Latest Podcast Episode - Burnout
This week’s episode of the podcast hits home hard for me. It’s about burnout and follows on from the newsletter I wrote a couple of weeks ago. We cover how easy it is to burn out as improvisers and things we can do to prevent burning out in the future
Shift happens
Teaching a single workshop, or a single level of a syllabus means making quick judgements about what any student needs. Improvisers at their best are adaptable and when teaching, a good improv teacher reads the room and the talents each individual is bringing.
Teaching over a longer period of time has, however, been a real revelation to me. I teach three 10-week terms each year at Nottingham Playhouse in the UK. Some people come term after term. Each term is designed for whoever books on, so it’s regularly a mix of experience levels. As an improv facilitator, this set-up has ended up teaching me something I’ve found really interesting.
I have seen wonderful shifts in people who have come along to multiple terms. The sort of changes I wouldn’t have time to accommodate in an eight week course that was part of a syllabus. It has been rewarding to see people move slowly out of their comfort zones and become confident in areas that they previously struggled with.
On an eight week course designed to get people “to the next level” in a syllabus, I’d have often not had the time or flexibility to help individual improvisers expand their range. It got me thinking, ‘where would they have otherwise made these improvements’. Now, I’m certainly not saying I am the only person who could have unlocked those changes. I’m certain any half decent improv teacher could have done so, if given the time and flexibility with what they get to teach.
So, I’m wondering, what other improv teaching gives space for people to grow in this way? I’ve not doubt people make shifts in their own time, in their own way, but this has been the first time I’ve worked with improvisers over an extended period of time, and it feels a really worthwhile thing to have done, and it’s something I’m keen to keep on doing.
What Else Is Happening?
The Black And Funny Improv Festival in Minneapolis USA is looking for funding to help it continue to open doors and carve out space for black performers
Article:
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/black-and-funny-improv-festival-looking-for-community-support-to-continue-opening-doors/
Video:
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/video/improv-festival-looks-to-uplift-black-voices-in-comedy/
An act of vandalism has damaged an improv centre in Vancouver
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/02/25/debris-thrown-off-granville-bridge-damages-improv-center/
UK improv group, The Comedy Store Players, take on their first new core member in nearly 30 years
https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2024/02/22/55048/ruth_bratt_joins_the_comedy_store_players
Shows and workshops
Torch Songs
Come learn how to sing your heart out in New York with this one-off elective I’m teaching at The Magnet Theater on Saturday 16th March. This emotion-filled workshop looks at songs of unrequited love. A torch song in musical theatre (and beyond) is a song about a someone you can’t be with or something you can’t have. Picture yourself lying across a grand piano in an underground bar at 2am with a scotch in your hand and a picture of your unrequited love in the other! https://magnettheater.com/class/electives/11380/
Have a great week!
Lloydie