Trick or Treat, Blogfriends!
Halloween, which is possibly this blogger's favorite holiday, is coming up this weekend! [Editor's note: I am desperately in need of costume ideas, if anyone has anything good.] More important than even Halloween, however, is this Friday's What Improv Group (W.I.G.) Halloween Special - for Grown-ups!
Although I'm sure you already know this, improv is all about the creation of characters and "scenes" on the spot, often with suggestions from the audience. While often comedic, scenes can be scary or dramatic, etc. as well. This Friday at 8 p.m. in the Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center's Studio Theatre, W.I.G. will explore all the facets of Halloween, from the hilariously irreverent to the skin-crawling creepy, and everything in between. You can buy tickets here, become Arts Collective's Facebook friend and look at some more rehearsal images here, and you can watch a jack-o-lantern man dance to a Ke$ha song here.
To prep for an evening of Halloween-themed improvised exploits, I asked the cast and director of W.I.G. some questions about the spooky holiday and the show itself:
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What is your favorite past Halloween costume?
Sarah Brodine, Ensemble: When I was a kid I wanted to be Marylin Monroe one year, with the red fingernails and the lipstick and the hair. My mom was helping me to make my hair Marylin perfect, and she actually burned me with the curler by accident. Obviously I got upset by this and started to cry, but my mom told me to stop because I would ruin my make-up. We also made boobs out of socks. Unfortunately, by the end of the night my boobs were around my stomach.
Stefany Thomas, Ensemble: The blue ballerina costume I wore when I was six. I wanted the red ballerina costume but it was too small. So my younger cousin wore it instead. I would love to be a blue ballerina now. Lol. As blue is my favorite color.
Candace Cooper, Ensemble: I think my favorite costume was probably the year i was a genie- actually i think that year my sister and I had the same costume but i thought it was the coolest little costume and it had pink slippers to match!
Daniel Johnston, Ensemble: I remember trying to shred some old jeans one time because I was doing a makeshift zombie outfit (this was before I'd ever done any costume designing) and so i took a blunt box cutter to them . . . either way, the pants ended up with completely straight cuts going down the sides as though a cat had gotten hold of them. So then I just took another pair outside and got them dirty.
Favorite Halloween memory?
Candace: I think my favorite Halloween memory is when my siblings and I were young, my father would take us trick-or-treating and he would where this striped sweater and hat that resembled Freddy Krueger's. My dad never watched horror movies really so he never really got it when kids were like, "ah man you look like Freddy! that's so awesome!"
Melissa Paper, Ensemble: When I was around 12 or 13, I decided to play Ouji board with a bunch of friends. My dad decided to flip the circuit breaker to make the lights go out. The next thing you know everyone runs out of the room freaking out. The adults pretended not to know what was going on, but when I caught my dad laughing later, I realized it was him. It was a good time.
Susan G. Kramer, Director: I grew up in a typical suburban neighborhood in Arbutus. Typical with one exception... a few houses down the street sat a haunted mansion way up on a hill. To approach the house, you had to go up two hundred steep brick stairs, walk down a long brick sidewalk which led to even more stairs... to the giant front porch. My friends and I KNEW this house was HAUNTED... 1). it was a mansion! 2). we never once saw ANYone who lived there... EVER... mowing the lawn, nothing! Year after year we dared each other to knock on the door on Halloween night! We never had the guts, until one year. A dozen or so 10 and 11 year-olds took a collective deep breath and began the journey up those dark stairs, cackling and panicking at the same time. Finally, FINALLY we knocked on the door! When the giant door creaked open, these screaming creatures (in costume) came at us from all sides... from inside the house, from the bushes! My friends and I were frozen in our footsteps until one kid eeked "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!" And oh we ran... shrieking and crying and laughing the whole way home! It took us days to recover! By the way, the second the door opened, I was able to see inside the house... they were having a party. And the people who lived there? Hippies. Then I felt all cool because I lived down the street from hippies.
What's your favorite thing about Halloween?
