“Writers’ Block” - New Improv Format
Yesterday a faction of the SPL family had a blast pioneering a new improv format at Portland’s Wordstock festival. Wordstock is a celebration of writers and books with an emphasis on Portland. The event was packed with fun writer talks, workshops and a giant book fair. Of special interest to me was the addition of a comics and graphics-novel section. I visited the Cosmic Monkey and Dark Horse booths among others. I also picked up a signed poster from a talented young illustrator named Lukas Ketner.
Our new improv format is a hoot for writers. The “Writers’ Block” format features writer interviews in which a director (the talented Frayn Masters in this case) asks a writer about a scene or storyline they are working on. The improvisers then take a stab at developing the writer’s story and characters, often to hilarious effect. The writer and director are there to steer the story back on track if need be and to offer alternative approaches to story points and character development.
Lukas Ketner Illustration
We built, tore apart, and rebuilt a scene from a short story that Monica Drake is working on (Monica’s novel Clown Girl is available at Powells Books). Monica’s work-in-progress short story features a woman trying to coerce a man into donating his “clean” urine to her so that she can qualify for a paid drug trial.
SPL then proceeded to parody the gods of Greek mythology by playing out scenes from an abandoned work-in-progress play by M. Thomas Cooper (Michael’s novel 42 is available at Powells Books). His unfinished play features a Hades in which hard economic times have resulted in the end of Prometheus’ eternal suffering and the emancipation of Nynas from Hades.
Stay tuned for more “Writers’ Block” from SPL!
– Chris Thompson
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Was very sorry to miss Wordstock, but especially so now.
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