Noodle and Prance

We had our first meeting/practice of the new improv group yesterday. We’re currently calling ourselves Noodle and Prance. One of our members volunteered the name as it’s the name of their cats. We all thought that was funny, so here we are. 

Over the last couple years, I’ve been taking classes, going to jams, and auditioning for the existing improv groups in the area. Portsmouth and the surrounding areas in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine have a really good and rather large improv community. Both the Stranger than Fiction and Queen City Improv groups have done a lot to foster the community. As well as the local improv incubators in Portsmouth and Portland. Shout out to all those folks. 

In Noodle and Prance, we're being coached by Harry, who’s got something like 30 years of performing improv and acting experience. He’s a good fit for where we want to go and his general mindset on Improv. We’re really lucky to have him. 

I’m really looking forward to getting to know the other folks in the group better, practicing, and eventually performing. We’re looking to perform long form. Not "Who’s Line is it Anyway” - that’s short form. Wonderful, funny, absurd in the best way possible, imho. But Long form improv is about getting a suggestion or hearing a short story from the audience, or a guest speaker and then the improvisers make up scenes based on these suggestions. These performances are more like mini-plays. They can run anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. 

Check out "Middleditch and Schwartz” on Netflix if you have it. Or go see a live "Ben Schwartz and Friends” show if they come to your town and you can get out to the show. For me, those two things are the high water mark. Improv isn’t really a competition (or shouldn’t be) but I consider Schwartz to be my favorite improvisor. So good. 

Anyway, we haven’t discussed when we think we’ll be ready for some shows, but I am hoping within a couple months. Like I said there’s a strong community here, so I’d love to do a show with a couple of different groups. I feel like Improv is having a moment, as they say. People want to come together. To experience things together again.

If you can get to a local improv show, I think you should give it a go. But I’m (obviously) biased 😄