Tonight's the Night

Tonight's the night, dear friends. Tonight we begin the Pit's Thursday night Drop-In Class: Playing from the Gut.

I couldn't be more excited.

The way I approach improv is with a hierarchy of trust that values the impulses of instinct and emotion over the thoughts of the mind. I trust my subconscious more than my conscious mind.

I believe that every good move of improv should be learned, then practiced until it becomes a habit. The habit, maintained, becomes a reflex. And the reflex, allowed to act over time, becomes instinct. And once good moves are loaded in, "dropped down" as some people say, you can truly get out of your head once show time comes, and let your guts, your instincts, your intuition lead you.

What this boils down to for our workshop is that we're going to practice good improv behavior, but even more so we're going to practice letting loose and letting fly. Abandoning concern and caution and seeing what happens when we get out there and get loose. Timidity is a wonderful trait to portray in a character once in while. But in an improviser, it's to be eliminated.

We will also, fear not, cover all the good stuff that we all should be practicing as improvisers. Commitment, decisiveness, object work, status, editing technique, silence, surprise.

But more than anything else, this class is about the joys (and delightful terrors) of plunging in.

I hope you'll join us, and, having joined us, will return. It's going to be fun as balls.

Your pal,
Geoff