One of three out-of-town troupes coming in this week for the Bad Dog
Improv Summit, Montreal’s Without Annette arrive at the four-day mini
fest fresh from the Montreal Fringe, which saw the debut of their
latest long-form offering, Argument With a Dolphin.
No such luck for Toronto, however. The three out of its nine members who are making the trip are instead bringing an older improv thingy — the monologue-driven Uno — though Marc Rowland, Sean Michaels and Nick Farah say they’ve learned a few things from past and present Fringes.
That sometimes less is more, for instance. “Shows that were longer, many of them could have had the fat trimmed off them,” says Rowland. “So we’re looking to keep our show as concise as possible. A short, punchy show can be nice.”
Staples of the Montreal scene, Without Annette share billing at the Summit competition with Seattle’s Unexpected Productions, the Vancouver TheatreSports League and (naturally) the local Bad Dogs.
The Annettes have been around for nine years, though members tend to come and go. Only one of the nine has been on board since the beginning, though the fluid roster and “no bosses” way of doing things helps keep things fresh, says Michaels.
“I think this flat hierarchy gives the troupe an exciting, elastic quality,” he says. “Someone can veer off course and there is no one to insist ‘Let’s get back to that other thing.’ We’re able to be very spry with our brainstorming, without being reigned in and we find those ideas that make us giggle — not just on stage but in the backstage planning.”
(And yet, the Annettes went out of their way to look awkward and blocky in a series of web shorts that recount the spit-balling that led to Argument With a Dolphin. You can see and squirm for yourself in the blog section of www.withoutannette.net. It’s like The Office meets the recent “Let’s Rape Kevin” bit by Kids in the Hall.)
“If someone is delighting us we all get dragged out into the moment,” Michaels adds. “So not only do we not know that story we’ll tell or what jokes will happen, we also don’t know what style of humor will manifest itself or what style of theater.”