Talent Show

Something I wanted to do before wrapping up this blog was to document the performance line-up of the Tuesday night cabaret, which featured David Ferney (Dell’Atre) and Mark McKenna (Touchstone) as suitably charming emcees. If I’ve gotten a name wrong or overlooked one of the acts, please let me know, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got them all, even if the order is slightly off. I think everyone was extremely impressed by the caliber of the talent across the board.

1. Laurie McCants (Bloomsburg): Call-and-response
2. Levi and Dad (Camp Winnebago): Two tunes: one of the traditional Camp Winnebago songs, plus a bit of a song that was apparently from “Little Einsteins” (which explains why I swear it sounded like ‘The Anvil Chorus’).
3. Stephen Buescher (Workhorse): bowling pantomime to hip-hop music
4. LAVA/Valconao Love inc. and NaCl collaboration: Songs accompanying dances so athletic that they may qualify as "acrobatics"
5. Rolf Sturm (Strike Anywhere): solo jazz guitar
6. Kali Quinn (GUTWorks): Short play involving an old woman in a nursing home, her nurse and other roles, compressing a remarkable range of emotion and information in a brief time
7. Natascha Smith (Irondale Canada): Funny monologue set at speed-dating
8. Damen Scranton (Irondale): Rowan Atkinson routine involving taking attendance at an English boy's school*
9. Dawn Crandell and helpers (Playback): Poem/dance, followed by Playback improv demonstration
10. John Flax (Theater Grottesco): Funny/bittersweet monologue from boyish "Henry" about animal toys (which John told me later is basically the Romeo and Juliet story). Possibly the most beloved performance of the evening.
11. Mark and David (hosts): A little sketch involving Terry Greiss’ fondness for fly-fishing
12. Wellend Scripps (Irondale): ballad about winning a bride in a poker game
13. Shirley Anderson (Zoo District): A trio of poems involving love, heartbreak and Ben Gazzara (hilarious!)
14. Shayamala Moorty (The Post Natyam Collective and TeAda Productions): Possibly autobiographical dance/poem/improv piece that unexpectedly hinges on toilet paper
15. Irondale chorus: "Camp Winnebago" song for big finish

Something that's occurred to me after the fact is the idea that many if not most of these would be viable Youtube clips. I'm not sure how many theaters dabble in putting short sketches or performances on Youtube, but it seems like a natural. If you've got a show with a 2-5 minute piece that could stand alone as a funny, touching or appealing clip, it may be relatively simple to videotape it and post it on-line. (I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that somewhere on line you can find practical tips for sound and picture quality that would suit the little Youtube screen.) Even though Youtube has become increasingly common and the films increasingly sophisticated in the past year, clips don't have to be elaborate mini-movies. One of Youtube's most popular clips (at least in the first half of 2006) was simply a guy sitting at a desk playing a rockin', virtuoso electric guitar version of Pachelbel's "Canon."

A nice Youtube clip strikes me as a handy way to promote the kind of work a theater does and the kind of entertainment one particular show offers -- like the equivalent of a "trailer for coming attractions" of a movie. At the very least, it could offer a hint at the kind of work your theater's ensemble regularly produces, and generate a little word of mouth -- on potentially a national/global scale, if it becomes a popular "viral video" that friends and bloggers share with each other. I imagine a show like theater simple's '52 Pick-Up,' which tours a lot, might get a lot of benefit from a clip like that (assuming they don't have one already). Talent like the kind we saw Tuesday night need not be a one-time thing.

* BTW, one of the most amusing surprises of the evening occurred when Damen took attendance of the smutty-named students ("Anus... Arse-bandit... Myprick... Yourprick") and concluded, incongruously, with "Leese Walker." I happened to be sitting next to Leese and she EXPLODED with laughter.