Nude Improv!
The Concept:
My company and I have been discussing the various pros and cons of performing improv in the nude (no, seriously). We would do this for four reasons.
One, it would facilitate the breaking down of the various social barriers and norms which can inhibit us from getting at the truth of our lives and situations.
Two, it would force us to be extrodinarily brave on stage, since we would have absolutely nothing to hide behind. Gone would be the all the white lies, ego, pretense, and just plain schtick that keep us from producing truthful art.
Three, it would make it impossible for the audience to revert to the comfortable judgements we human beings all make about each other based on fashion and quality of clothing.
Four, shock value.
Bob Kennedy writes:
I checked out your page and I'm luridly curious: With four guys and two gals, how do the yea/nay votes break down in your group along gender lines?
I sure wouldn't perform nude improv, but I'm a fat, middle-aged guy with recent surgical scars. I'd be in the audience, but for all the wrong reasons.
The arguments you give on your website, that it would break down the barriers, force you to be braver onstage, etc. all get obviated by your final argument, shock value. If it winds up being a put-on or gimmick, that actually adds more barriers and detracts from the intensity of honest theater work. Playboy once featured a pictorial of a nude Vegas female magician and another of Rhonda Shear, a nude Vegas female standup. I got the distinct impression that these women weren't setting the entertainment world on fire on the basis of the quality of their work.
Vose Writes:
If these people want to do an improv show naked, I say go for it. There's certainly a lot of information that can be squeezed from that experience about group dynamics, distractions, concentration, audience dynamics, personal creative freedom, blah blah blah. Even if the show doesn't work, I'm sure the experience will be worth the effort. And, hey, it might work! Please keep us posted.
Jeff Writes:
Actually, I think in HAIR it was purposefully distracting. The whole point was to draw an audience to look at naked hippies. Saw a college production last year, and the audience was less interested at that moment in the hippie aesthetic than in saying what their classmates looked like in the buff.
Naw, mostly (even in scripted pieces) I think the audience stops thinking about the character and starts thinking about the actor, and that is exactly the opposite of what I think we're trying to do onstage. I know that when ABELARD AND HELOISE was done on Broadway, in the nude scene I wasn't thinking, "Oh, that's Heloise roaming around nude," I was thinking, "That's Diana Rigg without a stitch on and why aren't those lights brighter?" At that moment, I was out of that play and into my libidinous thoughts about Diana Rigg.
The only time I welcome nudity in a play is when the play is dreadful and I need something to keep me interested. On the other hand, I am a lot more forgiving of nudity outside of plays.
Shaun Writes:
Okay, so you were all gun ho over Riggs being naked. And granted, in theatre, once someone has to take off their clothes it is distracting move. But done correctly, and in context of the play, it can also be a powerful move. Of course people will leer at anyone naked. Or make comments on the actor, but I guess I have been doing theatre too long not to care if the actor is clothed or not clothed at look at the reasoning behind why the character is butt naked. It is all in ones personal view, and my view, I guess is outside of the norm.
Like I said before to the Denver folks, good luck...god bless...but have some damn good improv outside of just being naked.
AND DONT GET BUSTED FOR INDECENT EXPOSURE.
Good for you. And Stu...I don't come running that easy. There are not too many people who would want to see my fat puffy ass naked.
Shaun Himmerick Writes:
I am in Bare Essentials with Matt and have been part of the discussions that have developed. Many of the things that Shaun says are the reasons "I" like the theory. You have nothing to hide behind and your character must be doubly strong, if it isn't then you would show up much faster. Since Strong characters are essential to our Long Form that would be a bonus. Haven't thought much about the movement issue but do see a small problem with personal space.
Mr Happy, was aninteresting discussion. The question was that in theory we should be acting with all of our bodies, Could it be used as Acting with the whole body, that degenerated into a macho arguement about who thought the could get Mr. Happy to salute while on stage in front of an audience.
The biggest point you bring up to me is the point about comfort within the group. I feel the group would have to spend a couple full days together naked first to get to the point where we weren't looking and nearly tired of seeing each other naked. I mean all day naked breakfast rehearse lunch rehearse cook dinner eat dinner drink the night away.
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Last update 1 Sep 98.
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