Show: 26
Title: Silent Movie!
Category: Clowning / Comedy / Drama / Improv / Original Music / Physical Theater / Non-verbal
By: The Improv Movement Project
Directed by: Sean Dillon and Mark Benzel
Location: Barker Center
Summary: An entirely improvised silent movie, created by the troupe based on the result of three spinning wheels.
Highlights: This show is a delight, and kind of miraculous how this troupe of silent physical theater improvisors (Sean Dillon, Mark Benzel, Elizabeth Dunn, Erin Sheppard, Evie Digirolamo, Gregory Parks, Luke Fanning, Mandi Bedbury, Rachel Buhman, and Victoria Pyan) are able to create a complete and cohesive story without speaking. At the start of the show, co-director Sean Dillon spins three wheels to determine the genre (bump in the night at the show I attended), plot (long-lost treasure), and star (Elizabeth). Once they have done one of these items, they cross it off so that each of the five shows is a totally different combinations. While I didn't always complete understand what was happening, it was always entertaining, and I got the general gist of the story which was some sort of evil growing plant, a little like The Last of Us, or "don't feed the plant" (or in this case don't eat the plant. The performers would clap and use a hand signal to call for different types of scenes - slow motion, close up, wide shot (with one performer's fingers walking across the others shoulders and outstretched arms), or thoughts. And occasionally they'd make a motion to bring the lights down, and start a new scene. It's really clever storytelling, with the performers communicating in some silent language (or telepathy) what's coming next in the story. They're all talented improvisors and physical theater actors, with apparently no sense of personal space because they literally climb all over each other, like they're one body telling the story. Final show Sunday at 7!
