📞Rotary

Setup and Launch

Rotary is improvised entirely over Zoom video calls. To keep the audio clean, each performer records independently, on their own device and with a studio microphone. The audio files of all performers are synced in post production. Sound effects and music are added in post as well. Laughs are removed in post production on all episodes except for episode one.

Flow

The form lasts around 25-30 minutes. It begins organically, from a single world suggestion: the audience names a world.

1. Core Scenes

The first and core section of the form is phone calls between characters. Scenes in this section typically last between two and three minutes. A scene is usually edited by one of the characters receiving an incoming call. The call is made by another member of the team: they say ring ring and name the player's phone. The character receiving the call hangs up and answers the incoming call.

A scene may also be edited another way: by a door knock, by a walk-on, or by any move that allows the show to continue in real time. There are no time jumps in this section.

Stylistically, most scenes in this section have their own distinct game of the scene, the repeating pattern of behavior in the scene. A voice of reason in one scene may become the absurd character in the next scene, and vice versa.

2. The Pile On

At around minute 17, the group looks for an opportunity to rapid fire call one character. This section lasts around three minutes. It acts as a bridge and an energy spike between sections one and three.

3. The Run

The third section begins when someone offers a cut-to or a scene painted edit, for example we zoom out. This is typically the first hard edit, and the first time the form can skip in time. From this point on, the show mostly or entirely stops focusing on phone calls.

The Run is essentially an extended and continuous third beat that lasts around 5-10 minutes. In the Run, the group looks for a thematic or narrative device to call back characters, details and ideas. An example of a thematic device: a baseball flies across town past characters from earlier in the form. An example of a narrative device: the hero's journey of one character from the show. The Run can also take place at an event that was alluded to earlier in the piece.

This section usually features heavy usage of scene painting.