Suck Yeah! by Stayci Taylor
Back from the 2nd annual New Zealand Improv Festival in Wellington this month, and ConArtists has a brand new long form show to add to its canon, called Bite Me: Fangprov. Yes, if the title is wrapped around a colon you know it’s classy.
It was (ConArtist creative director) Greg Cooper’s idea to make a show based around the current enthusiasm, nay, hysteria for the vampire genre. Then he promptly buggered off to do a show about Edgar Allan Poe in Christchurch. Irony or poetic justice, you be the judge.
The group (or, now that I’m fluent in vampire – nest) was formed and Penny Ashton, Nigel Burrows, Clare Kelso, Chris Neels and myself put ourselves on a strict diet of Twilight, True Blood and various calorific offerings as we researched the genre. It soon became apparent that Clare was overqualified. The woman owns every season of Buffy ever made and can quote Anne Rice down to the page number.
So armed with our resident expert in vampire law and a free rehearsal space (we love the mighty Drake) we set upon 6 weeks of workshopping – a hilarious process where we learned many new skills and challenges, including you can’t enter a scene as your vampire character and cheerfully announce “Good Morning”! Not unless you plan to launch yourself into an instant fiery death.
Actually we did practise instant fiery deaths. It involved a demonstration from our resident dance captain Penny Ashton and proved impossible to recreate without going into a jazz ballet run in our attempts to exit invisibly. We also had decisions to make about fangs – to imply or to costume? Nigel was particularly keen on the latter, although his enthusiasm seemed to wane after he was put in the unfortunate position of having to converse with local constabulary in the middle of the night whilst wearing them. His story goes he was ‘just trying them out for size’ …
Fangs or no fangs, we had to come to terms with the fact necks had to be bitten. After one last particularly enthusiastic session in Wellington, Chris found himself performing his Bite Me: Fangprov debut sporting an impressive hickey.
The festival is a fantastic initiative of WIT: The Wellington Improv Troupe. This year there were more shows, including two from Impro Melbourne, and more chances to jam with other players, including our great pals from Christchurch’s Court Jesters – whose show quite coincidentally had exactly the same costume concept as ours. (And if you wonder why a vampire show requires gingham, checks and denim, just watch an episode or two of True Blood.) Friends were made. Notes were shared. Workshops were attended, even after late night Fringe Bar karaoke sessions involving tequila. And, like Austen Found: The Undiscovered Musicals of Jane Austen (see what I mean about a colon?), we hope this new show proves just as immortal.
Cast of Bite Me
Stayci Taylor is an actor with ConArtists and directed Bite Me: Fangprov for the New Zealand Improv Festival, Bats Theatre, Wellington 7 – 10 October 2009
Dance Captain says why we didn’t do spirit fingers I’ll never know.