We had our last Sybilization rehearsal last Sunday and the show opens this Sunday (November 3). The show will feature 3 or 4 of us from the workshop each night, plus some other solo performers (poets, musicians, dancers, etc.).

The workshop schedule was so short (just six weeks) that we were all encouraged to work with a personal coach outside the workshops. About half the group are working with past graduates of the Sybilization process and about half are working with other directors who are experienced with solo work. I'm in the latter category and Jen Ellison has been kind enough to kick my ass through a few rehearsals.

I took a bunch of pictures at rehearsal that I've given to Megan to give to Holly to put on the Playground website, but as a teaser, here's Chad hitting on himself and Andy taking notes:

Umm... come see the show!

hello. last week, we did 10 minute sybils. lesson learned for me: justify. justify. justify. be specific. be specific. be specific.

Great workshop with Jim Jarvis last Sunday. Did some character release exercises. I created a character based on my PR experience -- tried out a character of a woman that owns her own PR firm. Jim mentioned that Meisner technique played a part in the exercises. When I practiced the character on my own, this PR woman wanted to make the world a better place -- empower her employees -- loved her job and maintained her own power as a boss while empowering those that worked for her -- owned an agency with hardly any turnover (rare in reality). She was upbeat, eccentric and genuinely loved technology (the thing she promoted).

When we did the character release interview where Jim asks your character a series of questions, suddenly this character was forced to reveal many other emotions and it turned out that she merely hid her lonliness behind her work load and under the guise that she was so needed by her employees, she never took care of her own self. Also she was a bit screwed up when it came to love because of this one man that hurt her so badly. So, I felt like the character I brought in with me to class went from happy and quirky to sad really quickly through the series of release questions. It's like he dug under her mask. Interesting. Jim also reminded us that "acting is personal." So true. I don't know, the release exercise was helpful, but I felt like it forced the characters to reveal or perhaps create "issues" and/or "hang-ups." In order to answer his very personal release questions, I (not the character!) simply pulled from one of my own hard past experiences. It's amazing how you can pull these emotions up just by "thinking" of one event in the past. It is my understanding that the Meisner technique does this. I suppose the hope (at least while improvising) is that you have learned from the past in order to handle what emotions come up on stage -- that way, you don't fall into the trap of judging yourself and hence, fall out of character. Certainly not too funny to hear about a character's "hang-ups" (or was it mine, from the past?!?!) but fortunately "trying to be funny" didn't seem to be our main goal. Anyway, good times and definitly interesting.

All the other Sybilites had some really complex and interesting characters. We went overtime 40 minutes and none of us (at least I didn't) even noticed.

Wow! We did Sybilz (that was a typo, but I think I'll keep it) yesterday -- our second workshop. We did some warmups and then some two-character scenes and then Andy handed out a sheet with the Sybil format on it. He went through it and then we took a quick break. "Cool", I thought, "we'll have a week to read this over and think about it and we'll do the format in a week or two." We came back from break and did Sybilz!

I went late in the group and had some definite ideas about how I wanted my first Sybil to go -- I wanted to have a bunch of scenes and loop around to a story. So, of course, I did two long scenes that had little to do with each other. Improv karma. Next week is our guest instructor -- Jim Jarvis -- who's doing a character workshop.

Let's talk about Chad baby, let's talk all 'bout me...Chad has a BFA in Theatre Performance from Southwest Missouri State University. His favorite roles include "Khlestakov" in The Inspector General, "Huck Finn" in Big River, and "Kobby" in the Visit. He's been in Chicago for just over two years and since has become an addict of improv. Chad can currently be seen playing with Cinco de Bob at The Playground, Trick Dogs at Improv Olympic, and with Angry White Guy at WNEP. He would like to thank laughter for keeping him sane (for the most part).

Tony Seales is thrilled to be making his solo debut in Sybilization. Tony was a pre-law student at the University of Florida for one miserable year. After that, he began studying theatre, where he discovered Theatre Strike Force and the art of improvisation. His favorite roles include Austin in True West, Buff in SubUrbia and the Dentist in Little Shop of Horrors. Shortly after college, he moved to Chicago where he has been performing and studying for two years. Tony can currently be seen in several improv groups: Atticus Finch at The Playground, Lava Lamp at Frankie J's on Broadway and OTIS at Improv Olympic. He would like to thank his mom Liz for being so kick ass.

Our homework from our first Sybilization workshop was to post our bio. So here's mine:
Fuzzy Gerdes has been improvising since 1990. He has studied with the Annoyance and ImprovOlympic training programs. He tours nationally with the two-man improv group Bare, and was last seen on the Playground stage in the Directors Series show 1000 Monkeys, directed by Jen Ellison.

Hi everyone! It was great to meet all of my fellow sybil-ites last Sunday. As per our director's request here is my sorted and saucy theatrical past. I played the role of Winnie the Pooh in fifth grade and then things really took off from there. I graduated from The Second City Training Center in 1996 and was quickly and gladly roped into their first ever "gay/lesbian outreach program". This was the genesis of the award winning sketch comedy troupe GayCo Productions which I am a co founder of. I also was an understudy for The Second City National Touring Company for a while. I am a native Chicagoan and graduated with my B.A. in Speech and Performing Arts from U.N.I. It has been my pleasure to work with the very talented folks at The Red Orchid theatre and The Shattered Globe. In my very distant past, 1986, I studied at the Improv Olympic.