Book of Jason!

December 10

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

Wow. That was a fast year, wasn't it?

I'm pretty pleased how the year turned out; I acted in a drama which I loved to do, I wrote and directed two shows and I directed another long-form improv show. Along the way, I went completely full-time at ImprovOlympic and did a bunch of one-shot shows. Busy year. Usually, the John Lennon song "So This Is Christmas" ('and what have you done?') depresses me, but I think I did alright this year. I have some cool things in the works for 2003 which I'm really excited for.

Rejoined my beloved Pat Shay Dancers. We rehearsed with new coach, Peter Gwinn. He was the original coach about six or seven years ago. From the original team, only Pat Shay and I remain. When we were first put together and we were trying to come up with a name, Pat kidding around said that he should have the final say since he was the most important part of every show. Someone said that was good name; "The Pat Shay Show." We all added something and the final name to this day is: "Charna Halpern Presents a Peter Gwinn Production of The Pat Shay Show Starring Pat Shay and Featuring the Pat Shay Dancers." (or just "The Pat Shay Dancers" for short.) We just had a show this past Sunday and I thought it went very well. We resolved a few things with a few of the characters and that was fun. I felt kind of out of it as I was running on three hours of sleep. It's sad to think that I used to do that all the time, but I can no longer keep such hours. I used to work at the Blockbuster across the street from Second City and on the weekends I would open the BBV around 7 or 8am and work there until 5pm. I would sleep/eat in the break room for two hours and run across to SC and work there in the souvenir booth or coat check (when they were both downstairs- I think the store is upstairs now) until about 3 or 4am and do the same for three days straight (Friday, Saturday and Sunday.) Weird to think how insane that schedule was, but then that was nothing compared to the schedule I kept down in Champaign. I blame the lovely Golden Apple diner. Great place. Try the Cod.

Anyhow, the show turned out very good, regardless of my lackadasical energy. I was good support. It really feels good to be back with them. Rehearsals still crack me up and I love how we all work on such diverse shows (scripted and improvised) but we all come together at ImprovOlympic to worship Lady Improv in a particular way. I do my ridiculous shows. Rich Sohn does tons of Annoyance shows (he's Charlie Brown!), Nicky Margolis and Dina Facklis are with Second City TourCo, Angela Forfia and John Mulhern are coaching and doing other shows all over the city, Pat Shay is doing Hamlet, Chris Day does graphics on some of the coolest magazines around ("Alter Ego"), Dan Sipp produces awesome shows. Anyhow, go see one of their shows please.

I teach level 4 at ImprovOlympic. It's great. I think it's my favorite level to tteach; it's hardcore Harold. Using all the skills learned over the previous levels, we concentrate on ImprovOlympic's signature long-form and it's a joy to watch, teach, and perform. As I try to steer/encourage students to avoid cliches and improv stereotypes we have discovered some things that consistently happen in improv shows around town. Based on notes from my classes I made a bingo form that you can keep track of during any particular night of improvisation. If you see a square that corresponds to what's going on on stage, you mark off a square- first person if you get five in a row (across, down or diagonally) wins! Shout "Improv!" and you win! Try it this weekend!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, play with that. Just not during one of my shows, please.

Next Wednesday, the 18th, we're doing a staged reading of the "Star Wars Holiday Special." It's a truly awful piece of television history and I can't wait to do it. It's hilarious kitsch with Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia singing the joys of Life Day, Bea Arthur as the owner of the Cantina seen in Episode 4, Harvey Korman playing four different aliens... oy, it's just so awful. So we want to celebrate it with you. I was looking for stage reading to do for the holidays. "It's a Wonderful Life" seemed like the logical choice, but it's not really an ensemble piece. There's a terrific CD out there with the cast of the movie doing a radio version. Believe it or not, one day after filming the movie, Frank Capra brought the entire cast into a recording studio and did an entire radio version of the movie! They ran it once or twice, but that it was it... it's so great. This will not be. Please come. There may be nog.

END OF LINE

"Wow, that Boba Fett sure had us all fooled!" - Luke, in The Star Wars Holiday Special