cranston speech
Cranston Cup Review
780 Words - about five minutes
Mr Toastmaster, fellow members and guests. good evening.
I have been coming to toastmaster meetings here at Balmain now for about five months, but I realised very early on that one of the most challenging things we do here is take part in table topics.
As each of you know from experience, getting up in front of the group, without any preparation, and talking on a topic you may know absolutely nothing about requires calm and quick thinking.
Even really experienced speakers sometimes have to draw on their full intellectual resources to speak for the required time and to keep the audience entertained.
But imagine if you can, table topics on steroids.
Imagine if as well as getting up and speaking, you were called on to act out elaborate and often ludicrous scenes, with no notice.
And that instead of listening, the toastmaster was barking out orders, telling you to talk with an Irish accent or walk with a limp or act like a zombie.
What I'm describing is not something Allan and Graham have dreamed up to spice up meetings in 2006.
At least I don't think so .....
Instead its a form of improvised theatrical performance called theatre sports.
I was recently lucky enough to attend the finals of the Cranston Cup, Sydney's theatre sports championships.
It was an hilarious night and I'd like to tell you about it and a bit about theatre sports, its origins and its rules.
Some of you may be familiar with the basic concept from the British or American version of the show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Theatre sports' origins lie in Canada and in particular, Ontario.
In the mid 1970s the University of Calgary employed a theatre teacher by the name of Keith Johnstone.
Johnstone had worked as an actor at the Royal Court Theatre in London and taught at Britain's equivalent of NIDA, the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts as well as a number of other top schools.
In 1976 he was struck by the way that sporting events such as ice hockey and football attracted massive crowds while theatrical events were only modestly attended.
He decided it was because people attending sporting events felt they were guaranteed a good time, that they felt an involvement with what they were watching, that they could vocalise their feelings by yelling out and support a particular team.
Adopting the well-known adage if you can't beat them join them, he looked for a way to taje the best aspects of sporting matches and bring them to theatre.
The concept he developed with a team called the Select Improv Group was theatre sports.
The idea involves two or more teams, sometimes composed of actors, but at other times just people interested in performing.
A panel of judges assesses the performances put on by the teams and like sporting events there is a winner and loser or losers.
The competition itself involves games centred on improvisation.
There are score of games that can be played, but all involve the participants thinking on their feet - just like we do in table topics.
One example of a game is where participants are required to construct a one or two minute play based on themes shouted out at random by the audience.
Another might see a team start to act out a scene in the style of a 1950s western, only to be told by the moderator of the match to start acting like they are in a horror movie or musical or kids TV show.
Another still is where teams of three or more are asked to put together a coherent story by each adding one word at a time. Once ... upon .... a..... time .....
In Death in a Minute a team has to act out a one-minute play that ends in the death of one or all of the characters.
After being created in Canada, the theatre sports concept quickly spread around the world and the Cranston Cup in Sydney has been competed for for 14 years.
I went to the final at the Enmore Theatre and I laughed for three hours straight. I was laughing so much it was becoming painfull.
There were a few celebrities competing including ABC 702's Adam Spencer and Jai Laga'aia from Water Rats but they were quickly knocked out and a team of relative unknowns with rubbery faces and great comic timing won the prize and the audience's applause.
I was so inspired I'm thinking of doing a theatre sports workshop in 2006.
I think it will be challenging, but also fun.
And maybe, just maybe, I'll pick up some skills for dealing with those tricky table topics.
Thank you.
780 Words - about five minutes
Mr Toastmaster, fellow members and guests. good evening.
I have been coming to toastmaster meetings here at Balmain now for about five months, but I realised very early on that one of the most challenging things we do here is take part in table topics.
As each of you know from experience, getting up in front of the group, without any preparation, and talking on a topic you may know absolutely nothing about requires calm and quick thinking.
Even really experienced speakers sometimes have to draw on their full intellectual resources to speak for the required time and to keep the audience entertained.
But imagine if you can, table topics on steroids.
Imagine if as well as getting up and speaking, you were called on to act out elaborate and often ludicrous scenes, with no notice.
And that instead of listening, the toastmaster was barking out orders, telling you to talk with an Irish accent or walk with a limp or act like a zombie.
What I'm describing is not something Allan and Graham have dreamed up to spice up meetings in 2006.
At least I don't think so .....
Instead its a form of improvised theatrical performance called theatre sports.
I was recently lucky enough to attend the finals of the Cranston Cup, Sydney's theatre sports championships.
It was an hilarious night and I'd like to tell you about it and a bit about theatre sports, its origins and its rules.
Some of you may be familiar with the basic concept from the British or American version of the show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Theatre sports' origins lie in Canada and in particular, Ontario.
In the mid 1970s the University of Calgary employed a theatre teacher by the name of Keith Johnstone.
Johnstone had worked as an actor at the Royal Court Theatre in London and taught at Britain's equivalent of NIDA, the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts as well as a number of other top schools.
In 1976 he was struck by the way that sporting events such as ice hockey and football attracted massive crowds while theatrical events were only modestly attended.
He decided it was because people attending sporting events felt they were guaranteed a good time, that they felt an involvement with what they were watching, that they could vocalise their feelings by yelling out and support a particular team.
Adopting the well-known adage if you can't beat them join them, he looked for a way to taje the best aspects of sporting matches and bring them to theatre.
The concept he developed with a team called the Select Improv Group was theatre sports.
The idea involves two or more teams, sometimes composed of actors, but at other times just people interested in performing.
A panel of judges assesses the performances put on by the teams and like sporting events there is a winner and loser or losers.
The competition itself involves games centred on improvisation.
There are score of games that can be played, but all involve the participants thinking on their feet - just like we do in table topics.
One example of a game is where participants are required to construct a one or two minute play based on themes shouted out at random by the audience.
Another might see a team start to act out a scene in the style of a 1950s western, only to be told by the moderator of the match to start acting like they are in a horror movie or musical or kids TV show.
Another still is where teams of three or more are asked to put together a coherent story by each adding one word at a time. Once ... upon .... a..... time .....
In Death in a Minute a team has to act out a one-minute play that ends in the death of one or all of the characters.
After being created in Canada, the theatre sports concept quickly spread around the world and the Cranston Cup in Sydney has been competed for for 14 years.
I went to the final at the Enmore Theatre and I laughed for three hours straight. I was laughing so much it was becoming painfull.
There were a few celebrities competing including ABC 702's Adam Spencer and Jai Laga'aia from Water Rats but they were quickly knocked out and a team of relative unknowns with rubbery faces and great comic timing won the prize and the audience's applause.
I was so inspired I'm thinking of doing a theatre sports workshop in 2006.
I think it will be challenging, but also fun.
And maybe, just maybe, I'll pick up some skills for dealing with those tricky table topics.
Thank you.
posted by Daniel Dasey at 11:06 PM
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