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Sanford Meisner was a renowned acting teacher at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. In his book “On Acting”, Meisner used improvisation as the basic starting point in his actor training classes in a form called repetition. Here is a quote from the book Meet Your Playful Self where he is specifically referring to the reason for using improvisation in training actors:

Look, I’ll tell you why the repetition exercise, in essence, is not boring: it plays on the source of all organic creativity, which is the inner impulses.

In the video you will see the exercise “repetition”. The focus here is on actors and acting, but his work and use of improvisation to get at the real action of life is so relevant for everyone’s life as described and practiced in the book Meet Your Playful Self.

On to Viroqua, WI

This town was “probably” named so after a Mohawk girl who lived “down east.” “A Connecticut man saw her perform in a theatre, liked the name, and bestowed it later on the Vernon county settlement. What better place to bring “Krapp” than a town that was named from a theatre performance?

It was in Viroqua that the experiment hit the skids, the slide, the whirlpool of undertows that drew us
down unexpectedly and quite nearly drowned us.

Fifteen people attended the two performances; 9 on Friday 3 on Saturday. The press releases were all sent out a month in advance, Alvin had been playing at the local Farmer’s Market and Coffee House weeks in advance. Yet, so few people showed up in this community that carries the reputation of support for creativity and theatre in general.

What happened? It was some political, social, psychological, wind or winding that soured the community to “Krapp”, I guess. You see, for three years I worked in Viroqua teaching improvisation and building a company called . One day, about a year ago INTOIT had a secret meeting; one that I was not invited to attend. Late that night I received a phone call from one of the members to tell me that they were going out on their own. I was hurt, and that pain lead me away from communicating or wanting to talk to those who made the decision and then informed me with a late night phone call. After the the show we learned that the new company “Raw Milk” (spun from INTOIT) had changed the date of their show to the same Saturday night of the Krapp performance. (They performed before an audience of over 40:) Coincidence?

This sort of stuff occurs in the theatre far too often. I really don’t know the reason for the poor turn out. I am quite used to it. Alvin packed his accordion and we loaded the stage to travel on to the Pump House Regional Art Center in La Crosse, WI!

In The Beginning

Link to video…Some words of KRAPP.

After 40 years of teaching, acting, and directing, it was time to launch an experiment with a goal: to bring a unique theatre experience to small towns and villages of Wisconsin. Since it would take a lot of time, commitment to launch even a “little” tour, Alvin and I choose to do Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape”; a one man show requiring little scenery, props, and technical expertise.

Alvin played the accordion at the Farmers Market in Viroqua, Wisconsin and met a woman who took this picture in front of the “Encore” space on the Main St. of Viroqua, Wisconsin.

Alvin and I unloading the 6′ by 8′ platform raised up on saw bucks to a height of 36″ that he designed and built to fit in the hatch back.

Alvin Felch and I began meeting in January to talk about plans, and dreams of touring a small theatre production.We had no grants and little resources so we pooled what little we had to buy the materials to construct a portable stage that would stack and fit into the back of Alvin’s hatch back.

We began working and improvising on a pre-show where we set up the stage and set the furniture and props while he played the accordion. We called the production “Playing with Beckett – Krapp’s Last Tape”

The First Performance

It all began with the first performance on March 10, 2010 at the Community Center in Gays Mills. It was a chilly
Spring night and about 40 people came to the opening night performance of the project. We were elated! If people showed up in
numbers to see a Beckett play in Gays Mills, then surely we would draw more people from Viroqua and La Crosse.

The community building in Gays Mills, Wisconsin; a village of about 400 people. A wondrous place of beauty in the driftless area of Southwest Wisconsin on the Kickapoo River which made national news when it filled the 100 year flood plane two times in one year!

Two old artists were on their way. The next stop Independence, Wisconsin.