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January 21

by Kimberly Van Ness, Wishbone Company member and actor in the ensemble for Spandex

Hello from the land of Spandex!  The past few rehearsals, we have been using improv to help us explore themes that were discovered during our research.  During these explorations, we’ve stumbled across a number of superheroes whose powers are...shall we say, less than awe-inspiring. One of our ensemble members is particularly adept at inventing totally whacked out and bizarre characters.  I’ve been keeping a list of some of my favorites:

1. Fondant Fred: has the ability to shoot fondant from his fingers and comes into children’s rooms and brings them sweets (yes, it is as creepy as it sounds).

2. The Slippery Dwarf: A dwarf whose bottom half is actually a fish, making him half dwarf, half mermaid (merman?). He has slime come out his pores, thus accounting for the ‘slippery’ part of the ‘slippery dwarf’. We are not exactly sure what he does other than being...slippery.

3. Groaning Willard: A corn farmer who...groans, and doesn’t wear a shirt. I don’t actually remember what his power was...but it was equally outrageous as the corn farming part.

4. A horse....that can turn into...wait for it....a PLANT!

As with all improv, for every nugget we find that we can use, there are ten nuggets that are just good for a laugh and then are filed quietly away.  Now that we have an idea of where we want this story to take us, we have to keep soldiering on to flesh out our characters, conflict and resolution!  Stay tuned as we take you through the final few rehearsals before our presentation on Monday 1/25!