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Freak Engine’s 11th anniversary show at Theaterworks
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They perform the first Friday of every month at midnight, and in the true spirit of improvisation, Freak Engine has a deal with Theaterworks: They use the set of whatever show happens to be running earlier that night. So sometimes they’ve got a bare stage to work with, sometimes a living room.
Freak Engine is invested in their audience, and their shows are always interactive. “We want the audience to be intimately involved in the show,” says Entman, who has been with the company just shy of eleven years. They accomplish this by turning audience suggestions into improvised scenes, and by sometimes getting an audience member on stage.
He doesn’t get all woo woo about it, but Entman says that when a show is really going well he can feel a connected energy with the audience. Their laughter helps that connection, but comedy is not strictly what the company is about. “Sometimes a scene will arise that’s so captivating,” Entman says, “it doesn’t matter if it’s funny.” This is what can happen when actors commit to the character they’re playing, even when they’re creating it on the spot. And having seen a lot of improv, I can vouch for the excitement of those moments.
Aside of rehearsing, the company tries to get together for dinner once a week because they like each other, but also because it keeps them in synch between shows. Entman has fantasies of recording those dinners and using the material that comes out of them, because it’s priceless. Of course that would take the improv out of improv, and it’s not what Freak Engine wants to give its audience. “We give them something that they have never seen before and will never see again,” says Entman. “We have no idea what that’ll be except a good time.”
The skinny:
Friday, June 5, 2009
Midnight
Theaterworks
2085 Monroe Ave
Tickets $5
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