Posts Tagged ‘musical improv’
The Circuit is made up of improv ensembles consisting of veteran Magnet performers and students. Performances are every Friday night at 10pm at The Magnet Studio Theater. Congratulations to the following teams!
TEAM DOROTHY
Bob Kern
Emily Schorr Lesnick
Evelyn Peppas
Tim Lewis
Henry Bergstein
Nicole Lee
Tamar Gressel
Alex Ford
COACH – Teddy Shivers
TEAM ROSE
Jess Wyant
Nolan Constantino
Ari Miller
Bevin Campbell
Carolyn Bucas
Erica Wiederlight
Adam Pasulka
Sulaimon Beg
COACH – Michael McLarnon
TEAM BLANCHE
Chris Simpson
Joe Lepore
Katy Berry
Kerry Kastin
Jon Demuth
Daniel Atwood
Stephanie Leke
Chris Hastings
COACH – Kim Ferguson
TEAM SOPHIA
Jenn Stone
Kate Weinberg
Scott Morwitz
Melissa Caminneci
Sacha Nandal
Philipp Goedicke
Marc Davila
COACH – Laura Dlug
BEEES!!! turned 2 earlier this year! They are celebrating with a Two-Year Anniversary Show this Friday, March 29th, at 7pm, and you are all invited!
Formed in late December 2010, BEEES!!! gathered for the first time as a team at Mooncake, a few doors down from the Magnet Training Center. Over dinner and cheap Sapporo beers, they got better acquainted with one another. Some had taken the Magnet musical improv classes together, and were nervous and excited to be placed on their very first house team; others were seasoned performers, with years of improv and stage experience under their belts. What they all had in common, was their musical improv training under the brilliant Tara Copeland and Frank Spitznagel. BEEES!!! hit the Magnet stage for their first show on Tuesday, January 4th, 2011.
The meta show, November 2011. Photo by Keith Huang.
(Team Trivia: Michael Lutton came up with the team name, which won the majority of the votes, over gems such as “7 O’Clock,” “The Richard Cheddar Show,” and “Employee of the Month.”)
Inspirado winners! Dumb challenge (“Beethoven”), February 2012
Since then, BEEES!!! has performed regularly on Magnet Musical Tuesdays, survived two hurricanes (Irene and Sandy), won five Inspirado challenges, and performed in theaters and improv festivals throughout NYC and along the East Coast, including The Depot Theatre, Boston Comedy Arts Festival, North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival, NYC Improv Festival, and the New York Musical Improv Festival.
Harold Night at ImprovBoston, March 2012
The Depot Theatre in Westport, NY, July 2012.
BEEES!!! is happy and proud to call the Magnet Theater home. Come this Friday, March 29th, at 7pm and join them in celebrating 2 years of making beautiful musical improv together.
The BEEES!!! opening, artistically rendered by Desireé Nash
BEEES!!! is: Jamie Cummings, Michael Lutton, Desireé Nash, Steve Whyte, Catherine Wing.
Sleepytime at Chateau Whyte, North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival, February 2013.
Over the weekend the Director’s of The Magnet’s Musical Improv Program held a town hall to discuss changes in the program. Here is a recap of what was discussed:
1. There will be a Curriculum Change:
That’s the recap! See you at the shows!
Last night the Magnet expanded its musical improv program by doubling the number of Musical Megawatt teams. We saw the premiere of new teams Atticus, Legend, and the Montels, playing alongside vet teams Aquarius, Mint Condition, and BEEES!
Michael Martin kicks off Musical Megawatt
At the beginning of the night, the director of the musical program Michael Martin talked about how, seven years ago, Tara Copeland and Frank Spitznagel offered a musical improv elective, and how the program has since blossomed into six teams, dozens of performers, and hundreds of students.
New team Atticus took the stage first, telling the tale of Solomon Mann, whose spiritual journey brought him to indigent, indigenous, indignant Native Americans; to Arkansas’s only midnight improv theater; to Penelope the Corn Goddess.
Photo from the Magnet Theater’s Instagram feed
Drew Tarvin’s puns for this show are:
- Tickets disappear in a puff of smoke, so be sure to make reservations.
- So confident they’ll never Atticus Flinch.
- Some of the best meta improv you’ve ever Arkansas.
- A harrowing tale about taking on the Mann
- If the show is sold out, better try to scalp some tickets.
Photo from the Magnet Theater’s Instagram feed
Drew Tarvin’s puns for this show are:
- The perfect conditions for great improv–you’ll go mint-al.
