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What does collaboration look like?

Nina — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 23:17:34 +0000

You and five people step on the stage with nothing, trusting everyone in the room to listen and give what they can to the performance. Together, you are there to write, stage and perform a one act play that has never been done and will never be seen again. You shade your eyes from the stage lights so you can see the audience, you try to make eye contact. You ask for a suggestion from the audience, the fulcrum that will launch your show. You turn to your troupe members with a smile, making eye contact with all of them and, together, you begin…

Whole worlds get made from seemingly so little. Photo by Kevin McShane.

In longform improvisation, the process is the product – this show we are making is what the audience pays to see. I have known writers in the past that roll their eyes at improvisation. “Why would I perform my first draft?” Improvisation isn’t YOUR first draft. It is a work we make together, it is OUR show. It is built from the collection of thoughts, emotions and ideas in the room at that hour. It is a perfect representation of that moment in time and space, ephemeral and magic.

Collaboration, to me, is individual thoughts and ideas brought together to make a cohesive whole. There is give and take of leadership, adaptation to situations as they come up, listening for patterns, no holding back. I don’t think it is everyone nodding and smiling. There is a difference between group think and what improvisors call group mind. There is conflict around ideas, but there is always respect and openness. Tina Fey articulates this in an interview with Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Collaboration looks like everyone in the room playing at the top of their game, listening deeply to information and ideas and putting forth a cohesive piece. To me, great collaboration looks a lot like a great improv show.

This post was originally written for Entrepreneurship at ASU.

Authors@Google: Tina Fey

Trust us

Nina — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 05:13:08 +0000

Since I finished the Torch improv training, I’ve thought a lot about what it means to me to be a trained improvisor *bum bum BUM*. Mostly, the day after the graduation showcase looked like any other day prior. My hair wasn’t shinier, I didn’t have a new British accent. What I did have was something intangible. It was more than confidence. I felt… malleable. Like I was being affected by what was happening around me. More than I had been, more than I had let myself before.
Some community events that I’ve taken part in over the last year have really affected me. I’m learning to trust in my community more, that there are people giving everything they have to make community better. Lifting each other up. Trust is huge on stage: trusting that everyone is “all in,” no one is holding back or afraid, trust in your own ideas and trust that everyone is working at the top of their intelligence. In an environment built on trust, amazing things can happen. Without trust, big bold choices don’t happen. Creativity dies. People don’t speak and perform from the heart.
A group built on trust can dodge and weave through characters and ideas together like a school of fish, or an amazing basketball team (so I’m told – I’ll trust basketball lovers on that one). We call it “group mind” on stage.
I said Design Week changed me, and as I thought about it more, a lot has changed me. I feel like there is a group mind building in the Phoenix design community. I was open to feeling it, I was seeking it out even. And I felt it more than I had ever felt it before.
That is all well and good, but the REALLY big deal about that more than a year ago, I was told by my therapist that I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I talked about this at TEDxPhoenix, how trust is a choice that we make. My trauma involved stranger danger and public places, so my whole adult life I’ve been guarded against a sense of being part of a community. Five years ago, the terrible events in Tucson would have shut me down. The world would be filled with palpable danger, threats around any corner. While this may be true for everyone, and was proven true for that group of people at that moment, I no longer find myself having that fear make my choices day to day. Still, being affected emotionally by a group of people in public is a struggle day after day. Having a place on stage to push that trust in my fellow player farther and farther, opening my heart to the audience, not hiding behind a playwright’s words anymore and trusting myself to be the producer of the work has begun to rewire my mind. I choose to trust, more often than I allow myself to be guarded.
I’m learning more every day about how my mind works, unravelling and laying out the ratty yarn ball of emotions and structures that have been built around it. I have been living with so many kludges in my system for so long, it will take a while for me to figure all the knots and ends that have been tied together quickly. For me, working on stage as an improvisor is a vital part of that unravelling. I am seeing now the neatly wrapped ball of yarn starting to form, ready to knit into a most amazing scarf at some point in the future. It will be comfortable, beautiful and useful. It will take a lot of work to get to that point, but it will delight me every day.
My heart and mind has been very filled by the victims, survivors and heroes of Saturday’s tragedy. I hope that they, and all of us, can continue to be work towards hope for and trust in the community around us.

Spooky Story Time!

