My Theory About Improv and Everything

I'm in a train the trainer type class at the moment. It's being run for those of us in the improv company who share an interest in one day teaching classes. Currently, I don't think I would be chosen to lead public classes because I feel like my improv in general has been a bit off lately, but this is free instruction, and being taught by a teacher I haven't had in a while. Imma take this goddamn class. The omnipresent "they" say that teaching is a great way to learn. I'm in it for me, not to bring the love of improv to orphans and stop war. The class, which at the outset was to be 2 or 3 sessions has morphed into a biweekly series with no clear ending. I love it. We are forced to spend more money on babysitters, as it falls in the same time slot as my husb's improv class, but it's worth it.

A couple of classes ago the teacher mentioned that your personal school/theory of improv is revealed in what you teach. We take turns running exercises; so far I've done a higher energy circle warm-up game and a 2-person directed scene (with me as the director). Pulling from the objectives of the exercises I chose, my personal theory of improv includes:

-an ability to be silly or a large character in front of others

-an ability to develop, build and sustain a rhythmic flow with others

-teamwork: everybody adding equally

-expanding "yes and" to also mean "react then act"

-honing the ability to read other people and discovering the subtext

There are many more in my personal collection of improv theory bullet points, of course, but I'm focusing on the reasons behind those two exercises.

The class is also working on:

-be concise

As for the Everything part, I find that these bullet points are all things I'm always trying to work on in my real, non-improv-but-just-as-improvised life. I'm a shy person. Yes. I'm a shy person and I have real shy-shame about it. I often feel that I'm the gear that isn't quite in sync with the rest of the machine. I have difficulty finding the correct balance point between give and take; it's always to much of one of the other. I believe other team members constantly think that the team would be stronger without me. I say yes more than I and.

In text I often backtrack to remove unnecessary words and distractions. In person, I need to cut the shit. All of it. From every place that shit has gathered. There's too much. Out of the shit-wagon and dumped on to the ground, its energy broken down into fertilizer for what needs to grow. Yeah, metaphor.

I've been taking in a lot of Dave Razowsky lately, in the form of his podcast and his two classes available at iActing Studios. I purchased an e-version of The Viewpoints Book. It's already one of those books that feel like home. I want to learn and experience the shit out of all of that.