Sowing the Seeds of Improvisation
Learning the skill of improvisation, and how it can help teach positive socialization skills.
Story by SANDRA REES-BOWEN
Most of the moments in our life are improvised. We spend our lives making calculations in a nanosecond about what to do next. For some, it’s easy. we’ve all had long nights, laid awake playing conversations over and over again in our heads. For others, it’s a game.
The darkened lounge-like interior of Bellingham’s Upfront Theatre is simple but sophisticated. The walls are covered with oversized black and white photos of the famous and not yet famous improv artists who have performed on the sleek and stark stage. The lights dim, the audience becomes quiet, and the show begins.
The Upfront Theatre is nestled on the corner of Bay Street and East Chestnut Street in downtown Bellingham. It was established in 2004 by improvisational theater artist and actor Ryan Stiles who got his start on the show “Whose Line is it Anyway?” The Upfront was voted Bellingham’s best theatre company in Cascadia Weekly’s Best of Bellingham 2018 awards.
Act One — Kris Erickson
Intense and talented, Western alumni Kris Erickson is the Artistic and Education Direction at the Upfront. He first got started in improv back in 1998 with a community improv group in Poulsbo.
Erickson has been with the Upfront since 2009, teaching classes and workshops. He was part of an award-winning team who took first, second and third place in several international improv competitions held in Vancouver, British Columbia throughout the years.
“Improv is something we’re constantly doing in day-to-day life,” Erickson said. “You’re always going to be making up what you say unless you memorized a script or something like that. But even then, what kind of emotions are you showing, how do you react to people, that is essentially improv.”
The beauty of improv is that it is fluid. Changes in a skit can be made quickly since there is no set path. In other words, if something goes wrong, a good improviser should be able to make a correction and then justify their choices, he said.
Act 2 — The core values of improv
From learning improv spontaneity for beginners to preparation to perform on stage for the serious improv supporters, the Upfront Theatre teaches classes for all ages and all skill levels. There’s a core principle they teach in improv classes called “Yes, and…” which essentially means accepting what is going on and then adding on to it.
“That stems off into other core things that are listening, being supportive, and being creative in the moment,” Erickson said. “It is about accepting different realities and offers that come up and building upon that.”
Act 3 — The freedom of improv
Improv is what keeps Kent Loomer sane. It’s his stress relief. By allowing himself to focus on being creative, he can lose himself in the moment rather than mulling over the worries and stress from his day.
“I got into improv because a friend told me that I was the only person who didn’t know that I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing,” Loomer said. “They strongly encouraged me to take a self-improvement course.”
Loomer did just that. He took a personal development class that had him set a goal at the end of the course and achieve it within a week. Loomer chose to try improv at the newly opened Upfront Theatre. After the first class, he came home and told his wife that he was hooked. He’d never stop doing improv, he said.
“It is incredibly challenging, fun,” he said. “It’s like being a little kid in the backyard with one army man action figure and a poker chip, and you can play for hours and hours because there is no wrong, everything is right.”
When not doing improv, Loomer works at the BP Cherry Point oil refinery in Blaine. At the end of the workday, having a show to do isn’t a responsibility. It’s a relief, he said.
“I need to do this,” he said. “Improv is my release, it fulfills me.”
Loomer admires improv artists like former “Whose Line is it Anyways?” stars Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie and Wayne Brady for the energy they bring to the stage.
“The whole idea of improv is keeping your ideas fresh, so it doesn’t become monotonous, or you feel like you are only going through the motions,” he said. “They have been doing it for a long time, and they never give you the impression that they are going through the motions…now that inspires me,” Loomer said.
Can doing improv apply to life? Loomer has an exercise he does in his advanced improv class that encapsulates the general idea of improv. It goes like this:
All you have to do is say yes.
Do you want to hear a story?
Yes.
About an astronaut?
Yes.
Who builds a rocket ship…
Yes.
Okay, now say no.
Do you want to hear a story?
No.
“So, with improv, the most powerful word you have is yes. Everything is possible with the word yes. Nothing is possible with the word no,” Loomer said.