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Andy welcomes all questions and will answer whatever he can thoughtfully and respectfully. Write him at improvandy@improvreview.com.
Read Past Andy's!
#7 - Andy opines on festivals and gives the skinny on how to combat improv burnout.
#9 - Andy finds the reason in the Rhyming game, and shows you can't get around paying a musician.
#11
- Andy helps a successful troupe split the dough, and tells another how
to get to Carnegie Hall.
Dear Improv Andy-
I am burnt out on Improv. I have worked with numerous groups and people and I have lost the joy. At every performance and every rehearsal, I find myself cynically judging that all my colleagues are stuck in their own patterns and that no change or "fire" is occurring. I don't want to feel empty! Help!
- Bored!, Chicago, IL
Dear Bored! -
It is time to move on. No. Not from improvisation, but from improv. Semantics to be sure. But just the fact that you are using the term "improv" implies that you are performing work that has been defined and redefined by the same people, groups and schools over and over. Now it is time to explore what else.
Improvisation applies to all facets of theater as it does to all facets of everyday life. Your mechanic might improvise a way to keep your muffler from falling off again. Clowns improvise. Mimes improvise. Dancers, magicians, and contortionists. When was the last time you looked into alternate disciplines to fuel your theatrical improvisation.
Jacques LeCoq taught thousands in France before his death. He urged the freeing of the body. He used improvisation to hark back to medieval clown and commedia techniques. He has been lauded as the start point of some of the most innovative productions and performers in the world, yet most improvisors have never heard of him.
Sure you like singing with your troupe, but have you ever taken a music theory class? Your local adult education organization offers one. Or how about a woodworking class to indirectly study physics and, thus, your own body's mechanics? And, hey, more learning to be had when you actually spend time with people who are not improvisors.
Finally, put up an ad in the green room of the theater in which you perform.
"Sick of improv! Seeking others who are sick of improv to perform
improv we won't be sick of." Take what you already do, examine why
you're tired of
it, and go, go, go. Who knows what innovations you'll come up with.
______________________________________________________
Dear Improv Andy,
Is there any benefit to hauling ourselves to festivals at our own expense? I have never been to one and I wonder if it would be enough to simply "jive with the community." How can my group make the most of this time-consuming and expensive jaunt?
- D.K., Washington, D.C.
Dear D.K.-
Yes! Yes! Yes!
In the mid-1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev, in the spirit of glasnost, opened up the Soviet Union and allowed Western science and medicine to see what they've been missing. What the Western scientists discovered was that their Eastern counterparts had come to many of the same conclusions, but without the benefit of sharing information, in remarkably different ways. The learned men and women of all regions welcomed the opportunity to fill-in-the-blanks where blanks remained, put two and two together where they once only knew four, or simply dance to rock 'n' roll as played on a balalaika.
Despite the advent of the Internet, an improv group (especially in the less densely improv saturated areas) cannot get a true understanding of what is happening in the world of improv without venturing far and wide to see what others are doing. A festival is a great way to see a lot at once, and get a real sense of what is going on in the improv "world" as a whole.
Here are some tips to get the best from your group's festival experience:
1. See as much performance as you possibly can. As a group, attend performances whenever they are going on, but, if there is more than one stage (such as at the Chicago fest), do not be lured by celebrity vehicles. Many times the "improvisor who made it to Hollywood" shows are put on to draw public audience, but won't give you an accurate gauge of what is innovative in the community. See the shows that nobody else is going to. Talk about them afterwards: What was good about them? What was bad? What ideas can we take home with us?
2. When it comes to workshops, divide and conquer. Have the members of your troupe take different classes, and try to take as many as possible. Take notes, even ask if you can videotape a class, then get together later and discuss what you've learned. Most classes overlap so that no one person can take them all. Fanning your troupe out will allow you to soak up as much information as possible.
3. Get away from the festival. There's a huge gathering of improvisors in this town. Why is this place so special? What goes on here that I should know about?
4. Go to the bar. Meet your cohorts. And above all, be an open book regarding your own doings. Who knows? Some troupe from Muskogee might just pipe up with, "We tried the same type of format a year ago and here's how we overcame the problems you are just now facing."
5. Talk shop. That guy standing next to you is looking for a small troupe to star in a television vehicle for his fledgling cable network. Talk to him. What does he think of improv? Ask him. Buy him a drink.
6. Don't talk shop. Acquaintances are made with a common interest. Friendships are built with many common interests. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to put up your troupe's show at Margaret's theater there in L.A.? And to think, it's all because you both like Sammy Sosa.
7. Say hi to your friendly Improv Review critic. They love improv, too. And they don't bite.