Shana Merlin's Improv Blog
An online journal about improv and its applications.Subscribe to
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Saturday, August 23, 2008
Merlin Works on Fox 7 News
James Irby did an awesome job with this news story. It features Merlin Works team building and corporate training services.
Check it out.
Check it out.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Improv 101 Party Picks
We just had our last night of Improv 101 yesterday and we got some cute class photos.
Yay!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
OOB 2008 Recommendations
Out of Bounds Improv Festival and Miniature Golf Tournament is almost here!
It's the highlight of the improv year as troupes come in from around the country to perform. There are shows, classes, panel discussions, parties, and of course mini golf. Every year I give my recommendations of shows, since there's so much going on. I tend to favor out of town performances, since it's a once a year opportunity.
Must See
Sunday 7:30 pm at Esther's Follies
Girls Girls Girls (Austin)
The Groundlings (Los Angeles)
Highly Recommended
Sunday 9:30pm at Esther's Follies
Available Cupholders (Austin/LA/Chicago)
The Trans4merz (Los Angeles)
Pimprov (Chicago, IL)
Friday at at Salvage Vanguard Theater
10 pm
Get Up (Austin)
Nerdvana (Los Angeles)
Saturday at Salvage Vanguard Theater
8 pm
Parallelogramophonograph (Austin)
VAROOM
You Won't Regret It
Thursday at Salvage Vanguard Theater
8 pm
The 3 Actorteers
Grandma June's Sewing Circle (Chicago)
Thursday at Salvage Vanguard Theater
10 pm
Quaint Little Coffee Shop (Camden, NJ)
Rue Brutalia (New York)
Friday at at Salvage Vanguard Theater
10 pm
Junk (Austin)
pHrenzy! (Chicago)
It's the highlight of the improv year as troupes come in from around the country to perform. There are shows, classes, panel discussions, parties, and of course mini golf. Every year I give my recommendations of shows, since there's so much going on. I tend to favor out of town performances, since it's a once a year opportunity.
Must See
Sunday 7:30 pm at Esther's Follies
Girls Girls Girls (Austin)
The Groundlings (Los Angeles)
Highly Recommended
Sunday 9:30pm at Esther's Follies
Available Cupholders (Austin/LA/Chicago)
The Trans4merz (Los Angeles)
Pimprov (Chicago, IL)
Friday at at Salvage Vanguard Theater
10 pm
Get Up (Austin)
Nerdvana (Los Angeles)
Saturday at Salvage Vanguard Theater
8 pm
Parallelogramophonograph (Austin)
VAROOM
You Won't Regret It
Thursday at Salvage Vanguard Theater
8 pm
The 3 Actorteers
Grandma June's Sewing Circle (Chicago)
Thursday at Salvage Vanguard Theater
10 pm
Quaint Little Coffee Shop (Camden, NJ)
Rue Brutalia (New York)
Friday at at Salvage Vanguard Theater
10 pm
Junk (Austin)
pHrenzy! (Chicago)
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
San Francisco Improv Festival Wrap Up
Get Up went to San Francisco August 6 - 10 to perform at the San Francisco Improv Festival. We had a great time. Great weather, great shows, great houses, and great friends.
Even though I've been to San Francisco many times before (my brother lived there and my sister went to UC Santa Cruz) I still ended up filling each day with things to see and do. To be honest, I probably burned the candle at both ends a little too much, walking around all day and then freshening up and going out and doing shows at night.
We also had a great time getting to know Shaun, Hans, Clay and the other San Francisco Improvisers as well as the guys from Jet City Improv in Seattle. One of the things that is different about SFIF is that it runs 7 weeks long and each weekend features 2 improv troupes, who perform a double bill for 3 nights. So you meet less people and see less shows, but you get more quality performance and hang out time with the people there.
Here's a little more play by play.
Thursday August 7th
Yummo. Every little restaurant seemed to be so yummy and cool. Here's me, in my new Get Up shirt, pretending to read the paper at breakfast in the Sir Frances Drake Hotel.
