Preview
DIRTY LAUNDRY DOES THE W.A.S.H.: FALL FINALE
Dirty Laundry
Sunday, December 12
Brew Brothers
(607 - 11th Ave. S.W.)
When we last left our heroes, they had been cast into the street by the bankrupt Buckingham’s Pub and left to fend for themselves after five smashing seasons of pummelling performances. We now rejoin the intrepid improvisation troupe as it wraps up the fall run of its latest season, Dirty Laundry Does the W.A.S.H. (World Association of Super Heroes). From the Studio Café to Buckingham’s to Ceili’s and, most recently, the Brew Brothers Taproom, no venue is safe from the six-season staying power of improvised soap opera. But verily, it was not always so.
"There have been many attempts in Calgary to have an improvised soap opera and Karen (Johnson-Diamond) and I were involved in two previous ones," says co-founder and ensemble member Elinor Holt. "One was at the old Media Club on Seventh Avenue. They had a little theatre in the side of this club and so on pool-tourney nights we did the soap. There were huge crowds and we’d get so excited, but of course they were doing the pool-tourney thing and we were in the little theatre on the side. That lasted one season. The other was at Loose Moose and that also lasted one season."
Deciding to brave more than a single year, Holt and Johnson-Diamond founded Dirty Laundry in 1999, performing their first season at the Studio Café along with 12 actors, a stage manager and three improvisational musicians. In the years since then, the troupe has expanded to include a core group of actors in addition to a host of guest performers, including such local talents as playwright Eugene Stickland, TV host Dave Kelly and actor Christopher Hunt.
"We’ve grown over the last couple of years, bringing in people that weren’t necessarily (stage actors)," says Johnson-Diamond. "For example, our director Cory Mack is a stand-up comedian. So we’ve (gone) outside of the theatre community a little bit. There are people in our cast who are almost full-time improvisers and then (others) that are 90-per-cent actors and their improvising is on Sunday nights."
Behold then, the Sunday-night insanity, what Johnson-Diamond calls a "play that unfolds for two hours a week over six months," shifting in scene and theme from a Depression-era Saskatchewan town to the exploits of dramatic super people. It’s drastically different from the actors’ work with the city’s major theatre companies – Holt is currently Mrs. Cratchit in Theatre Calgary’s A Christmas Carol, while Johnson-Diamond plays a Hollywood star in Vertigo Mystery Theatre’s The Hollow. And with a Dirty Laundry show, even the pub surroundings can be fodder for improvisation.
"If there are noises behind the bar, we incorporate that into the show," says Holt. "If a cell phone goes off in the audience usually (you have) five improvisers jumping onto the table, grabbing the phone and talking to whoever happened to call. And our audience knows that kind of thing happens no matter where we are."
"It’s bar theatre," says Johnson-Diamond and, referring to its changes of venue, she adds, "lately it’s been bar-hopping theatre."
When Buckingham’s – Dirty Laundry’s home for three-and-a-half years – closed suddenly last year, the troupe was left without a venue only days before its next scheduled show. But as Johnson-Diamond points out, improvisation has always been its strength, whether it’s personifying a Value Village puppet or finding an interim stage to play on.
"We can pick up in an instant," she says. "Buckingham’s went under on a Wednesday and by Sunday we were in Ceili’s."
"We even had one of our regulars volunteer to stand in front of Buckingham’s and lead people to Ceili’s," adds Holt.
According to Holt and Johnson-Diamond, it is this sense of commitment that has kept the troupe alive. For both dedicated season-ticket holders and the troupe’s actors, the Sunday-night escape is an opportunity to develop a community at play.
"Lots of people join a volleyball team, guys go off and play hockey with the boys, girls do girls night out or whatever," says Johnson-Diamond. "For Eli and me, this is what we wanted the soaps to be: some fun night out with friends, just playing around."
While the playing will be wrapping up temporarily on Sunday, December 12 with an all-musical fall finale, the Dirty Laundry ensemble will return on January 9 with more superhero surprises and dramatic plot twists. So tune in next month, humble viewers. Same Dirty Laundry time, same Dirty Laundry station. |
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