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#1 Being playful is not the same as being happy.

As an improv performer and teacher, I knew that play felt good but when I wasn’t “in the zone,” my work as an improvisor often suffered (and of course I would go home and rehash every minute of it over and over again).  Using improv in life is similar in that when I can get the improvisational flow going, it feels great and when I can’t…life feels quite a bit more flat.  That flow is easier to find starting from a happy place.

AND yet…I was surprised and grateful when my knowledge of improv allowed me to stay playful (or at least have playful moments) while struggling with PPD.  I was so overwhelmed with sadness and feelings of despair and then here was this incredible gift.  My knowledge of and experience with play was useful;  truly, it was a lifeline that helped me feel connected with LP even in the haze of PPD.

I continue to rely on improv principles and activities to keep life playful when the going gets tough.  It is SO MUCH easier to be playful when I feel happy but I’ve learned that I don’t need to be happy to be playful. AND play often lifts my spirits, even if it is temporary.

#2 I sometimes feel self-conscious about being playful

I’ve been professionally playful for over a decade — teaching improvisation, working as a drama therapist and just plain bringing my sense of play into every day life.  Yet I can get in my head and self-conscious about public expressions of this playful self that is the real me.  It is easy to be playful at home with my family or when my professional role calls for playfulness. More difficult is keeping that sense of play alive in my daily life when the worry voices nibble at my awareness.  Even being a playful parent in public can be a challenge sometimes. There is such a culture of judgment of parents that even if no one is judging me, I’m imagining they are! And that sure does get in the way of feeling playful

#3: My playful and your playful are different…AND that is GOOD!

In general, I’m a quiet person. And so much of my playfulness shows up in a quiet way.  I often have a little bit of envy of parents I meet who can  rally a group of kids and energize them into active, group play.  Suddenly everyone is rolling on the ground with laughter or in an amazing game of tag.  That parent is usually not me.

I am I think my strength is drawing out shy kids or in smaller interactions (1 or 2 kids). I like to observe the play that is happening and find places to say “yes!” to ideas and be an aide to bring those ideas to life. Play comes in all shapes and sizes AND when I see a big person playing in a way that I enjoy (or envy), I can work to stretch myself and see what happens if I practice a different kind of play.

Do you have a playful confession to make?

This post is part of the Moms’ 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom…just made it in at the 30 minute mark this week!

One of my favorite parts of improvisation is making up songs.  And parenting offers many opportunities to make up songs with your small people.

Now many, many folks are naturally drawn to make up songs to babies and then get a wee bit self-conscious as their kids get older.  Part 1 of this series of posts will focus on some warm-ups that can get you into (or back into) a singing groove.

1) Sing what you would say

Or to use the fancy opera word — use recitative.  Yup, sung speech. Doesn’t get more simple than that. (And if you like that…you can get dramatic and move into playing with your voice to create an aria. Imagine singing out “It’s time for dinner! Time for dinner! Time for dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner….diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeer!”)

2) Take a favorite song and alter a few words:

Twinkle, twinkle, little book

How I long to take a look

I wish I could read you now

I’d even read you to a cow

Twinkle, twinkle, little book

How I long to take a look

(I sing this as I look longingly at my library books…and read LP another round of hers)

When you feel comfortable with that, keep the whole tune but make up all new words.

OR use the tune and replace it with all animal noises.

3) Use karaoke music tracks and sing your own words to them (this is particularly great with music you don’t know)

4) Make up one sentence and see how many different ways you can sing it…as a country western song, a blues song, punk rock, and so on and so on and so on.

This post is part of the Moms’ 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom.

Yes, yes, yes! The City of Emeryville Guide is out and it is official. I’ll be teaching two classes there this Fall. Both classes — Improvisation & Personal Development and Playtime for Parents — are inspired by the work of parenting and improvising these past few years.

Here’s all the info including how to register:

Improvisation and Personal Development

This fun and interactive one-day class will explore how the practice of improvisation increases confidence, optimism and interpersonal skills. Join in this one-day journey of personal exploration through improv and rediscover how your creativity can transform your life. No prior improv experience is necessary and shy people are welcome.

