I’m headed off on a week long excursion to San Miguel De Allende, Mexico. See you when I get back, but in the Meantime you can track my progress on this post.
Hi Improvoker folks-I was just wondering if you could enlighten me on something. With so many improv schools available, it’s hard to decide which one is the best, or if there even is a best
. There’s PIT, UCB, Magnet Theater, National Improv Theater, etc., etc. I’ve already taken a level 1 class at UCB. Do you recommend that I stick with them and go up the ranks or is there one school that is better than the other?
Sometimes I get intimidated by all the glitz and glamour attached to UCB and it makes me want to go somewhere that is not as high profile. Of course, then I become concerned that I won’t be getting as good an education from a less high-profile school or that agents tend to frequent one school more than the other yada yada yada. Any words of encouragement for a new improv-er?
I really appreciate it!
–TC
Well TC, as you can imagine this is some pretty subjective and delicate territory. What works for some people doesn’t work for others and people can get very defensive about their chosen school. You will undoubtedly meet people who will slag a school because “they suck,” but at the end of the day, every person’s sense of what is funny is different. I can only talk from personal experience and my involvement in the New York improv community, but I’ll try to give you as objective an opinion as possible
Read on…
As summer makes it’s ways into our collective hearts and armpits, so do the rise of special classes taught at the Upright Citizens Brigade Training Center. One instructor to always keep an eye out for is the unparalleled Christina Gausas. If I were a bit more pretentious I might even venture to say that Christina is the closest thing to my improv guru I have ever come across.
One of the classes I took with Cristina which changed my perspective was her Openings & Group Games class. I had thought it would be a throw away class, I was bored and wanted to take a summer class after my Billy Merritt 401 to pass the time until my Gethard 501 started up. Group games and openings? That’s like a cooking class on boiling water, right? Fortunately for me, I was completely wrong. Christina opened my eyes to the science of group games. She worked with us on matching energy, unconditional support, devising form out of pattern, listening, using openings more effectively to begin scenes, and showed me how to accurately perform my favorite opening of all time… the true Del Close Invocation.
“An opening is like an artist’s palette — it is the foundation for all your scenes.”
– Christina Gausas
The class was different than any I had ever taken before. Christina’s “from the horses mouth” experience makes her an instructor who can lay ideas out in ways you may never have heard before. I found her teaching style super supportive, extra caring, and unlike anything I had experienced before.
Lucky for you, she’s teaching her Openings & Group Games class Thursdays 7-10pm starting Jun 26, 2008. Get thee registered. Nice work yall, it’s sold out! Hope you enjoy it.
Found this today and have to say, It’s pretty brilliant. Sorry was not the most fun game because it relied too heavily on that big plastic half dome thing. The game itself was boring as shit.
Monopoly is a game.
We use the pattern of moving pieces around the board to play that game.
That pattern in and of itself is not very interesting.
But the pattern serves the game. It moves it forward. It lets us find more fun.
The fun is in what we DO in that game. It’s WHY we’re playing it.
You can play it fast. Or slow. You can spend time in jail. Or you can work as hard as you can to buy up all the railroads.
That’s your choice.
Because monopoly is a game.
Game is what we play.
If something is funny, it has a game.
Pattern is how we play it.
We use patterns to explore and heighten the game.
Choice is up to the individual player.
At UCBT we teach people to make strong choices at the top of their intelligence and then to commit to those choices.
Strong, committed choices show off your sense of play and sense of humor. They bring your ideas to the group mind.
Then everyone gets to play and enjoy and support each others ideas.
You can make a pattern out of anything. But if it’s not a pattern serving a strong game — it’ll be boring.
Just like Sorry.
That’s a terrible game.
– Anthony King