BATS and Keith Johnstone

It was an interesting change of tact to go from 5 weeks being taught by iO to 5 days with BATS and Johnstone. I like both improv traditions, which seems to be pretty unusual in my experience. In Chicago most people don't know who Johnstone is and if they do they consider him irrelevant, within the Johnstone group people generalise Chicago as comedy barprov (there are of course exceptions). Both sides seem unwilling to give the other the time of day, bad experiences of either are remembered as the norm . However, I find it difficult to find clear differences between the two traditions. In essence they emphasise different aspects of improv. To generalise Johnstone tends to have a more theatrical bent behind it whereas Chicago tends to have cabaret behind it (I do not think this makes for less theatrical shows though). In my experience the teachers in the Johnstone tradition have taken their time on how to teach, they are interested in the art of teaching. The Johnstone tradition feels a bit more geeky to me than the Chicago tradition. The Johnstone tradition tends to focus on the individual: emotion, status, body language. The Chicago tradition tends to focus on how to make a scene work. At iO there is also a focus on group work (made explicit with their Harold signature long form). In many respects talking about a Chicago traditions misses the different ideas prevalent in the Chicago improv tradition.

The reason for doing the course in San Francisco was to hear Keith before he dies. I wanted to get the words straight from his mouth rather than being fed it second-hand. It was worthwhile doing the course. Although after the second day I was very disappointed by Keith. During the third day he seemed to become more inspired by his own teaching and his enthusiasm picked up dramatically. Keith said some things over the course that I will take with me and remember. He did not tell me anything I haven't heard before. I think the teachers he taught are better at teaching than he is. Rebecca Stockley and William Hall at BATS appeared to be excellent teachers. The mask work with William was amazing, and has made me want to pursue mask work in the future. I also found Alan Marriot at the Crunchy Frog Collective in London to be an excellent teacher (especially for musical improv). If you are in San Francisco it is worth visiting BATS (Bay Area Theatresports) to see performances in the Johnstone tradition.

As ever my classmates were great fun to be around. We all seemed to get on really well together. It was only 5 days but we seemed to hit it off. I was staying at the HI hostel just round the corner from the venue. Luckily enough for me one of the guys from the course (Jeremey, from Edmonton) was also staying there so we ended up hanging out and doing some sightseeing after the course. (His perspective on Johnstone is quite different to mine. Johnstone had the effect on him that Miles Stroth did for me. )