The Inner Workings of an Improvized Courtroom: Behind the Scenes of ‘Love in the First Degree’
I arrived at the Tett Centre on August 6, 2025 and wandered down the stairs to the rehearsal hall, completely unsure of what to expect. As I turned the handle and pried the door open I could hear the faint sound of “Raspberry Beret” playing from an iPad speaker, and there were people scurrying all around the room carrying various articles of clothing or standing on their phones waiting. I had entered the familiar chaos of the rehearsal room—though this time in the unfamiliar role of an embedded critic.
For those of you who may not know what an embedded critic or the practice of embedded criticism is; my simple explanation of the idea is to place the theatre critic into the creative process to better understand how a particular production is shaped and how decisions are made. We at Kingston Theatre Alliance have been working to delve into embedded criticism for a while now and have been fortunate enough to do so with Love in the First Degree produced by 6 AM Productions as a part of The Kick & Push Festival.
The show is a comedic murder-mystery with multiple rounds where the audience will vote on which character is innocent. The innocent character will then exit the show for the remaining characters to stay and convince the audience of their innocence. The premise means that there are a large number of possible combinations for characters on stage, and because these characters are decided by audience voting they are completely unscripted. B.C. Gorrie, the show’s director, explained to me during a break in the rehearsal that the show has 10 sections of varying lengths, with only the first being scripted as well as small moments throughout (which I will explain in more detail later). This means 90% of the 120-minute run time is completely unique improvised interactions that will only be observed that night. The team also changes who the actual murderer is each night so audiences are guaranteed an individual experience each time they attend—a good thing seeing as this show has been mounted with the company numerous times before with different casts.
At the initial rehearsal I attended as an embedded critic, the cast was receiving their costumes for the first time. They gradually trickled in, were given their dresswear, and made their way to a washroom or backstage area to change. The production is set in the 80s following a terrible murder at a wedding, so the costumes are flashy and bold. When each person reentered in costume their castmates would roar with compliments and praise; the room was endlessly supportive and energetic from the get-go. The support and care does not end at the castmates though. Gorrie and the production’s stage manager, Megan Morris, showered their fair share of praise on the outfits while also checking in with the performers to ensure that the footwear was comfortable.
The safety of the performers is a clear priority and concern in the production, as next up in the rehearsal schedule was a fight call. I was confused initially at how an unscripted show could possibly have a fight call, but the idea behind it was that tensions can get pretty high considering the context of the show being a murder, and so the team has choreographed some small fight sequences which the actors can choose to initiate during the show. To initiate, the assailant will deliver one scripted line, the victim will then respond with one of two scripted lines signalling that they are willing to go forward with the fight call or they do not wish to engage. The system ensures that the tensions of the scenes can continue to build while also keeping all parties safe. It was the first time running the fight call between Acacia Gifford (who plays Samantha Smith, the recently married and widowed bride) and Jarena Lee (who plays the maid of honour, Tiffany French) so I got to watch as the sequence was described and enacted, and throughout it all Gorrie consistently reminded Gifford that as the victim she would “have full power.”
Once past the fittings and fight calls (warm up was forgotten on this day) the actual rehearsing began. I have never delved too deeply into improv and so the environment was new from not only the criticism standpoint, but I also had the chance to be in an improv rehearsal room for the first time—the process was exhilarating from numerous angles. They first rehearsed the opening scripted portion, running it multiple times to accommodate the recently added cast member—Shanique Peart as the show’s host Vic Vanderspank—who has had to fill in for the part only recently and was beginning to learn the blocking.
Once the improvisation came in, the real difficulty began: the team was only eight days out from opening and so Gorrie elected to take an aggressive approach to tightening the team’s improv skills. Each time there was any major issue, Gorrie would stop the scene, explain the issue that had occurred, then they would start over. This would continue until they could complete one entire seven-minute improvised section of the show. Some of the issues included: the actors all standing in somewhat of a line, the focus was on a sitting character for too long, and spending too much time on one bit. In between, Gorrie would offer solutions and even suggest little character add-ons to lean into the improvisation. Gifford should let out a small wail whenever her character’s late husband is referred to; if they are recreating the crime scene they need to include gags to avoid just a stale recreation; he even made notes of missed opportunities for jokes so that they could keep in mind the kind of set-ups that might occur for future scenes. It was intensive, but the results were impressive and instantaneous. As the night went on the cast made it further into that seven-minute window with the scenes getting more entertaining each time.
I mean this as no insult to improvisers, but I had never considered the preparation that might go into a completely extemporized performance. When the rehearsal began I was dreading having to write an article about the rehearsal process of mediocre improvization, and then to follow up the article with a review of the show (which will be coming out post-opening night). But within the small window of time I was in the room, the actors were whipped into form and truly began to not only embody their characters but create hilarious scenarios from absolutely nothing. One-liners that got bursts of laughter from their small audience (consisting of the production team and myself), one-liners that despite their hilarity may never be heard again as they will not function outside of their context. The process behind Love in the First Degree is much more intensive than one might expect from such a fun concept, but the progress it creates in short windows leaves me with little doubt that when they open on August 14 this show will be a riot.
‘Love in the First Degree’ presented by 6 AM Productions plays as a part of The Kick & Push Festival from August 14-17, 2025. More information about the show as well as tickets can be found here.
