Cocktales & Conversations
Cocktales & Conversations
By Inside Voices
Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival, Purple Venue
Here’s and intriguing improve troupe with a new approach to the genre. This part coffee klatch, part medium length improv follows Janine, Lauren and Camille as they take a few audience words and then sit around discussing them until they get some rough ideas. Then play with the motivations until there’s a new little world just for this show. Today’s concept was “Driven”, and we followed a helicopter mom with a perfect daughter as she grills a strangely tongue tied teacher whose main response to Helicopter Mom’s challenges was a deep breathing exercise. Then we went down to the children’s level, poked around their home life, and rejoined the parent teacher conference from heck. We heard some laughs, a few chortles and some solid giggling, but there were also long period of flatness as the troupe struggled to get and run with a good gag. Oddly, once a scene did bring some laughter, it was cut short. There some intriguing improvisations on the improv standards here but the results are certainly a mixed bag.
This commentary was based on a technical rehearsal.
This production is part of the 2014 Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival. Information on tickets and show times may be found at http://OrlandoFringe.org/
