By Rachel Goodman
The start of our invasion from the South was sure to keep everyone awake with laughter! Plan B from the Baltimore Improv Group (BIG) performed right after Hey Rube at the Philly Improv Theatre on Friday, May 18th at 7 P.M. Plan B, a short form troupe, followed a great performance by Hey Rube.
Right from the start Plan B was sure to include the audience in their short form games. Michael Harris hosted the first game, a set up where the remaining three members (Alex Greenland, John Ulrich, and Matt McCall) stood on stage in a triangle formation, using audience suggestions as their road map.
“Where were you born?” Harris asked an audience member.
“Valley Forge,” one woman answered.
“What does Valley Forge make you think of?” Harris asked another man.
“The Revolutionary War.”
Another of these questions led to Hollywood as well as Diamonds as words of inspiration for the other two sets of scene partners in the triangle.
Suddenly the stage came alive with two men from the colonial time period, Johnny Depp and many other characters who were Johnny Depp in disguise only. We even got to see a man who kept losing his significant other’s most prized piece of jewelry (even when they were simply shopping in a mall).
Next up for their performance they made Greenland leave the stage while the audience helped them prep for the next game: “Interrogation.” The audience gave the troupe two words (“remembering” and “dog”) and the goal for Greenland was to guess these two words while being interrogated under very comical circumstances.
Lastly, we were entertained at the retelling of Jack and the Bean Stalk. Not only did we get an interesting twist when the troupe reenacted the story (his little sister was sold into slavery in order to help his diabetic mother who, as it turns out, at one point had an affair with the giant), but they were asked to replay their creation as different genres as collected from audience input.
Suddenly, we witnessed Jack turn into a real jerk, seduced by the “Giant-ess” when the scene was done Lifetime romance style. And on a different “take” the troupe brought us to the dangerous world of World War II as Jack had to crawl his way through the battlefield, before getting his beans and climbing his bean stalk.
Never without creative and funny ideas and scenes intertwined with their short form games, Plan B was a very entertaining and hilarious group to watch get up on stage and play off of each other!
