Thursday, February 19, 2004

Off the Cuff

Local improv group settling in to Brookline space

By Kennan Knudson, correspondent

The funniest place to be on the first Friday of the month is definitely not in front of the TV.

It's at the Brookline Puppet Showplace Theatre, watching the improvistaional theater group Kitsch In Sync crawl, sing, dance—and most of all—play on the stage. The group has recently made the small theater space in Brookline its permanent home, and hopes to share improv with many people whose exposure to it might be minimal.

For the uninitiated, improv theater includes unrehearsed skits and rhyming games that the cast performs with prompts from the audience. In theater-speak these different improv scenes are called "structures." It's fast-paced, energetic and filled with sheer silliness.

In one so-called structure, "Party Quirks," one cast member is the host of a party, and three others are his guests. While the host is out of the room, the audience is asked for three quirks to assign each of the guests. The host comes back into the theater, and during the course of the skit tries to guess the assigned traits of his guests. Last Friday, the party guests were a scar, a person obsessed with Jimmy Dean sausage and the cast of "The Golden Girls."

Such randomness is par for the course for the Kitsch In Sync cast, and that's the way they like it. Improv gives them a space where they can simply play—an element that would otherwise be missing from their lives.

"I'm a big-time adult during the week," says Ken Grout, the group's artistic director. "I work in an office and manage a department. Improv allows the other side of my brain to do calisthenics."

Having a permanent home is a big step for the group, which was created about five years ago by Adam Williams.

Williams had been with Improv Boston for about a year, but eventually left the group and didn't participate in any improv for a year.

The change left a hole in a life that nagged at him, so eventually he formed Kitsch In Sync with friends he thought would be good at improv.

Members came and left, but eventually the cast became more stable. Now, Williams is the only original member left, but most of the cast has been performing together for about two years.

"We hit a point where the quality was really high, and people wanted to stay with it," says Greg Cook, who has been performing with the group for about three years. Grout says the permanent location will only help Kitsch In Sync improve and reach more people.

"Being in the Puppet Showplace is like playing your own guitar, or eating in your own kitchen," he says. "It brings a comfort level that wouldn't be there otherwise." Comfort is very important to Kitsch In Sync's cast. Everyone agrees that the group's family dynamic makes it succeed, not just for audiences but also for themselves. "I was in a job that I hated," says Allan Telio. "I needed something to bring joy into my life. Rehearsals make my Mondays pretty fantastic."

"Thye group is a fantastic outlet," agrees Heather Moyer. "It's a chance to keep my mind working, improve my skills, and act like a fool in a family environment."