is that we get to be our own casting agents. As an improviser, I get to play roles of any age, gender, ethnicity, accent, height, or species for that matter. On the other hand, when my agent sends me on commercial auditions, I'm mostly sent to try out for young mother roles: Caucasian, 30 - 40, attractive. (Okay, maybe I added that last one in) but my opportunities feel much more limited by my demographic than by my talent. In improv the opposite is true. The only limit to the characters I can play are my talent and my imagination. Actually that's almost true. I still have to get my scene partners to see me through their imagination and not how I physically am. And some people can't help but see me as young mother, 30-40, attractive. (Their thoughts, not mine!)

Despite these problems with snap judgements, improv also presents opportunities to help people overcome stereotypes. Improv is one of the most accessible art forms. There's a very low cost of entry. And it's incredibly empowering because it's an opportunity for artists to tell whatever stories they want. It is immediate, and easily adaptable to different audiences. In fact, the origins of American improvisation start with Viola Spolin in the 1930's teaching acting and directing for the WPA and seeing the need for theater games that could cross literacy and cultural barriers in Chicago. So American improvisation has it's roots in the working class and with multiculturalism.

Yet this pigeonholing persists. I've definitely had it happen in shows when I start a scene playing an old man, and then get endowed as a frail young woman. And I see it happen with my students: the big guy in class is always referred to that way. Older actors are endowed as parents instead of romantic leads. A man playing cross gender is assumed to be playing a gay character. Of course most of this is just honest mix up that happens all the time when you are improvising. Offers get dropped. People are misunderstood. People go for the familiar/cheap/easy laugh.

I tell my students not to beat themselves up over stereotypical things that happen. But I ask them to start to become aware of it and open themselves up to the possibility that in improv anyone can play any character at any time. The good news is that I find this typecasting fades with time when people get to know each other and play together. Just like in the real world, when we become familiar with someone, their stereotypical features tend to fade away and you start to see them as a more complicated person with many dimensions. And soon enough, these possibilities open up on stage, and they are no longer pigeonholed by their peers.

There are shortcuts to this process, though. This year I went to my first International Improv Festival in Amsterdam, where there was a big focus on the different cultures and styles of improv from different countries. On the first day of the festival, we had a get-to-know-you workshop unlike any I had been to before. We weren't just getting to know each other, we were also laying out the stereotypes, biases, and misconceptions we might have about each other. The workshop was led by the spectacular Marijn Vissers, a larger than life Dutch man with a shaved head, except for a heroic curl on his forehead. (A product of a long ago bet in a bar where his friends said they would give him a bunch of money if he let them shave his whole head. His pals started shaving him, left the curl in the front and kept their money.)

After a physical warm up, he started us off with a game like a lot of improv games: an exercise that forces you to make fast and confident decisions. But this game was also strangely personal. Marijn would read out a statement and as quickly as possible, you had to put your hand on the shoulder of the person you thought most fit that statement. In a room of 35 or so total strangers from around the world (that we were hoping to befriend and impress), I quickly had to decide who I thought played a musical instrument, who recently got a speeding ticket, who reads a lot, who never reads, who bathed today, who hasn't bathed in a week, who plays sports, who's single and who's in a couple. It sounds terrible, right? But the thing is we all are making these assumptions and decisions all the time. And the game came so rapid fire, it was hard to dwell on any one statement too long. And there was all this laughter as people piled hands on someone with glasses, assuming they read a lot. And you suddenly got this awareness of how people perceived you and you had permission to play with these snap judgments we all make. It was surprisingly fun and lightened the often sensitive and tense mood at multicultural events.

t was great because it was such an improv solution to a problem. In my improv classes I tell my students to expose their mistakes, because they are funny and a sign of openness and vulnerability. It's counter our normal instincts which are to avoid risks and cover mistakes. But I had to learn this lesson all over again for myself in the diversity workshop. Instead of being extra careful and sensitive about our cultural differences--working hard to prevent failure--we got to make lots of mistakes quickly (on some lower-risk issues) so we could start to play with the cultural gaps between these teams from Sweden, Turkey, USA, Austria, Slovenia, and The Netherlands. By acknowledging the uninformed, shallow, judgmental parts of ourselves, we were able to transcend them for a moment.

As the workshop continued, we played some more ice breaker games, sharing truths and lies, playing name games, and then participants got to lead some of their favorite warm-ups from their home countries.

