the media collective

RSS Monologue

What you will need: A computer or RSS enabled device

Directions:

1. Load a news RSS service in your favorite RSS reader (Firefox will work nicely and there are several listed below)
2. Increase the font size so you can read it while standing
3. Set your computer to autoscroll (video in full post)

Start up monologues based off of the title and opening sentence of the news stories that are scrolling over your screen. You should make sure that your screen is scrolling slow enough so you can say a few lines for each article.

Variations

Have two people or an entire ensemble use the news stories to start scenes.

RSS news Services and the limit of the results in the RSS feed

Google News Top Stories (100)
Google News World News (100)
Google News USA News (100)
Yahoo! World News (10)
Yahoo! USA News (10)
Yahoo! Top News (10)
Reuters Top News (10)
Reuters USA News (10)
Reuters World News (10)
Reuters Political News (10)
Reuters BusinessNews (10)

Digg Labs also has some good tools for this exercise:

Big Spy
Pics

And there is also twistori, a twitter news feed based on emotions.

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We will be starting a free summer Improv Workshop for those of you that are in the area over the summer. The call outs (we’re having multiple) are May 21st (Thursday) and May 23rd (Saturday). We are meeting on the main floor of the Union, above the food courts.

Contact us if you are planning on attending so we have an idea of how many to expect.

We will populate our improv workshop page with more information as well.

Summer 2010 Improv Troupe Recruitment

This May we will have an open call out for those people interested in wanting to join a new improv troupe we are starting. More details to come!

Improv References

Game/Exercise/Structure Repositories

1. The Improv Encyclopedia – Games, ideas, thoughts, concepts—an encyclopedia of improv!
2. ImprovWiki – Another reference, in wiki format
3. LearnImprov.com – Generate workshops and performance sets, plus a random game player.
4. Without Annette – A listing of games by this Improv Troupe.

Communities

1. Chicago Improv Network – Bulletin Board
2. Improv Resource Center – Bulletin Board
3. Improv Resource Center Wiki

Blogs/Podcasts

1. StoryRobot – Home of the cartoon I used
2. The Fracas! Improv Podcast
3. Chicago Improv Associates – Zenprov Podcast

Local Lafayette/West Lafayette Troupes

1. One Size Fits All
2. The Crazy Monkeys
3. The Ship of Fools

Videos

1. iOWest’s Trophy Wife – They record and post all of their shows online (2007-)! A great Harold team to watch, enjoy, and study.
2. Improv Videos at ExpertVillage
3. College Comedy Championship 2007 [1] [2] [3]- Held in Chicago. Watch college troupes perform. Always something to learn.
4. Chicago College Improv Tournament 2008: East Coast, Midwest (Third Coast) Regionals, and West Coast Regionals. Same as above, but from 2008. The finals will be posted sometime after November 15, 2008.
5. Chicago Improv Festival’s Vimeo Channel – Watch 2010’s College Improv Tournament videos here!
6. Comedy Sportz Chicago – Musical 505 class show
7. See You Next Tuesday Improv Show – The Second City – Chicago
8. Whiskey Rebellion’s 1-Year Anniversary Show @ iO Chicago
9. Whiskey Rebellion – January 7th, 2009 – The iO Theater in Chicago, Illinois presents Whiskey Rebellion performing a Harold on the suggestion “toothbrush.”

Tips/Notes

1. Applied Improv – Del Close class notes
2. How to be a better improviser

Misc. References that Are Useful

1. Genre Guru’s List of Genre Games
2. IMDb’s Listing of Movie Genres