The Friday Drop-In is mine, all mine!

That's right! As of.. a month or so ago, I'm no longer filling in on the Pit's Friday Drop-In -- I'm teaching it full-time! Awesome!

It's been going really great.

I'll put more details here later, maybe, but it's every Friday night 7-10pm at Simple Studios -- http://www.simplestudiosnyc.com/ , no sign-up necessary, just show up :) $20 at the door, or $15 for existing Pit students.

It's a really great time, and a great chance to double or triple the number of scenes you get to do each week. Everyone agrees that the best way to get better at improv is to do it, and at the Friday Drop-In you get to do a lot of it.

I bring in the best exercises I've picked up over the years, including several I've created or modified on my own.

You'll learn a lot and have a blast. Hope to see you there soon!

Your pal,

Geoff Grimwood

Tomorrow: Class Two

What'll we do?

I've got stuff planned, obviously. Is it obvious? Either way, I've got stuff planned.

We'll almost definitely do some intervals of a few different kinds, pairs work, silent work, deliberately boring work, reactive work, and crisis work.

I want to dip our toes in a couple of short form devices that create the need for instant decision.

I'm also doing some thinking about what warmups and non-scenic exercises will translate well to smaller numbers of people. You know, just in case we get smaller numbers of people. ;)

And as always, my ideas going in are the outline from which we depart as is meet in the moment.

You're paying for the class. It's your class. I'm gonna keep doing my damndest to make it good for you.

See you there at 7!

Your pal,
Geoff

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