So, it was another busy improv weekend with a show on Friday night in Baltimore and a nice long workshop with Upright Citizen's Brigade on Saturday. Then Sunday was filled with 2 hours of a writing session for the Pig summer show. Applied to Baltimore Improv Festival for the Pigs. Ran some errands and tried to relax a little on Sunday (not easy to do when I feel like I have so much to catch up on or in some cases, start)!

Friday night's show with Gus introduced Alex as one of our newest members. I am no longer the new guy; however, Alex has been involved as a performer with BIG longer than I have. He was doing a lot of short form with another troop and then came on board as one of the first members of Mister Licorice, which is a long form troop I started in November. I'd say he is doing well with both. I like his physicality on stage and how he adds to the scene. I think our styles are very similar and compliment each other well.

Overall, I thought our show on Friday night was okay. I would have to say that it wasn't my best stuff but I enjoyed being out there. I thought we all did a pretty good job of listening to each other and trying to be creative. My major problem is that I doubt myself a lot and, honestly, we don't get complimented by the audience very much. I mean, at least for me (and maybe this is true for others), nobody pulls me aside or even in passing and says, "Great show" or "I liked that scene where ______." Just doesn't happen much. But then again, maybe I am not that good, which is certainly a possibility. Does this mean I would stop? Not ever! I just need to keep practicing and perfecting myself in this art.

Satuday's workshop was with Neil Casey from UCB. I saw him perform with one of my favorite troops that I watched at the Dirty South Festival this year, Death by Roo Roo. They were so over the edge and came up with same really interesting characters. He was really good at showing us how to pull the game out of long form. We concentrated on the Harold, which is a well known long form format. We only concentrated on and opener of word association and then 1st and 2nd scenes of a Harold. Typically there are 3 scenes for each and then a group game and then those three scenes are brought back again, group game and then 3 more times it is completed. We just did the first set of 3 and then another set of 3. But actually we were focused only 2 person scenes so we did it 4 times. I learned a lot about responded realistically to my partner. I mean, like having a honest reaction to what they are saying and then responded appropriately.

Yesterday I went over Anne's house and we just tried writing down every thought or idea we have about "Going Green" and recycling. I think we came up with some cool ideas. We are going to split up the list we made and try to write something on our own. I think it will be cool to see what develops. I don't do a lot of sketch writing so this practice will help me improve.

Other than that the weekend was fair to moderate in terms of my mood. This was my 3rd weekend in a row without seeing Susan and it's still tough. I am sure that it hasn't helped that we've spoken on the phone during the week and talked about why we shouldn't be together. But for now - Que Sera Sera!