After several weeks as a substitute, Charlie is now the official coach of Diplomat Motel. This is good because Charlie is a good coach and also because it's unwise to go coachless for too long (for several reasons, not least of which is that without an advocate during the transition time between coaches, a team is much more likely to get cut from the schedule).

Charlie brings a book to each rehearsal, whatever he's currently reading, and randomly picks words from the book when suggestions are needed for scenes or exercises. One week it was 'Dune.' Another week 'The Sound and the Fury.' Tonight it was 'The Onion Girl.'

We worked on Openings. An organic opening to a long form improv show is... well... hard to explain. All you really need to know is that it's how a show begins and in theory it can be anything. It serves a lot of purposes (building energy, connecting the performers) but one of the main tasks is to the take the suggestion from the audience and expand on it, free-associate on it, so that there are more ideas and details to pull from throughout the show than just a one word suggestion like, say, "dildo." Basically, it's brainstorming.

The main exercise for tonight's rehearsal was each of us doing a one-person opening. Instead of brainstorming as a group, we brainstormed alone, while the rest of us watched.

Trupe went first. His suggestion from 'The Onion Girl' was "chest." He did a silent opening, pantomiming, among other things, someone dramatically undressing and someone watching through binoculars.

Tristan (pictured) was second. Her suggestion was "stroke," and she gave a true personal monologue about a family member who'd recently had two strokes and the family keeping track of who had and who hadn't sent 'Get Well Soon' cards.

Timmy's suggestion was "Thailand." He started off describing an imaginary map on the back wall, turning this into a narrative story involving the mafia, a giant sword and a hero traveling back and forth between different islands (Timmy running to different imaginary maps on different walls).

Cesar's suggestion was "motel parking lot." He did what is generally called "scene painting," walking around the stage describing objects in a location. "We see an ashtray in an old car. In the car's rear view mirror is the reflection of a glowing motel sign."

Meador's suggestion was "deep in the woods." He spoke in an over-the-top narrator voice and said quasi-philosophical things. "Where do men go when they have places to go? What do men eat when they have things to eat? Questions. Questions all."

My suggestion was "daddy's home." I decided to try doing a normal group opening as if surrounded by invisible teammates, parodying some of the pitfalls of group openings. Kind of a cop out, but I tried to be honest about my own worst habits when an opening gets directionless and muddled. "Pssst... what are we doing? Are we swaying?"

Young's suggestion was "tattoos and leather straps." He did a character monologue as a reckless motorcycle stuntman. "I'm going to go into my trailer now and get chlamydia."

Laura's suggestion was "fatalistic indifference" and she did a two person scene. She was in a morgue, pulling out dead bodies and describing how they died to an unseen assistant. "I don't know how this one died. Looks like natural causes. I might not do an autopsy on this one. And this... this is where I sleep."

Due to conflicts and illness Martin, Stegmeyer and Eckart weren't at rehearsal.