Nina — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 19:10:08 +0000

Next performance: Unicorn Warpath (I’m in that!) and Apollo 12 present Spooky Story Time at The Trunk Space!
Wednesday, October 27, 8 pm, $5.
Bring toiletries to donate to Lodestar!

How to infiltrate an improv community

Nina — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 03:26:37 +0000

In January 2009, my friend from college asked me if I would participate in an improvised movie in downtown Phoenix. My heart simultaneously flew into my throat and sank into my toes. I had done improv in college while studying acting and theatre. He had been in the troupe with me, and continued on after I was not cast… one of the most gut wrenching, soul breaking moments of my early acting career. Wah. Poor little me. But I hadn’t improvised since, and as much as it scared me, I missed it and wanted to get back to it. I said yes.
That started a whole journey into joining a community that has become like a family. I can’t (or don’t want to) remember what my life was like without the people and activities that make up this community. I’ve had people ask me about how they might get into improv as a performer, and I thought I would share my tips from this journey.
1. Go see shows
There are numerous types of improv that exist in the world, and different communities have different approaches and points of view. In Phoenix and the surrounding cities there are lots of different theaters that focus on improv: Jesterz in Scottsdale focuses on short form, game based improv, National Comedy Theatre in Mesa does as well, with a little longform mixed in. The Torch Theatre, which is the community I’m involved in, focuses solely on longform improv, like the Harold and other longform formats. I prefer that form of improv personally, but I understand everyone is different, so the first step is learning what kind of improv is happening where.
2. Participate in a jam
Jams are when anyone can step up and take part in a show. It’s like an open mike night for improv. I know Torch Theatre has a jam once a month at Trunk Space, and they are super fun. You put your name in a bucket, teams are pulled together from that, and you do a 15 minute show with your troupe for the night. I’ve done short form jams where you just step up on stage, the director runs the game, and you step in as needed. I think this is a great way to gauge where you are at as a performer in relation to this specific community. Getting to know other improvisors is key in building a troupe to perform, and jams are great for that.
3. Take a class
A lot of the theaters I’ve mentioned have classes to teach the improv that they perform. I have graduated from the Torch program, and I learned an enormous amount on top of my classical acting training. Not all improv communities have cattle calls to audition, unlike a typical acting community. Troupes are formed through people that come together with like-minded sensibilities and goals, or put together by the theatre that they perform for. Getting to know who you want to play with and what the theatre represents is easy when you are learning from them.
Everyone in improv that I admire takes classes as a way to keep themselves fresh and on the creative edge. We can all take a moment to keep learning, and in class, you have yet another opportunity to meet people that are interested in performing.
4. Form a troupe
Don’t wait until the God of improv comes down from the heavens and asks you to join him on the Cloud Stage. If you want to perform, you can find other people that are hungry to perform and make your way to the stage on your own. And when I say “stage,” that could mean any space that is willing to let you perform. There are coffee shops, bars, book stores, schools, and all kinds of other creative options where people could gather to watch a show. The great thing about improv is it can happen anywhere. Its great when you have a theatre, but it can be a fortifying experience to challenge yourself to improvise in other environments.
In addition to that, Torch has a weekly Cagematch, where troupes can go head to head to win the audience over for a chance to perform the next week. As long as you are performing longform improv, anyone can sign up for a slot in Cagematch. They also have shows like Cerberus Cup which are open to any troupe that fits the criteria.
With all that said, I am a trained actor, with a decent amount of semi-professional experience. While this did not make me an expert at improv, it did give me a lot of tools that helped me learn it. Everyone comes to improv for different reasons and with different skills. I prefer longform, some folks prefer short form. And like any art form, improv is an entrepreneurial environment. You need to understand your skill set, how it fits in with the market, and make your own opportunities. If you are open and talented and interested, the communities should welcome you.
This has been a life-changing journey for me, and I hope that more people step in to see where it leads them.

Pomp and Circumstance

Nina — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:50:39 +0000

I work at ASU, and I volunteer most years at Convocation. I tear up every time. My degrees have changed my life for the better, and the idea of celebrating that accomplishment as a community of scholars thrills me. Also, man, that song. It get’s me going every single time. And don’t get me started on regalia. I’m a full on graduation nerd.

My ASU graduation in 2005. I will be as excited as I was then.