Then Marijn took it a step further and had us do exaggerated impersonations of different cultures. He had the Turkish team sit in the audience while the rest of us acted like very stereotypical Turkish people. And the Turks laughed and seemed to enjoy the performance. After a few minutes Marijn stopped us and asked the Turks what we got right and what we got wrong. Every country's team got a turn in the hot seat. Sara, Shannon and I got to see a lot of Europeans acting like bow-legged cowboys. And although it was hilarious to watch, I was glad I got to tell them that all these brawling cowboys were missing the southern hospitality that is so strong in Texas.

Funnily, the thing I was most embarrassed about was when Marijn asked us to do impersonations of Nigerians or people from Suriname. As the Europeans launched in to those stereotypes, I was clueless about what to do. At least the Europeans knew enough about these cultures to stereotype them. I was truly uninformed and at a loss. I felt so American: "It's not that I have the wrong idea about your culture, it's that I had no idea it even existed!" It was a good cue that I still have a lot to learn about other countries.

It was such a wonderful start to the festival because it broke down the barriers between people, helped us not be so delicate with each other, and made it so we could really play with each other and laugh at each other and ourselves. And this was important because that week we would be performing as an ensemble for paying audiences. Of course there are some hot button issues that might be too dangerous to play with on the first day of a workshop, but I do think this was a great model for breaking down barriers between cultures. Instead of teaching each other how to do it right (a perfection we may never achieve), we can instead play with all the things we've got wrong about each other. And there's plenty of material to work with right now.

Shana Merlin
Founder, Merlin Works

Austin Improv in Insite Magazine

2010-03-06T09:40:00.002-06:00

Insite Magazine has an article about Austin Improv in it's March issue.

Download it here: insite_march2010.pdf

It's always great to get print news about Improv in Austin, but I wish it had included Gnap! Theater Projects as producing improv shows. (Instead it mentioned Merlin Works and SVT)

Merlin Works and Gnap! Theater Projects Second Anniversary Weekend starts Friday!

2010-02-17T11:45:00.002-06:00

I wanted to let you know about some special events happening this weekend: It's Merlin Works Institute for Improvisation's Second Anniversary!

It’s been two years since Merlin Works and Gnap! had our big grand opening at the Salvage Vanguard Theater. And you have helped make it such a success. I'll be around all weekend, so please come to SVT this weekend to join me in celebrating two years of shows, classes and community. Here's the schedule:

Friday

8pm: Show: Two newish Gnap! troupes full of Merlin Works Graduates, Casual Whale and Hugaday, will open for Splendid Things from Minneapolis.
10pm: Party: Merlin Works/Gnap! Second Anniversary Party. This party is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Free drinks, food, and dance music by DJ Manateeman. RSVP on Facebook

Saturday

1pm - 4pm: Class: Splendid Things teach Improv Outside Yourself

8pm: My troupe, Get Up, will join Splendid Things in an epic of improv goodness.

10pm: The Newest Gnap! Troupe, Anticdotes, will open up for the predictably unpredictable The Knuckleball Now.

Sunday

1pm - 4pm: Class: Splendid Things teach Emotional Keys (I'm registered for this class myself :)

Tickets and Registration Info:

Buy Weekend Passes for the low low price of $15. Buy tickets to individual shows for $5-$10. Register for theSaturday and Sunday Classes for $40. If you are a current student, you get in to see shows free with your student pass if seats are available at showtime, but you should buy tickets if you want to guarantee yourself a seat.

About Splendid Things:

Splendid Things brings together three of the Twin Cities’ top improvisers to create comedy with emotional intensity, intelligence and a distinctively theatrical style. They mix grounded, naturalistic scenework with dark absurdism for an improv show that manages to be sober and ridiculous at once. The group’s members have performed together in various capacities over the years, but Splendid Things marks the first time that all three have joined forces. Splendid Things is Eric Knobel, Hannah Kuhlmann and Michael Ritchie… can you believe it?

More info at http://wordpress.gnaptheater.org/?page_id=363

I hope to see you this weekend. Thanks so much for your support!

Amsterdam International Improv Festival Day 4 -7 Wrap Up

2010-02-01T11:53:00.008-06:00

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!

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.

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 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

2010-02-01T10:40:00.005-06:00

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.

Marijn and the bar owner singing some songs:

Sven, Sara and Marijn having a good time.

Amsterdam Day 3: Medical Edition

2010-01-26T07:11:00.005-06:00

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.

Amsterdam Day 1

2010-01-25T03:52:00.004-06:00

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.

