I found an old DVD in the pile of odds-n-ends I call an apartment. Technology has finally caught with it and I'm able to finally put it online. It was part a two-week experiment at the iO Theater. Stephen Ruddy came up with a show called Gravid Water, where an improviser took the stage with a actor prepped with one-half of a scripted scene. The trick was for for the improviser to justify and merge with any seemingly non-sequitor lines from the scripted actor. For the scripted actor, the trick was not to allow the improvisation to throw them and to still allow (or change) the emotional delivery.
For my part, I only did one, but I really loved doing it. I was lucky enough to be paired up with Helen Kim. She played the Shotgun Assassin in Kill Bill 2. (You know, "Not that I need to be at this range, but I'm a f@#ing surgeon with a shotgun.")
So, she's delivering lines she's memorized from a play (I don't recall which one, sadly) and I'm improvising and reacting to what she's saying. It was performed in 2006.
Filed under: Chicago, iO Theater
Tags: gravid water, Helen Kim, improvisation, scripted
