Propless Review
I saw the improv production, Propless on May 18, 2018 in the lecture hall at Cheshire Academy. This production was directed by Sam Weed. Propless was an entirely improvised show in which the actors performed many improv games. These included park bench, the blind dating game, one minute scene, first line last line, and not a box. All of these games highlighted comedy, some of which was through audience participation. In Propless, the director used minimal costumes, set pieces, sound and lighting. All of the performers wore jeans and white shirts with their last names on the back. Due to the fact that the show is all improvised, the costumes can’t correlate to the plot because it is unknown exactly what will happen. The only sounds used in the production were from the timer that was used in some games to determine the length of the scene, and the cow buzzer that was used to stop the scenes. In this show there weren’t specific characters because in each game everyone made up new characters on the spot.
In my opinion Julia Rafferty was the best actress. I think this because she did the best with whatever prompt was given to her. Sometimes the things that she needed to act out were very challenging and she did really well responding to that. One example of this is, when her group was given a prompt, “date in stop and shop” during the one minute scene game. That was a hard prompt and she did a good job leading her group by including everyone in the scene. Since the prompt was about a date, and there were three people in the scene the hardest part was finding a way to ensure everyone was involved. Another reason Julia was a my favorite was because her performances were very comedic. For example, when she was impersonating Mr. Cirmo during the blind dating game she did a really good job of making sure that she portrayed exactly who he was. I don’t know Mr. Cirmo but after her portrayal I now have a good idea of what he is like.
All in all, I did like the production propless. I mainly liked it because of how comedic it was. To be specific I liked the blind dating game and park bench. These both were extremely funny because of both audience participation and the way that the actors portrayed the characters. While I enjoyed this production there is room for improvement in several areas. First, I think that the set changes could have been thought out a little more. For example, at one point there were four chairs put out instead of two and they needed to take time to fix the chairs. In addition there were some points in the show when it was hard to understand some of the plots of the scenes. An example of this was the scene about Romeo and Juliet. I couldn't really tell what was going on and as the scene progressed I got increasingly confused.
From watching this production I learned that as long as you don’t let the audience know that you forgot a line or missed something, they won’t know. I can apply this to my own theater experiences, if I ever get stuck forgetting a line then I should just improv until I can get back onto the script.
In my opinion Julia Rafferty was the best actress. I think this because she did the best with whatever prompt was given to her. Sometimes the things that she needed to act out were very challenging and she did really well responding to that. One example of this is, when her group was given a prompt, “date in stop and shop” during the one minute scene game. That was a hard prompt and she did a good job leading her group by including everyone in the scene. Since the prompt was about a date, and there were three people in the scene the hardest part was finding a way to ensure everyone was involved. Another reason Julia was a my favorite was because her performances were very comedic. For example, when she was impersonating Mr. Cirmo during the blind dating game she did a really good job of making sure that she portrayed exactly who he was. I don’t know Mr. Cirmo but after her portrayal I now have a good idea of what he is like.
All in all, I did like the production propless. I mainly liked it because of how comedic it was. To be specific I liked the blind dating game and park bench. These both were extremely funny because of both audience participation and the way that the actors portrayed the characters. While I enjoyed this production there is room for improvement in several areas. First, I think that the set changes could have been thought out a little more. For example, at one point there were four chairs put out instead of two and they needed to take time to fix the chairs. In addition there were some points in the show when it was hard to understand some of the plots of the scenes. An example of this was the scene about Romeo and Juliet. I couldn't really tell what was going on and as the scene progressed I got increasingly confused.
From watching this production I learned that as long as you don’t let the audience know that you forgot a line or missed something, they won’t know. I can apply this to my own theater experiences, if I ever get stuck forgetting a line then I should just improv until I can get back onto the script.
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