Get Up Live at OOB 2009

2010-01-14T09:37:00.002-06:00

The Get Up performance from headlining The Out of Bounds Comedy Festival in Austin, TX is now online.

Austin Chronicle Write Up: Keith Johnstone Comes to Austin

2010-01-14T09:16:00.002-06:00

I'm mentioned in this article and quoted as well.

That description brings Austin's duo Get Up – Shannon McCormick and Shana Merlin – immediately to mind.
"Oh, definitely," says Badr, "those two are really rooted in that style. And Shana has studied with Johnstone quite a bit, and she was one of the first people to register for the four-day workshop. Just the list of people taking this workshop is incredible. And almost everyone in the workshop is going to be in Saturday night's Maestro at the Long Center."

At least half that class are fixtures in the Austin improv scene. Shana's in it, and Bill Stern, Jill Bernard, Kaci Beeler, Jeremy Lamb – people who left Austin are flying back to take this workshop.

Shana Merlin, Prinicipal, Merlin Works Institute for Improvisation:"When I saw Keith Johnstone teach and direct for the first time, what impressed me most is that he saw the improv coming from a mile away. A scene would start, and I would have no idea where it was going, and he would pause the scene and knew exactly where it was going. Or, better yet, had four or five excellent ideas about where it could go. This made it so he could direct improvisers so effortlessly that it seemed like he wasn't doing anything at all – which made the students in the class look brilliant, as if they'd done it all on their own. I came away from that summer in Canada with the goal of seeing improv the way Keith did, seeing the whole game play out in the moment and in the future at the same time. It makes me think of an article I read about how Roger Federer plays tennis, how for him the tennis ball is huge and slowly makes its way across the net, because he just sees things so far in advance and can react so quickly. It's actually a different game for him than it is for you and me."

Read the full article here: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:938189

Improv Comedy Classes May Help Job Seekers Impress at Interviews - ABC News

2009-12-18T10:28:00.000-06:00

A good interview with a Groundlings trainer about the benefits of improv training in the corporate world.

Improv Comedy Classes May Help Job Seekers Impress at Interviews - ABC News

What A Weekend: Wafflefest, Closing Dusk, Ending Classes, AIC Honors Banquet

2009-11-22T22:18:00.011-06:00

So many amazing things have happened this weekend that I thought I should blog it all up to make sure I got it all down. Tonight is the last night of Improv 201 and 401 and after that I'll be heading home to Georgia for Thanksgiving with my family and starting my "Improv Break." I won't be teaching or performing (much) until January 11 when classes start up again. It's my time to recharge, reflect, work on business and personal goals, and re-connect with friends and other people. I heard that other people actually hang out in the evenings and weekends--so I'm going to investigate. And that's part of why this past weekend was so amazing. It was a perfect wrap-up/closing to my improv year.

Friday, November 20th.

I got to watch my fabulous Dusk cast play their next to last show. I got to the theater early to set up a table so I could give them their New Moon tickets and Cast T-Shirts. The shirts came out even better than I expected. I tried to play on the Team Jacob/Team Edward theme, while keeping it open enough that you'd like them even if you weren't a TwiHard. People have been wearing them all weekend, esp the guys. Here's Michael Joplin modeling it here in the Improv 501 class photo.

The cast had a solid show (it had been sold out since Wednesday morning) with standout narration from Julie Gillis. I had to step out during the Vampire hockey scene to change clothes and get dressed for my shows at WaffleFest. After the show and some quick hugs, I headed down to The Hideout.

Girls Girls Girls was opening the show downstairs. We did "24 Hour Diner: The Musical." The diner quickly became some level of hell, and we had some fun, saucy numbers thanks to Jason Laney's fine accompaniment. Normally an angel in real life, Sarah Tufts rocked it as the Devil herself. It was one of the few GGG shows we've had that ended on a darker note, and I like that. We were running short on time and I brought out some knives and the show ended with a murderous rampage and ascendancy to heaven, and a closing number by the Devil entitled, "There's a Moral."

After the show, I went upstairs, did a quick change of clothes, snagged a banana from the waffle table (and a few M and M's) and went on for the Get Up show. We had a little technical difficulties at first, but we got the suggestion of strip poker (What are people doing: "playing poker" What are they wearing? "not a lot.") Since we didn't have the music, we started without or usual narration and ended up in a really fun show. I think we hit that Judd Apatow Romantic Comedy genre pretty hard. It was a sweet, yet often vulgar story of romance and misunderstanding. I can't tell you much about the show on such a public forum, but suffice it to say we definitely pushed ourselves to some places we don't normally go. ;)

Saturday November 21

It was a late night and an early morning. I had breakfast with Jon and then we started working on my website, working on SEO stuff, Merlin Works website plans for the new year. He was helping me prep for a meeting with some friends/barter students to work on the corporate side of the business. Great momentum going in to 2010.