Class# 1367

Date: Saturday, September 25th

Time: 10am -5pm

Location: Emeryville Recreation Center

Cost: $125

Playtime for Parents

Parents often hear about the importance of play, yet sometimes feel uncomfortable jumping into action with their children. This two-part class for parents uses improvisation to create a safe and lively environment to explore play. Have fun in class and take home new ways to engage your children.

Dates: Sundays October 3rd and 10th

(there is a misprint in the Emeryville Activity Guide…above are the correct dates)

Time: 1-4pm

Location: Emeryville Recreation Center

Cost: $80

Register for classes through the City of Emeryville

Link for Fall 2010 Activity Guide

http://www.emeryville.org/index.aspx?NID=418

From this page, you can get to Online Registration.  Search for classes by Activity Number. Improvisation & Personal Development is #1367. Playtime for Parents is #1368.

Week Five took place in a world where we actually had FIVE (yes, five)
different worlds!  Between our regularly scheduled shows, and the San
Francisco Theater Festival, we explored two extra worlds this last week!

Thursday, 8/5: In A World... Where the Disney Villains Always Win

It's a world with Match.com, CraigsList, and adorable woodland creatures
that follow innocent peasant girls around until they are beaten down by
the Prince she loves and baked into a pie.  The typical Disney ladies
(whose mothers are all dead, of course) start off in the typical Disney
situations (Princess not in love with the Prince she wants to marry,
Peasant in love with a Prince betrothed to someone else), but wind up in
quite unexpected places in a world where cartoon evil reigns supreme.

Friday, 8/6: In A World... Where Everyone Sings When They're Lying

Sing for your supper, and you'll likely get a plate of food in your
face.  When everyone's fibs are made fortissimo, people come up with
some creative ways to avoid obviously lying to each other. Whether it's
husbands and wives, teachers and students, or priests and parishioners,
everyone tells a white lie now and then... only in this world, every
white lie has a melody.

Saturday, 8/7: In A World... Where Everyone Has an Evil Twin

When you're born knowing you have a twin, and that twin is evil, you
have a choice to make.  Work with them, or spend your life avoiding
their mischief.  Or are those the only options?  How do you deal with a
spouse who switches places with his evil twin so he can have an affair?
And what happens when the evil twin realizes he's happy in the life he's
made in the mean time.  Good and Evil blurred and changed as we explored
a world where even the President's evil twin got some time in the Oval
Office.

Sunday, 8/8: In A World... Where Everyone Expresses Their Anger Through
Interpretive Dance (at the SF Theater Festival's Rock Circle Stage)

MUNI Schedules, Playground Bullying and BP's Oil Spill all raised the
ire of the denizens of this world.  When anger becomes artistic
expression, even the most mundane irritations will have people dancing
in the streets.

Sunday, 8/8: In A World... Where Everyone Can Read People's Emotions by
the Color of Their Aura (at the SF THeater Festival's East Garden Stage)

How difficult is it to be color blind in a world where people literally
wear their emotions on their sleeves (and around the rest of their
bodies, too)?  If Magenta, Fuchsia, Garnet, Ruby, Scarlet and Vermilion
are all just "Red" to you, how do you accurately judge your wife's
emotional state?  And what about those little blue pills that help you
stay Green when it really counts?  This world provided us with a wealth
of colorful situations to explore.

 

This week's cast:

Thursday: Dave, Larissa, Alex, Paul, Melissa

Friday: Christian, Trish, Mandy, Paul, Melissa

Saturday: Clay, Alex, Trish, Mandy, Larissa

 

LP was a horse named Jack today. All day long.

She played being a horse. She did art as a horse, explored a creek as a horse, planted seeds as a horse and ate meals as a horse. She ate pretend horse meals as well. LP spoke like a horse and she spoke about horses.  A rock was a curry brush and pebbles were her oats. After dinner, she had a horse bath and put on a “horse blanket” (pajamas).  Then she wanted some grain.

Unsuspecting Improvamama filled a metal mixing bowl with many pieces of lego.

LP screamed, “NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!   THIS IS NOT GRAIN! THIS IS SQUARE LEGOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Oh.

Fortunately, my little horse was open to the suggestion of eating a pre-bedtime cracker instead.

LP’s favorite thing in our wee garden this year has been the carrots.

