#17 Ninja Repunzel
The Princess, folk musicals & getting things done
Issue #17 Ninja Repunzel
6th July 2022
Hello. How are you?
I am well, thanks for asking.
This week I have mostly been reading scripts written by talented friends, teaching improv, going for runs on the heath with Radio and at one point converted my bathroom into an escape room so effective that I needed to drill the lock off the door.
I also did an improv set with the incredible Monica Gaga that still gives me goosebumps when I think about it.
Hey, look at these things...
Rule of three
[Film] The Princess
I loved the premise of this film which is essentially "The Raid in reverse" as a princess wakes up imprisoned at the top of a tower and must fight her way down floor by floor through a metric shit-tonne of medieval goons. And OKAY the script, CGI effects and ADR are all appalling but the fights are brilliant and Joey King is iconic as the ninja Repunzel. It also bears more than a passing resemblance to The Princess Who Saved Herself - a story my niece wrote for World Book Day so she could go into school dressed as a warrior.
[Music] Musicals but folk
It doesn't get much more Chris Mead than this. Yep, it's musical theatre but arranged and sung by folk singers. I have spiralled happily down this rabbit hole. Please enjoy Another Hundred People by Eleri Ward and Left Behind by Rachel Bay Jones.
[Organisation] GTD in 15 minutes
I read David Allen's book Getting Things Done about 10 years ago and I still use the system today. The principles it contained were truly life-changing for me. I recently discovered this 15 minute summary version which is a brilliant distillation of all the important info.
Spotlight
I'm always very flattered that my Hoopla Impro classes book up extremely quickly. With that in mind, I thought people might want to know that I'm offering a Story course, intended to help you improvise an entire one act play, starting in JANUARY 2023. That is the first time I've written 2023. It's the future!
Longform thoughts
Over the next couple of months I'm going to write about the habits and behaviours that I personally think create the best improv scenes (inspired by Patti Stiles' tools not rules credo).
I've taken inspiration from thoughts shared with me during YesBot as well as my own experiences with the art form over the last couple of decades.
This week I'll give you a brief overview in The seven habits of highly effective improvisers and then we'll dive into each behaviour in turn over the summer. I'm keen for this to be pretty interactive, so do reply to this newsletter and tell me what I'm missing.
And in case you're wondering, yes, this is building towards something...
Ephemera
In this occasional series, I share artefacts from my life as an improviser. This week, that time I got a new iPad and made hand drawn class notes for a while. If you're particularly interested, you can download a PDF version here.
Radio days
Radio: The Teenage Years!