The Everyman Ensemble Theatre Presents:

Ronde & Ronde - When working in devised theatre, we are always looking for different ways to explore and experiment with the diverse stories that we have lived, seen, and imagined. This piece is a live exploration of stories using the long-form method of improvisation.

Improvisation, in its essence, is unscripted acting. Some time ago, someone added the word "comedy" in front of improv and created an unfortunate stigma that unscripted acting MUST be comedic. Add to the fact that the most popular form of improvisation is short-form improv, as seen in TV shows like Whose Line Is It Anyway, and the stigma lives on. While short-form improvisation is entertaining and interactive for an audience, long-form improvisation allows its actors to explore characters and themes in the moment. A long-form performance will feel like a stripped-down play that is being created in front of your eyes! Due to the exploration of storylines and complex characters, long-form tends to veer in the path of dramatic structures rather than comedic, and for this reason we wanted to come together and create these individualized pieces.

In our rehearsal process, we will play two-to-three long form games to understand what types of scenarios and characters our ensemble is interested in portraying and expanding upon. That is the only preparation we can do for these performances. Each game/exercise is unique and can last anywhere from 25-45 minutes. We start with a theme, that comes from an audience-generated suggestion, and depending on the game we are playing, we begin to deconstruct and play off of that theme.

The game we are basing these performances on is titled La Ronde, which follows a specific format of game play. This game is based on a play, by the same name, by Arthur Schnitzler. In his play, Schnitzler explores short scenes between two characters, of different status, that rotate each scene. Each character appears in only two scenes. The first two characters are A & B, A will then leave the scene and character B will engage in a new interaction with character C. At the end of this scene B will exit and C will have a new interaction with character D, and so on so forth. The last interaction is a scene including the final character, say character D, and the original character A, this scene ties the entire piece together. Along with this, time bounces back and forth between interactions to venture deeper into our character's lives.

What we want our audiences to know before coming to our performance is that, to fully enjoy this piece, they must release any preconceived notions of improvisation. There is no guarantee that any of the pieces we create will be comedic. As an ensemble, we are much more interested in showcasing our storytelling skills, rather than our comedic chops. We do our best to make sure our pieces are coherent and stay somewhat in the same world/timeline.

​There are three members in this performance, that will be playing a range of characters, in which we will try to separate with clearly different names, personalities, and attitudes. This format calls for limited audience interaction and we do not tolerate heckling or inappropriate behavior. We thank you in advance for your cooperation and we hope you enjoy this journey!

If you are interested in learning more about long-form improvisation or the La Ronde format, visit any of the following links:

Narrative-Based Improv:

improtheatre.com/narrative-improv/

Long-Form Language:

www.vice.com/en_us/article/4w78dp/the-hidden-language-of-long-form-improvisers-112​

La Ronde (Play):

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Ronde_(play)

​Long-Form Games:

​improvencyclopedia.org/categories/Long_Form.html

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