Courtesy Alex Budgell
Members of the Experimental Farm Theatre perform at EFT-up in September.Members of Experimental Farm Theatre will create an entirely original show when they take to the stage at Pressed Gourmet Sandwich Bar on Nov. 20.
This kind of off-the-cuff spontaneity is what “EFT-up” artistic directors Dani Alon and Chris Hannay say they love about live improv performances.
“You cannot replicate it,” says Hannay. “It can only happen in a live venue, preferably in a small space. You can’t duplicate it any other way.”
Alon and Hannay formed the Experimental Farm Theatre collective this summer, bringing their experience from Second City and the Impatient Theatre Company with them from Toronto.
The improv collective began monthly performances at Pressed in September. EFT-up also performs on the first Tuesday of every month at the Rainbow Bistro.
Currently, about dozen performers are affiliated with the collective but they’re hoping to recruit more, says Hannay.
While the collective is in its early stages now, the members aim to put together a Fringe Festival show next year and a larger show or tournament some time in the spring, Hannay adds.
The current improv and comedy scene in Ottawa is a small one with potential for growth, both directors say.
“We ran an impromptu workshop four days after moving here,” Alon laughs. Since then they’ve run several workshops.
Hannay says the workshops provide a supportive environment for learning.
“Probably the most daunting thing for someone who’s interested in trying improv is the very idea of it, the idea of being onstage and not knowing what to say,” he says.
Alon adds: “We’re trying to emphasize how to begin scenes. We’re trying to get people to just be present and be really perceptive listeners and to advance the story rather than just sacrifice it for the sake of jokes.”
Hannay says the kind of Improv they teach and perform is a departure from the form popularized by the television show Whose Line is it Anyway.
While Whose Line was a short-form show with brief scenes and games, EFT-up does long-form scenes, which are “complete sketches,” Hannay says.
EFT-up shows also involve a specific form of improv called the Armando, which is improv inspired by storytelling Hannay says.
“You’ll have a monologist, someone who tells monologues, tell a true story about themselves and that will inspire comedic stuff,” Hannay explains.
Ben Russell, a second-year Carleton student and member of the Carleton Improv Association,. says he learned about the concept of “finding the game in the scene” through taking part in Experimental Farm Theatre’s workshops and performances.
“(It’s) really about finding what made the audience laugh and then sort of capitalizing on that joke,” he says.
“It allows you to look at the big picture and to see improv as a story being told,” adds fourth-year Carleton student and CIA captain Amanda Parker.
“It’s just storytelling where you don’t know what’s coming next,” she says.
Alon says the name “Experimental Farm Theatre,” is a conscientious one.
“We wanted something that would evoke the idea of being in Ottawa without being the Ottawa Improv Theatre,” she says.
“(The farm is) right next to Carleton, which is where we started doing workshops and where Chris started doing Improv in the first place,” she explains.
“Experimental – ‘cause we are hoping to be more cutting edge and avant-garde; – the farm part – it’s organic, starting with a seed and letting it grow.”