- Pony up $7 and saddle up for one heck of a ride.
- Around award season, expect this team to win a My Little Tony.
- They may talk abut the S.A.T. but you wont be sitting when this one is over.
- Get schooled on performing improv with class, Mint Conditon packs some principow!
The worst picture of Lorraine I could find
Drew Tarvin’s puns for this show are:
- Caution: funny times a head.
- This little piggy went “Oui! Oui! Oui!” all the way home.
- What a hoot!
- This show will leave you in a body caste.
- Get out a map because this is one Legend you want to see.
Musical Director Frank Spitznagel!
Musical Megawatt’s MOST VETERAN TEAM Beees went on next, performing a slice-of-life set taking place in a Rite Aid. From the suggestion of the theme of “jealousy,” we saw the Rite Aid manager who liked passing along his grandfather’s advice in “talksies” with his employees; Karen (the most veteran Rite Aid employee), who was unsure about the mysteries of sex; a gay couple who just broke up after two and half years. Remember: don’t dig a hole if you already have one in the backyard.
The Magnet’s Most Veteran Musical Megawatt Team
Drew Tarvin’s puns for this show are:
- This team shows there aint nothin wrong with a little bump and Grindr.
- They may be called Beees but I give them an A.
- Stop digging for better improv, this team has the hole package.
- Is this team from Nevada because they left me green with NV.
- Bad improv left you feeling hurt? Beees has the Rite Aid.
New team the Montels were next, and from the suggestion of “candy” took us into Candyland, where tooth fairies worried for their existence, salads and health food were on the rise, people read Candy Gawker, and Colonel Custard waged war against Colonel Kale.
Colonel Custard and Colonel Kale battle for Candyland
Drew Tarvin’s puns for this show are:
- Grab some popcorn because these colonels are ready to pop.
- All kale the chiefs of great improv!
- Funny as health.
- With a team this funny, it’s no wonder Mon tells.
- Yes We Can-dy.
Clean comic Brian Regan and an old couple waiting for a bus
Drew Tarvin’s puns for this show are:
- It’s fun for Aquari-you, it’s fun for Aquari-me, it’s fun for Aquari-us.
- This comedy equals tragedy + rhyme.
- There’s nothing Rocky about this show, it’s out of this world.
- The character impersonations will make you stand-up as they get the play-wright.
- No need to shake your spears, this show completely works.
Congratulations to all the new teams who debuted last night! Musical Megawatt is now expanded to four shows a night: two shows at 7pm and two shows at 8:30pm. Check the calendar for showtimes!
Musical improv lovers, where were you January 7th? If you were anywhere but the Magnet then kick yourself in the ears and jump into an elevator shaft. If you were at the Magnet seeing the opening night of Choral Rage’s new weekend run, then massage your ears lovingly and take a leisurely elevator ride wherever you please.
Henry Kaiser and Justin Moran
Choral Rage, one of the Magnet’s veteran musical improv teams, returned to the main stage to perform a musical mono scene (sort of. Does it count if they go to an alternate version of the same location?). In their opening number we were introduced one by one to the characters, then launched into a set that included a disintegrating, loveless 30-year marriage; a four-person affair; a father/son rivalry with opposing kitchens in the same diner; a cross-country-traveling pair of lovers; and a cigarette machine that opened a portal to parallel reality diner. more
Tara Copeland originally formed Choral Rage back in July ’09, one of the first musical house teams at the Magnet along with Miracle Baby. After a brief hibernation, they perfected the art of the fully improvised rock opera, and more recently began honing the nuances of the musical monoscene.
Choral Rage’s personnel is comprised of a stellar cast of musical improv veterans: Angela DeManti (Weird Sisters/Phooka), Henry Kaiser (Face), Justin Moran (Featherweight/Nightfall on Miranga Island), Ryan Nelson (Nightfall on Miranga Island), Robin Rothman (Rosencrantz/Nightfall on Miranga Island), Jon Roufaeal (Nightfall on Miranga Island) & Jen Sanders (Mint Condition/Made Up Musical).
John Roufaeal, Jen Sanders, Robin Rothman, Henry Kaiser, Ryan Nelson, Angela DeManti
What form will they unveil this weekend, when they return to the Magnet stage for the beginning of their second weekend run? What mellifluous harmonies will grace our ears, what hip thrusts and possible stage-humps? Be there at 9pm on Friday to find out.