Matt Winer, Ensemble: I absolutely love being scared. Going to haunted houses and corn mazes, watching horror movies, and seeing people in costumes just makes you that much more suspicious of any little noise or movement. Like that strange noise coming from RIGHT BEHIND YOU.
Chris Adams, Ensemble: Pretending to be someone else. The creative freedom; since you don't have to conform to someone else's social norms, you can pretty much do what you want.
Do you have a favorite ghost story or urban legend?
Daniel: I'm a big fan of "there's someone in the backseat!" But nothing is more terrifying to me than "the calls are coming from upstairs!"
What's your favorite scary movie?
Matt: It's definitely a tie between the Nightmare on Elm Street series and the Scream trilogy (soon to be a quadlogy!) Both series have the ability to make you LOL (that's laugh out loud) one moment and PYP (that's pee your pants) the next. I like a good morbid sense of humor.
Susan: THE EXORCIST. Without question! I was a "child" when this film came hit the theatres... and ohhh, it hit those theaters with more warnings and hub-ub than I ever remember (back then). The media reported those who viewed the film were forever changed and even placed into madness!!! It was CRAZY! Then, when I viewed it for the first time, at the Hollywood Movie Theatre, in Arbutus, the walk home with friends after was unnerving, very scary. That night. I had to baby-sit. Years later, I still view that film as being so ahead of its time... as well as such a perfect depiction of that exactly era. Beautiful writing, direction, editing... and purity in performances. None will ever surpass this film. (In my humble opinion).
Tom Matera, Ensemble: The Exorcist. Fantastic director, great characters... and the fact that it happened right around my house made it extra cool.
Favorite scary movie villain?
Candace: This is a tough one- I guess I would have to say the unknown or evil in movies like Emily Rose, the Exorcist, and Amittyville Horror the fact that you cant actually see the things that are possessing them or hurting them is what gets me the most!
Daniel: Pamela and Jason Voorhees. One day I intend to marry into the Voorhee's family. Can you imagine Thanksgiving?
Stefany: Leatherface. Lol. He was a psycho dumbass that was too smart for his own good. There was no escaping Leatherface and if you thought you were in the clear you were "dead" wrong.
What scares you?
Matt: When it comes to scary movies, anything where there's human beings inflicting terror on other human beings for seemingly no purpose--or just because they're crazyballs--scares the crap out of me. Honorable mentions go to: bugs laying eggs in one's body, the THX sound that plays before movies, and drowning in a pool of mayonnaise.
Melissa: Jaws. I saw it when I was way too little, 5 or 6, and I was convinced by the time I went to bed that he was under my bed. I was sure that if I had a limb hanging off the bed he would get me.
Chris: Things that come back to life, dead people. You know them, so you don't want to kill them.
Why do a Halloween-themed improv show?
Candace: Halloween is a holiday that people can relate to on many levels I think its a lot of peoples favorite holiday. it's a time to dress up and be silly or scary, perhaps be someone else, and use your imagination. What better vehicle for that then improv?!
Ashanti Cooper, Ensemble: It's fun! Because it's Halloween.
Chris: When you do improv in general, you can explore the truths in life. The same is true for horror movies, which explore the truths of life in subversive, thrilling ways. So this gives you an opportunity to further explore what horror films etc., were saying at the time.
What's been your favorite part of the "rehearsal" process so far?
Stefany: We played a game during one rehearsal where I played an orphan on a train. I truly enjoyed listening to the story and finding a way to tie her into the plot. To me, she was really just a spirit.
Ashanti: Exploring different characters, games, etc. because it opens up a lot of different ideas and lets us play. I think I really enjoyed a scene we did called the Red Room because it was a great story that flowed very well.
Tom: To expound upon what Ashanti was saying, it's fun to get to delve deeply into the characters.
Thanks to everyone that came out to see last weekend's run of the show! Unfortunately it's your very LAST CHANCE to see 1001 this weekend, Blogfriends! It's also your LAST CHANCE to purchase season subscriptions! [Buy tickets and subscriptions here.]
