This was my favorite Organic game from my Spring 2018 Patterns & Games Class. There’s just so much to love.  This one could never be rewritten as a sketch, and that’s an asset to me here.  

It was born collaboratively in-the-moment with an ending no one set out to see but felt too entirely perfect in retrospect.  We’re talking Improv As Improv Does Best here, folks. 

While Adrienne‘s initiation is the closest I’ve ever seen to her throwing an elbow in that hey-we’re-in-a-game-scene versus her typical emotionally grounded character work, it’s awesome watching Paul, Ben and Jonathan enter without needing to know where the scene’s going.  And listen to that audience laugh that comes from each player contributing quickly and emotionally one-after-the-other (that’s the quick speed we want in Hey Everybody initiations).

Adrienne names “Susie” and describes her as the prettiest girl in school.  Paul makes her tall, which Ben, Adrienne and Jonathan quickly heighten – “Like six feet tall,” “Very tall for the 8th grade.”

Now Adrienne names a “Rebecca” whose disgustingness is echoed in the group’s retching.  Jonathan makes “Rebecca” “so short.”

That moment Becky steps on stage is huge – so glad the two of them didn’t try to pull off the reveal from the lower stage. When Brittany steps up right beside her and their heighten difference is noticed by the audience you can hear the snap of retrospection and the laugh nearly drowns out Becky’s earnest line about “getting courage.”

Note that Becky and Brittany didn’t play for the edit – they turn to each other as if to keep the scene going – but the edit was definitely earned and Jonathan sweeps it out.

I love it.

Players are (in order of appearance): Adrienne Thompson, Paul Costen, Ben Hay,  Jonathan Mostowy, Becky Coppa and Brittany Andersen