scene within a scene
More than just meta, improvised show "Process" is pure play
Photo by Steve Rogers
Photo by Steve Rogers
Photo by Steve Rogers
Photo by Steve Rogers
Process, an improv show directed by Jeremy Sweetlamb now running at the Hideout Theatre, has a high-brow premise that goes down surprisingly easy in the execution.
The show emulates the process of putting on a play. In three acts, we see a full-fledged play invented from scratch: during the first and second acts, we see the auditions and rehearsal, and during the third act, we see what is presumably the third act of the play-within-a-play, staged with costumes and rudimentary sets.
Sound complicated? Perhaps even Tom Stoppard-esque? It’s also hilarious.
Jeremy Sweetlamb, founder and producer of the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival, explains how the show evolved. “For me, improv is the art of process. The performers are right on the edge of creation in front of a live audience and they are each their own director, playwright, designer, and actor. So, the audience gets to see the artist creating everything immediately, with all the mistakes, discoveries, and rewards on full display. . . . In Process, we just take that to the next logical step and call attention to the ridiculous and great parts of putting on a scripted play.”
Ridiculous indeed. Each week the show tackles a different genre; the night I saw the show, the play-within-a-play was called “Death of a Nightingale,” a southern gothic drama penned by the fictional playwright Marianne Williams, who, we were given to understand, was Tennessee’s less talented niece.
In three acts, we see a full-fledged play invented from scratch: during the first and second acts, we see the auditions and rehearsal, and during the third act, we see what is presumably the third act of the play-within-a-play, staged with costumes and rudimentary sets.
(Titles are suggested by the audience; the runners-up, used in throwaway gags, included “Nuclear Summer,” “Let’s Sing About Sex” and “Bed of Leeches.”)
“Death of a Nightingale” featured characters and situations straight out of the Tennessee Williams playbook: a boy on the brink of manhood; a raging, impotent father; a meek, self-sacrificing mother in love with a stoic neighbor. But, in a delightfully knowing twist on the genre's typical preoccupations with masculinity, it also featured a singing mailman who, it was revealed, struggled with his gender identity. “I’m a mailman, but I’m not a male, man,” quipped actor John Ratliff in character as the confused mailman, who donned a pair of sparkly bellbottoms and a boa in the third act.
About that flamboyant costume. It, along with all the other costumes, was improvised. As impressive as it is to see a play created onstage before your eyes, an equally bravura performance is happening simultaneously backstage, where other members of the cast, listening to a live feed of the performance, assemble a set, props, and costumes in time for the third act. During the first and second acts, the "crew" sifts through dozens of costumes and builds ad hoc stage sets out of butcher paper, poster paints, and anything else they can get their hands on.
Hideout Theatre’s director of design Kaci Beeler, a member of the award-winning improv group Parallelogramophonograph, describes the chaos backstage: “They’re running downstairs to buy food if there are food props. They're using a blow dryer to dry paintings they just made. They're putting together headshots for our cast wall, writing down lighting and sound cues. . . . During the 10-15 min intermission it's a mad house,” she says.
Sweetlamb waxes poetic about the theory behind Process — “Imagine all the unfinished or painted-out Van Gogh's and Dali's we never got to see” — but the show itself never feels heady despite its meta-premise. It cleverly combines improvisation and traditional theater in a way that says fresh things about both, without ever boring the audience. Those who know something about theater will find the onstage feats of improvisation hilarious.
Those who know something about improv will find the offstage feats of improvisation heroic. And those who know nothing about either will be thoroughly entertained.
And what is Sweetlamb’s favorite performance so far?
“‘The Hole to Nowhere,' the first show we did, which was set in a hollowed-out Italian church during World War I and involved intrigue, betrayal, and lost love. The play was awesome and the show around it was hilariously awesome. But I have a feeling that the one we are doing on March 31, an all-girl cast directed by Kaci [Beeler], will rival 'The Hole to Nowhere.’”
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Process stars Ace Manning, Alex Dobrenko, Jon Bolden, Caitlin Sweetlamb, Courtney Salinas, Halyn Lee Erickson, Jason Vines, Jeremy Sweetlamb, Michael Joplin, Jordan T. Maxwell, Kaci Beeler, Kareem Badr, Marc Majcher, John Ratliff and Ruby Willman. Tickets are available for $12 at the door or $13 in advance at www.hideouttheatre.com. The show runs every Saturday, March 31 through April 28, at 8:00 p.m.
