Friday, May 01, 2020
Improvising at a distance | Performing Arts Feature
Chicago Reader: When the Upright Citizens Brigade announced that it was closing its training center and theater in Manhattan last week, it illustrated the challenges of keeping improv and sketch alive during a pandemic shutdown. But for several institutions and individual instructors, Zooming over to the online world has opened up some new possibilities and also allowed them to keep an income stream coming in as their stages remain dark.
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2 comments:
First of all, it’s excellent to hear that improv comedy is finding its place within the lockdown. Second city is known so well for outputting so many cast members of Saturday night live. Of course, they’ve had to change the way they play games and interact with each other, but this article really highlighted some advantages they’re finding with the new format. The two main ones were that people are forced to slow down to find what’s funny. The other cool thing is that there’s more of a closeup on people's faces so it might make it even easier to read them. However, this article didn't mention many of the disadvantages I’m sure people are finding. You can’t feel the energy in the room which stinks because improv truly is a social sport. Certain things can’t be transmitted over zoom. I’m interested in checking out these classes and maybe I’ll be able to once school is totally done.
I think this is such a great idea and honestly essential to people’s happiness, especially in this dull time where everyone feels like they don’t know what to do with themselves. Offering online zoom classes will definitely lift so many spirits and it is such a great effort to keep people in touch with their art. Improv comedy is one of my favorite things and one of the bi reasons why I initially started acting. It was always a way for me and everyone in the room to just be stupid and playful and not care about what everyone else thinks. I think that it’s so great that The Second City is offering classes and encouraging people to continue doing what they love and with this making their peers laugh- it really feels like a win-win situation that I will definitely further explore, I feel like it's a great use of time and energy.
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