So an improviser and a Rabbi walk onto a plane.... sounds like the start of a joke doesn’t it.
Read More
I am writing this blog from South Paris Maine at a place called Celebration Barn Theatre. It is an old red barn built in 1902 that was turned into a Centre for creating original theatre by Tony Montanaro.
Read More
Master Servant work was always filled with a joy, passion, connection, release, play and focus. They were always delightful, mischievous and filled with intense connection and interplay.
Read More
Lately I’ve been working on a project that has required me to challenge certain skill areas and to learn new approaches.
Read More
Last week I had the privilege of seeing Lily Tomlin live. Ms. Tomlin lives in a category of my brian loving labelled ‘inspiring performers’.
Read More
Improvisation and life go hand in hand. The nature of improvisation is based on human behaviour, the techniques are the result of observing that behaviour.
Read More
There has been a lot of hoop-la about Ricky Gervais’s hosting of the Golden Globe awards. Personally I think they got what they asked for
Read More
I started pondering people’s interpretation of inspire your partner 3 or 4 months ago when after a show someone asked me if the set up they gave me was inspiring. It was. The scene was from a snogger set up, and I was asked to start with that. I had furniture, a open stage and it was the most inspired I had felt in awhile. Why? I was tossed off the cliff into the unknown. Here.... Begin.... Delightful!
Read More
I love every step of the process because it is a constant reminder to be present. If we trust and allow our creative selves to just do and stop worrying about failure we can be delighted in the magical surprise of what comes to life. If we can just stop trying to control the future and just get our own crazy judgements and fear out of the way.
Read More
It was focused on a ghost of the Haymarket Theatre, the history of the ghost and a sighting of the ghost. You would think a story about ghosts would be gripping. Ghosts and their history are interesting. Having a star like Sir Patrick see a ghost during a performance is fascinating. So why was this episode boring? This is where this all connects to impro for me.
Read More
I love the start of a new year just like I love the opening of a new note book. The blank page, the open opportunity, the potential. It is this same love of the unknown that I crave in impro. Each workshop is that new notebook, each show a January first.
Read More
It is natural when one is pondering something to try and look at it from different angles. The latest thing to do flip flops in my trampoline mind is the idea of rules in improvisation.
Read More
I love when peoples eyes light up in impro. It could be in the eyes of the audience, participants in a workshop or a fellow performer. I love that look! That special eyes wide with wonder, twinkling with the delight of impro! It is delicious!!
Read More
In Canada I had an improviser, with many years experience, say to me; “I know it is awful to say this, but I like to win.” referring to playing Theatresports™. I was shocked.
Read More
I am talking about the group of improvisers who sail in our impro seas that look you in the eye during a workshop and nod and agree with the credo. They claim to believe in it, the discus the work in depth with you using all the proper terms and phrases making you believe they are of the same ilk and then on stage abandon it, and you, completely.
Read More
If teachers teach improvisation in a mechanical style that is a repetitious, academic, ego based form then we generate robotic high achieving (perhaps) performers of impro games. But we do not inspire free thinking improvisation artists who challenge and explore. Improvisation is non-mechanical, it is organic and impulsive.
Read More
One day in an improvisation class I began toying with an exercise having one person play the worlds worst improvisor and the other play good improvisor.
Read More
I hear improvisers say ‘I don’t do narrative impro’, which seems to me be avoiding something fundamentally obvious. Every scene has narrative. Whether or not you feel you are actively creating a narrative the fact remains the audience is still applying narrative to your work. To ignore that is to ignore the obvious reality in the performance.
Read More