The Kaleidoscope. That show is celebrating it’s 1 year…

The Kaleidoscope.

That show is celebrating it’s 1 year anniversary. It was put together by Alan Starzinski (pronounced Zinsk. The rest is silent) and I think it’s a great show.

The concept of the show is that Alan picks captains and asks them to gather teams of people made up largely of folks they have never improvised with. This is one of my favorite things to do in improv. Sometimes you get caught up playing with the same people for weeks and weeks. But there is something magical about the energy of performing with someone for the first time.

There’s been other shows with that goal. The Project would end with Big Team Skirmish. UCB puts up a show called The Blender once in a while. Wednesday’s with Harold does it too. I’m sure there’s been a lot of other shows like that. I love all those opportunities. But The Kaleidoscope is entirely about mixing people up, and it’s been running 2 or 3 times a month for an entire year. That’s admirable.

Maybe Alan put it together just so he could work with a lot of new people. If so, I think it was a smart decision. But regardless of his reason I think it’s grown into something bigger and cooler.

I have been to this show a lot, and been lucky enough to get to perform at it a lot too. It’s always good. Sometimes great.

Occasionally the show has goals. One week was to perform an old UCB 600 level form. A couple of times it’s been all musical improv. Often it’s off of another person’s monologues.

I love that too! Not only is Alan giving 24-32 people a chance to do an extra show every week, but he even adds one more person to practice telling monologues. That’s not an easy opportunity to come by.

So thanks Alan for putting up this show. I think it really is a gift to the improv community. Happy 1 year anniversary!

If you haven’t checked out this show yet, do it!

http://www.improvresourcecenter.com/mb/showthread.php?t=66759