I went straight from that meeting to the final Improv 501 class of the session. I don't know if it's been that the 501's are getting better as I get more experienced at it or that this group is a particularly talented combination of people, or that students are repeating the levels and getting deeper in to the content, or a combination of all of this and more, but this group of 501's has been extremely successful and satisfying. Plus they are all super cuties (see photo above). After an amazing run thru for the last 35 minutes of class (we went 10 minutes over, but I was so invested in the characters, I had to see what was going to happen) we went to Red House for a post-class pizza party.

I had to jet home, slap on some makeup and show clothes and come to the theater for the final night of Dusk. (Potential 2010 New Year's Resolution: Be more on time and less rushed a.k.a don't try to pack so much in.) We started our warmups like we always do: with some Soul Train. It was only at the end of our improv dance party that I realized we were dancing to that song, "One more time/We're gonna celebrate/One more time" And we were all like "awww."

I was narrating the show for the second time and I was much more relaxed. The show was awesome. A wonderful way to wrap it up. Command performances by an under the weather Lindsey Reeves and Michael Thomas as our romantic leads. Bryan Cruz brought the Jacob action hard core. Sarah Tufts was a super creepy vampire toddler. Lauren and Madi were so in synch as librarian sisters. Patrick showed great range as a vampire father and DQ employee/stoner. Avi Syam brought it with embracing his own discoveries and heightening them in to brilliant games. (Opening by accidentally calling his sister "bro" and sticking with it). Such a great balance of story, gags, games, and romance. Abetted by my twisted mind narrating people in to taking their shirts off, blood licking, and three different makeout partners for Lindsey. Excellent.

At curtain call at the end of the show, we got a little bit of a standing ovation and Julie brought out a signed framed poster of Dusk for my directors gift. A lovely surprise.

After the show we struck the set and headed to Gateway to catch the 11:30 screening of New Moon. Here we are, the only people there early waiting to get in to the theater.

The movie was HILARIOUS (to us, sorry everyone else in the theater) But seriously I could not stop laughing. Being there with all my Duskies, candy being passed down the row, everything on screen being completely ridiculous. It was fantastic. Then we had the after party at Audrey's house, complete with toasts and of course, another dance party.

Sunday November 22nd

I couldn't sleep past 9:30, even though I'd gone to bed at near 5am. I watched some SNL, had breakfast with Jon, and started talking about who I shouldn't forget to thank at the night's AIC Honors Banquet. Most of the improv people in town had voted and I'd been selected one of three people/organizations to accept the honor this year. I was nervous and excited. Jon leaked that he had some idea about how they were going to send me up, but he wouldn't say how. He knows I love surprises.

After breakfast we went home, I cleaned house for about an hour (you can imagine what kind of wreck my house was by the end of this weekend) and we watched an episode of the ever amazing Friday Night Lights. I fell asleep with my head on his chest (one of my favorite things in the world) as the episode wound down. I took a nap, then got up in time to get ready for the party.

Everything was bustling at Cafe Caffeine when we got there. I visited with people until it was time to start the show. And I was the one they presented to first. Eek.

The whole thing was very touching and hilarious. John Ratliff opened with a speech (I hope I can find video of this soon) naming me Austin's Improv Yentyl, matching up so many people with one promiscuous lover: improv. Ratliff is so eloquent and I could listen to him talk about me all night. I was so grateful for his kind words about me as an improviser, business woman, and teacher. He took his first improv class with me and now he is an improv teacher himself. He said I was a great first and that he appreciated my teaching style much more now in retrospect, now that he is dealing with classes of his own.

Then there was a sketch written by Tom Booker and Bryan Cruz about all my teachers and classes at the Merlin Works Institute for Improvisation. I was happy that they didn't focus all their funny just on me as different people impersonated different teachers at my school. And I couldn't have been more pleased to be portrayed by my bestie, Lauren Zinn. She was carried on stage as if she floated there. She healed a blind man, and then taught a new improviser "Yes And." She even worked in my Merlin Works Slogan. Hilarious.