In May 2009, I enrolled in Level 1: Beginning Longform Improv. I’ve been performing on stage and in film since I was 15, and had a brief stint with improv in college. What I was seeing in performances from the Torch troupes excited me as an artist, and I decided I wanted to try my hand at it. As anyone close to me knows, my love for improv exploded into flames of ardor over the last year as I explored longform principles and philosophies. They go beyond just “yes, and.” I learned methods of deep listening, learning and developing structures to create a holistic piece on the fly, and how to build characters and relationships that are fun, human, inhuman, absurd or anything else my imagination can conjure up. I have learned about myself and my community.

My last class for Level 6: Longform Synthesis is over. I am heading into my final student showcase. I get to graduate from the Torch Theatre Longform Training Center with a group of amazing people, all from various performance backgrounds and life experience. The community of people that I have had the pleasure of collaborating with has been one of the biggest joys. People that are truly interested in delving into the depths of human experience, people that are willing to be vulnerable in front of an audience full of strangers. People that are pushing themselves past their own “happy places” in order to bring performances to a new level.

If you want to check out what I’ve learned with this group of people, please come to one of our shows. (Dates to be posted shortly) We have developed a format we are calling Butterfly Door, inspired by the idea of “The Future.” As the first group to graduate from this 6 level curriculum developed by the Torch, and the class that has been around during this transition to the new space, we definitely feel the excitement being part of the future of the creative community in Phoenix. We are in a future we couldn’t have imagined when we walked into Space 55 last May.

I am at the end of this journey. I am proud and sad and excited about the journey ahead of me. *pushes play on cd player and grabs a box of kleenex*

This post was originally published on The Torch Theatre’s 4721 blog. Consider becoming a Torch Bearer and help Phoenix build a richer creative community.

Talent

Nina — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:39:52 +0000

“If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn’t bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.” – Stephen King

This is a great statement. The first time I cashed an acting check I felt like I was invincible. There is a talent for survival as well as a talent for the arts.

Get comfy at the Torch!

Nina — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:53:07 +0000

You walk beyond the red velvet curtain, and into an intimate space. The stage is empty, but the room is filled with a sense of anticipation and excitement. You can’t wait to have a seat and get ready for a night of fun… WAIT, WHAT?! Where are the chairs!? NO CHAIRS. You run around screaming in a circle until you collapse, exhausted and empty.
Well, maybe not exactly like that. But it’s close.
Today we are launching our Adopt-a-Chair program for the new space. That’s right, there are 40 lonely chairs out there somewhere, and for mere pennies a day, you could be the proud parent of one or more of them. We’ll even put your name on it! Come be a part of Torch history! Adopt-a-Chair today.

There are so many lonely chairs out there waiting for your help...

[This post was originally published at 4721, The Torch Theatre blog]

I am the winner

Nina — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 05:43:16 +0000

Improv is a great model for collaboration. It is also hilarious. It is also the way I got my brain back from a dark place over the last year. I am a fan.
If you haven’t been to a show, you should go. People living in the moment, dealing with what is in front of them, turning judgment off (unless the character is judgmental), and supporting each other’s ideas and building on them. It is a beautiful amazing thing. I have learned a lot about myself, other people and my creative self.
I am performing this weekend. A lot. I’ve been told I haven’t been broadcasting my performances enough. So I will broadcast a little more. This weekend is a my first marathon performance weekend. Last weekend I performed with a super fun grup “A Little Piece of Corey,” and we made it to the next bracket in the Phoenix Improv March Madness Playoffs, so I will be performing on Friday at 10:30pm. Then, on Saturday I am performing in Cagematch with the team I helped form from my fellow students. We call ourselves “Unicorn Warpath.” THEN on Monday, the culmination of my Level 4 class is performing two of the formats we’ve learned this session. We’ve named ourselves “Pigeon.”
I might be exhausted next week, but I’m really excited about all these opportunities to perform. I hope you can join me at some point. I’ve learned a lot from this adventure, and I will continue.
Also, these are my friends.

Phoenix Improv Festival 2010 Promo from Dane Paul Stewart on Vimeo.

Go see this play, it is better than lolcats!

Nina — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:31:41 +0000

I went to Stray Cat’s production of “A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant” by Kyle Jarrow, and I could not stop laughing. Something about children performing L. Ron Hubbards life through dance and music just gets me giggling. Truly inspired. It goes until December 20th, its in Tempe. IT IS AWESOME.

conga!

Nina — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:04:39 +0000

I love the internet. I found Donna Murphy doing “100 Easy Ways” and “Swing” as well.