I’ve gone through 3 weeks of my improv class so far. So I’m almost halfway done with this first level! I still miss Kip quite a bit in class, especially when the things we do are very similar to what I did in his class. But I’m also feeling much better about moving on.
I’m getting comfortable in the class too. It’s always awkward at first when you are thrown into a class with 15 strangers. And we’ve had a couple of people who either haven’t been able to make it to another class after the first one or who have dropped out. But the 14 of us still in the class have started to bond a bit.
When I went to the improv show after my first week of class, I went by myself because I didn’t have anyone to go with. I had a good time there, but I wished that there was someone there to laugh with and chat about the show afterward. But I’m starting to friend my classmates on Facebook so we can try to meet up for a show in the future (I’m still required to see 1 more show, but I’m hoping to go to more than that).
I went out to lunch after class this week with one of my classmates and really got to know her better. She and I are some of the older people in class (many of them seem to be in their early twenties) so it was nice to get to chat about more grown up things. And it turns out that she had a very similar hip surgery to what I had!
Getting to know my classmates has made my performances in class better. I’m not trying to look good or impress anyone. Even though I’ve had several years of improv training (and doing shows), things at UCB are different and I’m working on breaking old habits as well as rebuilding new ones. But the freedom that I’m starting to feel is really great.
Just this past week, we had a game where we had to sing different songs. That was going to be an issue for me for a couple of reasons. First, I can’t sing and I’m pretty much tone-deaf. And second, I don’t know many songs. Fortunately, I do know show tunes and was able to use them for the game (I actually think every song I sang was a show tune). Nobody made fun of me for my horrible singing. And when I didn’t know more than one line of the song, they sang with me so I could try to remember.
All of these things are making me feel better about having our class performance in a little over a month. It’s coming up so quickly and hopefully we will be pretty bonded as a group and will be able to do a fun show. I’m thinking about going to another level 1 graduation show to see how it works. That might make me feel a bit better about what I am expected to do. Right now, I have it in my head that it will be like a full-out show. I don’t think that will be the case, but unless I see it for myself I will have that same idea.
I know I’ve said this before, but I’m so glad that I was able to get the money together to do this first level of classes at UCB. I’m still debating about doing the next level, but I don’t have to decide that anytime soon (nor do I have the money to do that anytime soon). But the feeling that I’ve gotten from being in this class now has made me so happy and my only regret is that I wasn’t able to do it sooner.
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Making Strides In Class (or Relaxing And Having Fun)
Graduation Show (or Completing Improv 101)
Halfway Through Class (or Not Thinking About The Next Step)
Homework and Other Work (or Taking My Class Seriously)
Back To School (or Another Round Of Improv)
Finding Soul Mates (or Why I’m Having A Tough Time Finding An Improv Class)
