Show: 9/27
Title: The Camp Out
Category: Comedy / Drama / Improv / Physical Theater
By: Mike Fotis Productions
Created by: Mike Fotis, Rita Boersma, Tim Hellendrung, Nels Lennes, Heather Meyer, Danna Sheridan
Location: Mixed Blood Theatre
Summary: An improvised story of six friends who go on a campout to remember a deceased friend.
Highlights: Long-form is my favorite kind of improv, and this show is an example of why. Over the course of about an hour we watch these relationships develop in front of our eyes (although I'm not sure if characters and plots points are improvised and different every time, or just the conversation around them). And these six improvisors (Mike Fotis, Rita Boersma, Tim Hellendrung, Nels Lennes, Heather Meyer, and Danna Sheridan) are some of the best. The show starts with a couple actually setting up a tent on stage, which is a drama in and of itself! Friends start arriving, and we start to gather what everyone's relationships are. In the show I saw, the friends are there to honor their friend who died a year or so ago, and secrets (relationships, pregnancies) are revealed. It's so much fun to watch this group just be these people, talking and joking and snacking. It feels so real, like eavesdropping. When real life thunder was heard from outside the theater, they incorporated it into the show, starting to prepare for the rain. It's a well-done, smooth, and very funny improvised dramedy.
Update: I had an open slot in my schedule so I saw this one again, and it was completely different! Same performers, same concept of saying goodbye to a deceased friend (reading a letter from a family member and spreading their ashes in the park), but the characters and relationships were completely different. No surprise revelations, just being together and grieving. I cried from laughter, and a little bit at the real emotions.