From: "C. Story" <cstory@magmacom.com>
To: <SAR-Ottawa@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Some ideas 
Date: Monday, January 06, 2003 2:20 PM

Greetings.


Having had  a chance to commiserate with everyone over the past couple
of weeks, I wanted to put down a summary of our ideas, and proposals
for the coming months.

Practices

SAR performance group will meet at the Nepean Creative Arts Centre,
Unit 7, from 7 - 9:30 PM, Thursdays

SAR Workshops will be held Wednesday, 7:00 - 9:00 at the Routier Community
Centre, on Gigues street, at the corner of Gigues and Cumberland

Hiring a Teacher

If possible, we'd like to hire an instructor for a few (no more than
three) sessions to develop specific improv skills.  These skills are
to be determined at a later date, once we get a sense of areas where we
have some weakness.  Possible areas would include character development,
advancing, general scenework, general stagecraft

Before hiring a teacher we need to ask a few pertinent questions.
These should include

    - What their philosophy for teaching improv happens to be (exercises, games, skills, etc.)
    - What would their cost be
    - When would they be available
    - Given our organization (amateur, community-based group, relatively little formal
      theatrical training, but lots of enthusiasm) would the potential teacher
      feel they are a good fit for us?

    Potential teachers include

    - Scott Florence (Company of Fools)
    - Ken Godmere (The Institution)
    - Jane Moore (Canterbury improv coach)
    - Beth

Overall Goals

We'd like to develop scene-based skills, and if possible begin exploring
long-form improv.  This should be done as an addition to, rather than as
a substitution for, our work and skills in games and short-form improv
which we've developed over the years.

Performances

We plan to have monthly performances at club SAW.  Our first SAW show
will be in February, and subsequently in March, April and May.

We have an opportunity to do a show for a widows' group towards the end
of January.  To pull this off, we need an MC, and sufficient performers
to put on a 1-hour performance.  Dan is looking into an MC.

To-Do Activities

A number of one-off, and ongoing tasks have accumulated.  If anyone
wishes to volunteer to take any of them on, feel free to make an offer
... guaranteed it will be accepted, and maybe even advanced! ... ;)

  a.. Photos - We need a digital camera to take photos of the members for
  the webpage, and for inclusion in literature
            Name :   Dan/Leslie

  b.. Logo Design - We need someone to design a logo for the group.
            Name : Leslie/Dan

  c..   Literature - Design a simple handout, business cards, etc. which
  can be used to promote the group and to describe what we're about
            Name : Dan - Text, Alan?

 d.. Potential New Members - A number of us have mentioned
 friends/colleagues who may be interested in joining.  This is great, and
 if they work out, should boost our numbers back to a comfortable level. 
 The names I currently have are :
            Lee, Mark, Tony             - Friends of Leslie
            Ian Allen                         - Already contacted by Dan, coming out Jan 23
            Mike McD                      - Back, for now
            Misha/Jason                    - Two friends of Alan

    For those who may be inviting newcomers out, please make sure to
    inform them that the process we set out last year to bring new
    folks onboard will be followed ... also, encourage them to attend
    the workshops that will be starting up next week

e..   Research for Long-Form

Pretty much everyone has expressed some interest in doing more scene-based
improv in the new year, as  a supplement to our games and exercises.
This is very exciting, and should be a great addition to our repertoire.
In order to assist the process, it would be useful for us to do some
research into the principles and concepts inherent in scene and long-form
improv, and make this information available to the rest of us.  As an
example, look at the sorts of things Julia distributed last year with
respect to basic improv skills, as to the sorts of things to hunt for.

This should be an ongoing activity.  I'd suggest either spending some
time online searching for improv articles and posting them to the webpage,
or visiting the library for material.

    Name(s) : ??

Please take a few moments to read over the above ideas, and we can discuss
them quickly on Thursday ... See y'all then, and let's have a great year!

Chris