2nd Conservatory Class and "The South Side of Heaven"

I had my 2nd Conservatory class yesterday and loved it. I was a little dizzy when I first got there because I hadn't eaten anything all day. But the hunger went away whenever we began our walking around exercise which I really enjoy. It just starts everybody off in a good place and allows us to get comfortable with one another before we go into scenes. I'm enjoying playing with everyone in my class. They're all committed and present, and we're kind of small for a class, or so I hear. Only 12 people. Which makes a little more close-knit and intimate. We then formed a line and did 2 person scenes. Our instructor Norm Holly would give us guidance in the scenes whenever we needed it, but never being heavy handed or negative. We split up in groups of 3 and and started scenes at a moment right after something awkward was said. So the first several seconds are steeped in silence until someone felt the urge to speak. In mine I had just been told that I was adopted by my lesbian parents and not carried in either of their wombs. It was really satisfying to have that natural tension build up and not feel the urge to rush to state something. The next 3 person group was the same exercise, only we built up to it and saw what causes the awkward pause. In that scene it was 3 guys going to see Brokeback Mountain when they had no idea what it was about, just that Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger are in it. At the end we all find out that we're secretly gay. Breaking up into another group of 3 we did a scene based on a situational faux pas which in normal situations wouldn't be that big of a deal, but in the correct context, is super important. Ours was 3 guys at a college football game who had all painted the letters of their college on their chests, but when one person paints the wrong letter on themselves, instead of UIT we became TIT. In our last group of 3, we're told to set up a situation where there's something that was never meant to be seen, but when it is, it needs to be dealt with. In ours it was 2 kids discovering that Santa Claus is real. But Santa becomes violent to protect his anonymity and we find out that he's near suicidal as well. I enjoyed all the scenes I did and the ones I didn't do. One of my favorites was about a family of dancers who find out their son wants to play basketball instead of perform ballet. The physicality that Danny, Ian, and Kristina had really took it to the next level. Next week we have to bring a theme song that a character of ours would enter a room to. I have nothing yet.

During our break I went downstairs and got a Burrito Bowl from Chipotle and ate it like a death row inmate. After class I decided I was going to try to get into the Second City mainstage show "The South Side of Heaven". After a little bit of "wait and seeing" I was given a free student pass and let inside. So I didn't feel like a complete freeloader, I ordered a Pepsi, misunderstood the offer and ended up buying a souvenir Second City glass, which is now the only glass I will drink milk out of. The show itself was amazing. I won't spoil any details for future viewers, but the scene work was seamless and there were times where shit just got real. It was a complete experience of all the basic human emotions and no one stood out as funnier or better than the other. It was a great ensemble and a great first SC show to see.

After that I hopped the Brown then Red line and made to i.O just in time to see Dummy in the upstairs Cabaret theater. I missed a few minutes at the beginning but they did a great job of coming back to it, so it all made sense. After them were The Murderers which was a really fun show as well that had making love to jellyfish in it. Whenever you think you've seen everything that improv can offer, someone fucks a jellyfish in front of you and the world is illuminated once again.