Day #9 — Go, Team, Go

Lisa Romeo prompt #9. This was week two of our improv sessions with Jimmy Carrane at Off Campus Writers Workshop. I'm still a bit fuzzy on where all this improvisation (both the theater games and the free writing) will take me, but I'm sticking with it for now.

Prompt: Go, Team, Go

The Big House — also known as Michigan Stadium — the biggest, baddest, best place to watch American football, nay, any sporting event, in the world. 100,000+ seats of unobstructed views of the field. 

Even if you don't like football, The Big House is an adventure. There's always something to watch. You have your rabid Michigan fans, many shirtless in frigid temperatures, showing off Maize and Blue war paint and jingling their key rings on key plays. There's the tide of sound rising in a unified chorus of cheers or moans as they play unfolds on the field. 

Then there's the human wave, when 100,000 people work together rising and waving and falling again as the wave rings the stadium, faster and faster, reversing on itself and then crossing, in spontaneous perfectly timed choreography. It's a sight to behold.

The 150-member Miiiiichigan marching band takes the field at half time, led by the most enthusiastic drum major in the NCAA. We don't need no stinkin' mascot. We've got cheerleaders tumbling off the walls to count out the score. And the pep band touring the stands. And an alma mater that nobody knows, except when you reach the word "Hail". And a fight song that everybody know, played like a leitmotif throughout the game.

I like football, at least college football, but you don't need to be a fan to get into the spirit. An autumn afternoon at The Big House will take you to places you've never been … even back in time and spirit to the days of the Roman Coliseum — it's a real Ann Arbor circus.
Time: 11 minutes

Nonfiction from a writing prompt is a completely different experience. I've written about Michigan Stadium before, on my real blog. Maybe there's something here that needs to be explored — an essay for the alumni magazine perhaps. Think outside the box. Think new venues.