The Final Bow

I was talking to a friend of mine on the phone the other day.

We hadn’t talked for awhile.

I mentioned to him that I was taking improv classes at the Bad Dog Theatre Company.

My friend said that he has taken improv and that he worked at a company that offered improv to its employees.  

I highly recommend that companies offer improv to its employees for team-building purposes.

I started improv on January 8, 2017.

There were 12 of us on the first day of class. We started off as strangers. But by the time the classes ended 8 weeks later on March 5, 2017, I was sad that it was the last day and the last day that I would be seeing my classmates and instructor.

We had snippets of conversation here and there, but the bonding experience took place during the actual participation in class.

All of us got to be silly. 

For example, during the last day of class, we got to take on some very interesting and creative characters like a bible evangelist, a conspiratorial spy, Santa Claus, an antique book dealer, a hockey mom, a pregnant man, etc.  

I got to be in the same scene as the pregnant man and I had a blast mirroring what my male classmate was doing. We both screamed our heads off. When do you get an opportunity to scream your heads off other than in improv class?  

We participated in a team-building exercise. All of us stood still on the spot, hands to our sides, eyes closed. One person had to offer to say “1”, another person would follow and say “2”, another person would follow and say “3”, etc. The trick was you could not say a number at the same time as your classmate or else we would have to start at number “1” and count upwards again. We very much wanted to work as a team and anticipate when it would be safe to say a number.  

Another team-building exercise again involved standing still on the spot, hands to our sides, eyes closed. One of us had to start off with emitting a sound, others would join in so as to complement the sounds that were already being made. You could choose to go high or go low, go rapid or go slow. I chose to say “ping” very slowly. What was cool was that one of my classmates complemented my sound by chiming in and saying “pong.” We said “ping” and “pong” alternately – I felt happy that one of my classmates decided to complement my sound with “pong”!

I enjoyed a trust exercise. I volunteered to stand in the middle and my classmates surrounded me in a tight circle. I closed my eyes and started to sway. My classmates would gently push me and I’d move in different directions. It was very relaxing to be (gently) pushed around!  I trusted my classmates that they would not let me fall.      

I feel that anyone who takes improv has joined an unspoken improv “club” where there is a life-long membership.

Anyone who takes an improv class, I think, shares certain characteristics.

We don’t take ourselves too seriously, we can act silly and laugh at ourselves. 

We learned about being empathetic, to focus on what other people are saying and noticing their body language.

We are flexible to go with the flow and to adapt to where our scene partner wants to take us.  

It was great meeting my classmates and instructor.

I will miss our Sunday play-time in the sandbox.

Also Published on LinkedIn:  March 7, 2017

Image Credit: Pixabay