Then my sweeties in GGG sang me a song with Michael Brockman on keys. I think the tagline was "That's what gives Merlin her Magic" I even got compared to Yoda.

And it wasn't until the end of the night I got to see the slide show my old friend Andy Crouch had put together for me. A fabulous montage set to MIA's Paper Planes. He even put in photos of my family and wedding. I was happy to share all that with everybody.

I got up to give my acceptance speech and it's so hard to hold it together and say the things you want to say while letting the moment land and being present. I tried to thank all the theaters, presenters, all my teachers, and troupe mates. Special shout outs to Shannon and Sara Farr. I should have said more specifically about GGG, but that got lost in the moment. And then I got all gushy and talked about how I get to help my improv students and cast members fall in love with improv and they help me fall back in love with it again and again. And then I got mega gushy and tried to give proper thanks to my husband, Jon and all the amazing support he has given me over the years. (He's the one that took these videos at the banquet.) It was really neat that after the awards a couple of people went up to Jon and thanked him for supporting me and sharing me with the improv community.

Then The Hideout with Michael McGill and Coldtowne were honored with awesome videos, songs, and sketches. Really nice stuff. Big thanks to Asaf, Valerie, and the AIC for putting the whole thing together, and Les McGehee for hosting the event.

After that it was group photos hugs and kisses cards and flowers. So warm and fuzzy.

Look at all these wonderful folks in our community. Jon Bolden took this AIC group photo. Thanks to everyone for a fabulous weekend.

Shana

Dusk in the Blogosphere

2009-11-16T13:51:00.003-06:00

Every week I've been Googling the show to see where it has turned up. Most pages are those I've personally submitted to or sent a press release out to, but there have been some postings that are actually organic. Here are a few that I've found:

A review on Associated Content.com that is fairly positive, though factually innacurate. Probably more of a lesson for us on being clear in our web and marketing presence.

A fun surprise was our listing on Man of Austin.com, a site mostly filled with photos of muscular, shirtless men.

A nice mention in the blog of a new mother: http://cheesebloggerinparadise.blogspot.com/2009/11/improvised-tween-erotica.html featuring her photo with Edward!

ChicksterMag posted this review of the show, a fairly good recommendation for a show she expected to be a scripted parody like Scary movie. http://chickstermag.com/wordpress/2009/11/dusk-review/

The Austin Arts Insider gave a good picture of the show in the context of other Gnap! Productions: http://theinsider.tripvine.com/2009/11/09/vampires-satire-and-improv-oh-my/

Dusk is Reviewed in the examiner

2009-11-04T09:43:00.001-06:00

Glowing review of Dusk in the Examiner. My favorite paragraph (warning: this is me gloating) :

"The cast of Dusk is top-notch. Many players had to portray
multiple characters throughout the performance, and communication
between them was so crisp that almost no lines were stepped on, causing
audience members to forget at ...moments that this spectacle was being
improvised on the spot. It’s clear that the 8 weeks of preparatory work
with director Shana Merlin has paid off."

Dusk in the News

2009-10-30T09:53:00.002-05:00

Dusk is a Recommended pick in the Chronicle this week. And I love the way Brenner describes the show:

DUSK: IMPROVISED TWEEN EROTICA Gnap! Theatre Projects introduces its send-up of the ridiculously popular Twilight vampire series. Every Friday and Saturday night, the (eternally) youthful fangs 'n' angst soap opera plays out in full unscripted hilarity as you watch the brows furrow, the eyes beseech, the libidos flare, and yet, somehow, the various hymens remain as unbroken as the giant cross at the end of Hammer Studios' Dracula Has Risen From The Grave. Recommended. Through Nov. 21. Fri.-Sat., 8pm. Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Rd, 474-7886. $10. www.gnaptheater.org (But Wait -- There's More!)

We were also listed in last week's chronicle in the Halloween-themed performance section: There Will Be Blood.

Dusk

Twilight by another name, the immensely popular saga of vampires and deeply conflicted adolescent sexuality turned on its pointed ear by Gnap! Theater Projects, which will lovingly mock its unique brand of "tween erotica" in an improvised show by and for adults. Conceived and directed by Austin improv maven Shana Merlin (Get Up, Girls Girls Girls). Fri.-Sat., Oct. 23-Nov. 21, 8pm. Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Rd., 474-7886. $10 ($5, students). www.gnaptheater.org.

