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January 5

by Brandon M. Little, Wishbone Theatre Collective member

Director, Jeff McLaren, decided that we should use our first couple of rehearsals to discuss superheroes in general to generate ideas to base our improv on.  And we came up with a lot great things.  I was presently surprised at how easily the conversation flowed and at the amount of knowledge we had already.  The two and a half hours flew by because it brought the group back to a time of innocence.  You could see it on everyone’s face when they began a story about their favorite superhero.  That is how the conversation began.  Jeff required everyone to come to the first rehearsal equipped with who their favorite superhero is and why.  The most loved were Batman, Superman, Mighty Mouse, Violet (from The Incredibles), Arch Angel, along with a few others.  And we had some very valid reasons as to why a certain “mutant” was a favorite.  There of course were cosmetic or physical reasons like ” because he can fly or become invisible” but it was really interesting to hear the deeper reasons. 

Take for instance Violet.  She was the teenage daughter from the animated movie The Incredibles.  Ensemble member Laurie Jones stated that she was her favorite because Violet was initially afraid of being a mutant because it made her different.  But she through that fear out of the window by the end of the move to become comfortable with who she is.  Laurie likes the idea that Violet a very courageous character because she overcame the fear of being different which as a teenager is something no one wants to be.  It is going to be interesting to see how these conversations develop over the next couple of rehearsals after more research is done.  Our homework for the next rehearsal is to research a specific theme from the world of superheroes in more depth.  This process has officially kicked off and seeing what we came up with from our first discussion, I’m confident that we will produce something to be very proud of.