String of Pearls

I got to see the SImps (Stanford Improvisors) perform tonight. After watching so much of Whose Line is it Anyway? over the last couple years, it was a lot of fun to go see some live improv. Especially since they did a lot of different games, or different variations of games that I'm used to seeing on Whose Line.

I think my favorite new game was the last one, called String of Pearls, which took all 8 people. Everyone starts off in the background, and there's an imaginary line across the front of the stage, with 8 imaginary spots in it. That line represents the story they're about to create. One person steps forward into an arbitrary spot in the line, probably somewhere in the middle, and says a line that will fall in that part of the story. Then another person picks another spot, makes up another line, and they each say their line in order. Other members fill in the rest of the line, repeating the fragmentary story as each one comes in, until the whole thing is finished. So not a lot of acting in that one, I guess, but the story-creation process is cool.

Another thing I liked was how the person on the synthesizer participated in all the scenes, not just the musical games. She did sound effects sometimes, as well as background music. That was a nice touch.