After breakfast, I went for a run (more like interval training with all the stoplights) and then we met up with William Hall, who took us to The Dog Patch, a up and coming part of town I'd never been to. We sat out near the water and talked improv and teaching. William is an accomplished improviser and a true devotee of all things improv.
Sara
William
Me
The one thing I had forgotten to pack was my makeup! Aye! So we spent the afternoon at Sephora getting makeovers for the show.
That night we did a folktale kind of show--a little bit of small town magical realism for this town that was once slow, but is now fast, but then gets slow again. It was a fun show and it was a big honor to have Tim Orr from 3 For All in the audience. There was a great photographer and videographer on staff, so we got some great pics.
Here's some highlights.
Friday August 8th
We went to Berkeley, one of my favorite places in the country. Great weather, perfect level of density and liberalism, and a great college campus. We met Sara's friend Bruce there and got laughed out of Alice Water's restaurant, Chez Panisse, when we asked for a table for 3 without a reservation. So I took this picture outside the restaurant as if I was so full from all the good food.
We ended up at a lovely South American restaurant and then walked around campus, ending up laying in the sun on the quad. Oh, college days! Here was the view from my spot of lawn.
That night's show was probably my favorite of the three. It was set in the ancient middle east and involved allegory, women's lib, and dancing. Some of my favorite things. Here's a highlight reel:
Saturday August 9th
In the morning we went to the Farmer's Market at the Embarcadero and it was totally awesome. Tons of booths and unlike Austin, it wasn't just soap and cheese and knitting. You could really do your weekly grocery shopping there, staples and all. I had this awesome huge peach and a pastry that was kinda like a little pizza with goat cheese, peach and prosciutto.
Then we met up with Shannon, Lacey, Emmit and their friends at Golden Gate park.
We went inside the Conservatory of Flowers and saw some cool butterflies and orchids in the greenhouse.
Then we went to the de Young museum, the new modern art museum in the park. The architecture was really interesting and there was a lookout where you could go up and see a panorama of the city. This is me being Modern Art.
I'm pointing to Texas on this painting
We ate a late lunch, and then hauled it back to Union Square to get ready for the show. The show that night was a French Revolution seductive political intrigue story, kind of like Dangerous Liasons. One more round of highlight photos:
A big thanks to everyone in Get Up and the festival making it all so funzies.
That night we did a folktale kind of show--a little bit of small town magical realism for this town that was once slow, but is now fast, but then gets slow again. It was a fun show and it was a big honor to have Tim Orr from 3 For All in the audience. There was a great photographer and videographer on staff, so we got some great pics.
Here's some highlights.
Friday August 8th
We went to Berkeley, one of my favorite places in the country. Great weather, perfect level of density and liberalism, and a great college campus. We met Sara's friend Bruce there and got laughed out of Alice Water's restaurant, Chez Panisse, when we asked for a table for 3 without a reservation. So I took this picture outside the restaurant as if I was so full from all the good food.
We ended up at a lovely South American restaurant and then walked around campus, ending up laying in the sun on the quad. Oh, college days! Here was the view from my spot of lawn.
That night's show was probably my favorite of the three. It was set in the ancient middle east and involved allegory, women's lib, and dancing. Some of my favorite things. Here's a highlight reel:
Saturday August 9thIn the morning we went to the Farmer's Market at the Embarcadero and it was totally awesome. Tons of booths and unlike Austin, it wasn't just soap and cheese and knitting. You could really do your weekly grocery shopping there, staples and all. I had this awesome huge peach and a pastry that was kinda like a little pizza with goat cheese, peach and prosciutto.
Can you see how much I'm loving this?
Then we met up with Shannon, Lacey, Emmit and their friends at Golden Gate park.
We went inside the Conservatory of Flowers and saw some cool butterflies and orchids in the greenhouse.
Then we went to the de Young museum, the new modern art museum in the park. The architecture was really interesting and there was a lookout where you could go up and see a panorama of the city. This is me being Modern Art.
I'm pointing to Texas on this painting
We ate a late lunch, and then hauled it back to Union Square to get ready for the show. The show that night was a French Revolution seductive political intrigue story, kind of like Dangerous Liasons. One more round of highlight photos:
A big thanks to everyone in Get Up and the festival making it all so funzies.
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