New Video: Bella Picks a Team: Part 3 for Dusk: Improvsed Tween Erotica (Twilight Trailer Parody)

2009-10-29T08:57:00.003-05:00

Opening Weekend Recap

2009-10-27T11:40:00.002-05:00

Opening weekend was a resounding success. The shows were sold out online before the box office even opened. The shows were really strong and I think are only going to get stronger, once we get opening weekend jitters out of the way.

Here's how delicious the show was:

On Sunday, I read this article by Manohla Dargis in the Nytimes Week in Review Section about the lack of women in film and I was surprised to read this:

"Last year, only one movie about a woman — “Twilight,” the vampire romance about a living teenager and her undead but supercute boyfriend — squeezed into the ranks of the Top 10 grossing titles, a chart dominated by superheroes and male cartoon characters. Another two female-centric stories climbed into the Top 20. That sounds shocking except that only three such stories made it to the Top 20 in each of the previous two years.'

It made me think about why these books and movies have hit me or women like me so hard. It's like the Sex and the City Movie Phenomenon: when Hollywood finally caters to a female audience, we turn out in masses. It made me feel even better about supporting the Twilight Franchise with its sometimes un-feminist sentiments.

New Video: Bella Picks a Team: Part 2

2009-10-21T10:17:00.004-05:00

New Video! Check it out

2009-10-16T13:53:00.003-05:00

It's the first in our 4 (maybe 5?) part video series. Unlike improv, where we can make up a whole show in realtime, working with film takes SO much longer. The good news is you get to get it just right and it lasts for a long time. Michael, Don, Sara and everyone worked really hard to make these videos great. Enjoy!

New Poster: Vampire Family

2009-10-14T16:17:00.001-05:00

A local academic's take on Kristen Stewart... and the backlash!

2009-10-14T15:18:00.003-05:00

A local academic celebrity blogger (I know, who knew?) Anne Helen Petersen wrote an essay deconstructing the celebrity icon she has become.

The essay went viral and she got a ton of comments (and attacks) which she explores in a follow up post.

It's always exciting to hear about the fan buzz and energy, but it's also scary to hear how much backlash there can be to a post that is not really critical at all of Twilight. Let's hope we can make our fans happy. Or at least cause a stir....

The Final Push

2009-10-14T15:03:00.002-05:00

We are 10 days out and things are really taking shape. Rehearsal on Sunday was stellar. At this point I'm so happy with the performances, I'm just worrying about messing things up. And this quality without the energy of an audience... And it's so nice to have the luxury of some polishing rehearsals before opening night, to really shine it up. We are working on acting, edits, suspense, and romance. And they are doing so well, I'm hoping to hop in as a player on a few run throughs.

And its a good thing the cast is in such great shape because now I've got to focus on so many other production elements: sets, lights, sound, costume, marketing, video, programs, audience experience. I really want the show to be a fun audience experience from the moment they walk in the door.

I'm excited about the new set design inspired by the Twilight book covers, with the help of Cindie, who designs window displays at Anthropologie, my favorite store. I did some pre-shopping last night at Garden Ridge and think we can pull off something really sweet under budget.

New Moon Tickets On Sale Tonight

2009-10-02T00:20:00.001-05:00

This is for real, people. It's happening. New Moon tickets at the Alamo Drafthouse are going on sale at Midnight. The presales for New Moon have been way in advance all over the country and are selling like hotcakes. Shows are selling out 9 weeks in advance. Let's hope we can be so lucky.

New Dusk Images Released: Love Triangle!

2009-09-21T12:43:00.004-05:00

HOT off the presses!

The Onion AV Club Austin: Topical Humor mentions Dusk

2009-09-16T15:55:00.002-05:00

Our favorite Austin Onion writer and all around nice guy, Erik Adams, gave a shout out to Dusk in The Onion:

As the various branches of The Onion, Inc. have found over the past year, there's a lot of humor to be found in the Book Of Mormon-tainted, vampires-and-werewolves drama of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga. We've also discovered that the smallest slight to the series and/or anything remotely related to it has a way of turning legions of Twilight fans into luminescent-skinned beasts sniffing out spilled blood. So you don't have to fear for the lives of the Gnap! Theater Project players who'll spend November sending up Twilight, as their Dusk is billed as a "loving" attempt at squeezing the funny out of Meyer's ice-cold "lions" and the "lambs" who love them. The gender politics alone hold the potential for a month's worth of laughs—not that we're suggesting they're harmful or hurtful in any way. Please, no more incensed comments about "RPatz." Uh… hey look, a New Moon trailer!

Nice!