Auditions

There were auditions which consisted mostly of doing an invocation (a type of opening for a Harold, which is in turn a format for improv).  In a group we invoke the spirit of an object through several iterations.  Our object was "sword" and what follows is the gist, as I remember and embellish it, of what we said:

Sword

It is...
made of steel
two feet long
sharp at one end, with an intricate handle
kept in a sheath
used in battle
made by a master craftsman

You are...
passed from father to son
weilded in anger
protector of home
forged in flame
cold and hard
a thing for men

Thou art...
maker and destroyer of kings
the meeting of skill and material, each finely honed to a perfect edge
a glint in the sun, the last bright light before everlasting darkness
the bender of will and arbiter of disagreements, brandished by just and unjust alike
thruster, penetrator, conqueror

I am...
Virility!
Power!
Violence!
Peace!
Art!
Control!

I AM SWORD!

As I look at it now, it seems very like a poetry exercise from junior high English class.  Hm, I wonder if other poetry forms could be adapted to improv uses. Improv and poetry, that's something I'd like to explore more.  I both love poetry and am confounded by it.  There are a few poems that seem magical, like a spell.  Just a few words, carefully crafted, that say volumes more.  The meaning implied by what is left out.  I have acquired countless volumes of the stuff in an effort to harness it and understand it.  And often I feel I am not as moved by most of it as I ought to be, or no, would like to be.  Poetry!  Unlock your secrets to me! 

I am very fond of sestinas and love the idea of an improv show based on the form of a sestina, but it might just be needlessly complicated.
Sestinas are wonderful and just my kind of thing, complexly structured to the point of complication, rythmic and repetitious, both high brow and strangely primitive in their repetition.  Six ending words are employed, one at the end of each line of each six line stanza.  The same six ending words are used in each of the six stanzas, each time in a different order, followed by a tercet using all six words.  Just tonight, I was talking with Arthur and John about the difference between the lengthy clumsiness of telling and the simple beauty of showing, so I will stop telling and start showing.  First, this lovely graph, which I had not seen until I went just now to look up sestinas on the internet, but which lays out part of why the structure is so moving I think.

And here are some lovely sestinas written by other people:

Spanish Sestina.

BY MIKE MCSHANE

- - - -

 I spent four fond months sipping sangria,
 Eating paella, and drinking red wine.
 Bar-crawling all night in the Puerta del Sol,
 And reading wisdom inscribed onto walls.
 My thinking was tempered by world-class art
 And the oils and fields full of olives.

 Midafternoon pan with the oil of olives
 Keeps food light so you can drink more sangria.
 As visions of the Prado's Spanish art
 Mingle gently with the sweet red wine
 And the tiles of my apartamento's walls
 Reflect the purity of the afternoon Sol.

 Amigos wander down the calle toward Sol
 And outdoor cafés offer tapas of olives,
 But the best come from holes in the walls.
 The light fare is complemented by more sangria,
 With a varied ratio of vermouth to wine.
 One can taste that Spanish food is art.

 Another day is spent with modern art,
 At the Reina Sofía, due west of Sol,
 Picasso's Guernica and rosé wine
 With more tapas of bread and black olives.
 Americans wonder if Pablo had too much sangria
 As the monolith consumes one of the walls.

 But oh the Prado, with Velázquezzed walls,
 Presents the pinnacle of Spanish art.
 Goya and Titian go down like sangria.
 This is the real Madrid, not the clubs of Sol.
 It's the difference between the oil of corn versus olives,
 Or fine Rioja versus boxed Franzia wine.

 But it always comes back to the wine,
 So much that it begins to spin the walls,
 And for the second time I see those black olives,
 But it definitely looks nothing like art.
 One too many bars in and around Sol
 And too much vermouth in the sangria.

 Spanish wine is fine as Spanish art.
 Fine, too, are the storied walls around the Puerta del Sol,
 But the finest are the olives, and my love, the sangria.  

More sestinas from McSweeney's here.

And another I like:

The Concord Art Association Regrets
Pam White 

    Your entry was not accepted. We regret
    it wasn't (enough for us), a work of love.
    We liked many of the colors on the whole
    but the mass was just something unrelated
    to the rest of our show. We hope your work
    will have a bright future in another place.

    We remember last year you tried to place
    another photograph and it was also with regret
    we turned you down. Though for that particular work
    we found nothing about it (no one could) to love.
    It was obscure and a little upsetting in relation
    to the rest of our show which we look on as a whole.    

    Now you may think us ungenerous. On the whole
    you are probably right, but this is our place
    and we can do what we want whether you relate
    to it or not. However we don't want you to regret
    your association with us. We want you to love
    us, send us money, but please, no more work.
  
    You see right now we need money to work
    on the building we're in. There's a hole
    in the roof and one wall needs all the love
    and attention it can get. Really the place
    needs so much, which all costs. I regret
    to remind you we need more space for related

    works. We're trying to expand and relate
    to lots of different kinds of work
    so different people won't regret
    their visit with us but will see the whole
    beauty and tranquillity of the place
    and come with us, a journey of love

    where people of all races, colors, and creeds love
    to look and bask and of course bring relations,
    friends, and lovers. All are welcome to our place
    here where all the world's magnificent work
    can be shown in its entirety, the whole
    place filled - with your exception, we regret.

    We know you'll love the whole
    work we're doing for this place.
    We can't relate enough our regret.

  
I think I like the way sestinas make the speaker sound strangely and beautifully obsessed with the topic.  They seem to lend themselves to imagining a speaker, too.  Even when they are in third person, you can't help but imagine the poet, or whoever took the time to expound over and over on this topic, turning it around and seeing every facet.  

Wow, when I started this entry, I did not think I would end up taking about sestinas.