Where in the world can we improvise?

I was going to write a tyrant on how impossible it is to find a good location for an improv show in Durham,  but after typing my heading…I want to talk about something completely different! Finding the ideal location (a lot of free parking, a safe area, a place where a lot of people go through on a regular basis, a stage, lights, great sound, big enough to house a good size audience and allow us to take a door cover, great owners, great food and prices, and available for weekend shows) is becoming quite a challenge! If anyone knows of a place that covers the above in Whitby, Ajax, Pickering…let me know! Now…finding a place to improvise, in the liberal sense of the word…well, the possibilities are endless!

When first hearing that I teach improv workshops, a lot of people say, “Oh, I couldn’t do that, I’m not funny”. I then have to explain that I don’t teach people to be funny, I teach people how to be better communicators. This, “funnily” enough is something that can benefit anyone in any situation involving two or more people. What is a person, doing a presentation, trying to achieve but to get their point across? There needs to be a connection, cerebral or emotional. How about the person in a job interview? A person in sales? Customer service? How about our health professionals who need to make their patients feel comfortable and to be able to asses their concerns quickly? “But Stephanie”, you may ask, “Construction workers and network marketers don’t need this kind of workshop, do they?” If they work with other humans, if they need to get their message out there, if they are teachers and trainers, people who are shy, people who are confident – the art of improv can improve anyone’s interaction with others. What are we doing on a daily basis? Not memorizing scripts before we walk out the door so we might engage in predictable conversations previously rehearsed, that’s for sure. EVERYONE is improvising all day! So the response “Oh I couldn’t do that” is met with “You’re doing it right now!”

Question: Where in the world can we improvise? Answer: Everywhere with everyone!

Now seriously….does anyone know a place we can do our show?