Just a short post here to brag about the SFI Student Team that I coach—Space Cactus.
Every team I have coached has been really special, and I’m proud of all of them, but this team is really something else. They took on a completely new form (new to them and essentially new to me as well)—the monoscene—and in their first live performance, they just NAILED IT.
The form itself is a tough one, especially for newer players, as it gives you no easy way to reset, no reprieve, no do-overs. This team has a mix of experience, but many of them have been doing long-form improv for less than a year. The go-to form (in my opinion) for less experienced teams would be something like the 3 Act Monologue Deconstruction (which I’m sure has a real name; it just escapes me at the moment). It is essentially three montages off of short monologues. But those three montages (in our 20-minute student sets) are only like five minutes apiece. It is a lot more comfortable to be able to reset every few minutes, and I would argue any team can do a passable 15–20 minutes when they get to break it up into essentially discrete 5-minute sets.
NONE of that is to take away from those who do that form (it is fun for new or experienced players alike). I only bring it up to provide a contrast to the monoscene where, no matter what, you’re stuck in the same location for 20 minutes. Likely with many of the same characters. Of course, there are absolutely ways to reset and regroup within a monoscene, but there is no eject button. You have to learn how to keep things on the rails, get back on the rails, and/or make sense of the crumbled mess of your derailed improv train. It isn’t easy.
But Space Cactus, with only a handful of rehearsal sets under their belt, produced what my Artistic Director called “one of the best monoscenes I have ever seen.” Which may have been a bit hyperbolic in the moment, but from my own perspective, it was genuinely very good. Everyone got in on the set and made good moves. Everyone was clearly listening, being patient, and just absolutely locked in. So yeah, it went really well, and I’m a proud coach.
I’m also pretty fucking terrified for their next performance. I know how demoralizing it can be to have an absolute banger of a set and then have the next performance be not great. Or even just “fine.” Feels bad, man.
So hopefully they can keep it going indefinitely, I guess. 😅