Creativity and Humor at Unexpected Productions.
It was with great pleasure that I was able to see and participate in a full-length improvised play at Unexpected Productions last night, called Playborhood-An Improvised Neighborhood with Style. Its rather zany concept engendered one of the most creative and stimulating premises of any improvisational act or for that matter, polished performance, I have seen in a long time.
Creator and host Jay Hitt, stood in front of three “sets” representing three different apartments in the same building and introduced the occupants, who inhabited different author’s spheres: a couple from Edward Albee’s culture (whose most famous play was Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolfe), Rogers and Hammerstein, the royalty of Broadway Musicals in the 1940’s and 50’s, and Molière, the great comedian and satirist of 17th Century France. All were appropriately costumed and accented.
After suggestions from the audience to give the play a plot, the actors improvised a 90 minute coherent play, in which the neighbors all interacted not only with dialogue but also with improvised musical numbers delighting and amusing the audience with what ended up being hilarious funny. It was also a tour de force performance for the musicians Evans Collins and Jason DeLeo and the lighting operator Elijah Harrison.
Standouts in the cast were Tiffany Hitt as “Madame” in the Molière apartment, whose flamboyant character, costume; accent and sheer creativity drove the plot. Equally flamboyant and “drôle” was her sidekick, Kathleen Jenkins, a typical Molière female servant with amazing physical gags.
Particularly spectacular was the verbal finesse of the Rogers and Hammerstein couple, Dave Johnson and Leona Partridge. Along with the musicians, Johnson and Partridge demonstrated incredible improvisational skill in choreography, singing and verbal dexterity as they were able to sing in rhyming couplets and spontaneously invent hilarious lyrics, as they broke into singing numbers which seemed rehearsed.
Although at times, there was a bit of mumbling, I would say that this was just a delightful evening. It deserves a Nobel prize in creativity and execution.
Playborhood runs for six more weeks, but on each night six different performers take the stage and three different playwrights will start off the action. Tomorrow, Sat. April 1st it will be Shakespeare, Georg Bernard Shaw, and Neil Simon.
Playborhood Unexpected Productions. 1428 Post Alley, Seattle 98101, Pike Place Market, Downtown Fri, Sat. evening thru May 6. Bus #10 from Capitol Hill, or Sound Transit Nordstrom stop.
Tickets; https://www.eventbrite.com/e/playborhood-an-improvised-neighborhood-with-styles-tickets-541809927077