Unfortunately, most days she does not want to eat the carrots (and does not want anyone else to eat the carrots).  I’m really not sure why because this girl will eat anything that she can pick herself — tomatoes and peas, of course but also radishes, kale, and okra.  For whatever reason, she’s decided that the carrots are to play with and not to eat. There has been more than one meltdown when I wanted take a carrot or two to use for dinner. Our friend T who was visiting for a few days had coaxed her into eating a carrot and there was much added pleasure in the carrot experience.

Until she picked this one.

I was excited about it. Look at it!  It is totally cool! I was all ready to jump into exploring the way the five carrots had grown together. LP pretty much shrugged and was ready to move on to something else all together.

I was puzzled.  I watched her play with other things while T and I marveled at it and took a bunch of photos.  She did make her way over to us and then took the carrot off for her own exploration…and eventual snack.

I wonder what her thought process was. My best guess is that she had an expectation of what was going to come out of the ground and when that expectation was not correct, she needed a little time to regroup and let the expectation go. She needed time to be able to say “yes” to the unusual carrot.

When I think about the experience in that frame, I feel so empathetic because even at my best, I have trouble switching gears when I have strong expectations.  Even when I really, really, really want to say “yes” because the new, unexpected thing looks fun or delicious or intriguing, I need time to make an internal shift.

It was a great reminder for me to not push too hard or fast when I think something is “interesting.”  The wacky carrots were still wacky and wonderful 15 minutes later.

This post is part of the Moms’ 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom.

I used a variation on the "soft opening" to start a business meeting yesterday. I'm continually amazed at how well it works. Tell people to clap, and they do!

A "soft opening" is something we use at Un-Scripted to open most of our shows. As I think on it, it's probably been years since we last started a show with anything other than a soft opening. Before the show, at least one performer comes out and talks to the audience. Then they say "the show's about to start, we're all going to go backstage and run back on, and you all are going to clap and cheer". I'm paraphrasing, but that's the idea. Then when you come out to start the show everyone cheers.

But they not only cheer. If you tell them to cheer loudly and make a lot of noise, the will do that too. Now, you can't just demand this off them. You have to present it nicely and often times saying you want them to do it because it will make the performers feel good helps. The point is though, that they do it.

What I used in my meeting today was more a variation on an old street performer trick that's basically the same thing. It was a pretty casual meeting to begin with and people were already in something of a lighthearted mood as they gathered into the room, but then as we were getting started I said something like "Ok, we want everyone who's not here to think this is the most fun and exciting meeting ever, so on the count of three everyone clap". And they did.

It does a couple things. By applauding, it tricks people into thinking they're enjoying themselves. (It's the same idea as smiling to make yourself feel happier than you really are. Once you smile, you start to feel happier because we associate smiling with feeling good.) For the purposes of this meeting (which was really more of an interactive presentation), it also helped train people to speak up and ask questions. It let them know they could participate actively. And hopefully, it does make everyone who's not in the meeting think, "what's going on? That sounds like fun." That's why street performers use it. If they get everyone to clap and cheer before they start, more people will come over to check it out.

Then everyone clapped at the end of the meeting without being prompted, because they'd been trained to by the opening.

The thing to remember when giving a presentation or running a meeting, is that these people are your audience, and they will generally act just like any other audience. Use that to your benefit.

I’m always interested in expanding and deepening my understanding of stories and storytelling and the web can be a treasure trove of ideas.

Here are some story inspiration links:

Pirates in Pajamas (I linked to the homepage so you can see how their story begins…there’s lots of great ideas on the site and their blog for storybuilding)

“How We Tell Stories” at Teacher Tom’s Blog (So much to read an enjoy on Teacher Tom’s blog! Reading about daily life and action at his preschool often inspires me to look at what I can do with LP in a new light.)

“Storytelling Tips for Oral Language Development” at Literacy Connections (Straightforward and specific.  A little something for the left side of your brain.)

“If I had the Courage…” at the Improvisational Storyteller (This is my friend Kat’s bog.  Contemplating her questions inspired me in my own storytelling AND I love the idea to starting stories using the magic “if.” I can see using it to explore emotions with LP by starting stories “If I felt sad…” or “If I felt mad…”)

Do you have a favorite story structure or link to share? I’d love it if you would share!

This bog is part of the Moms’ 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom.

Performing improvisors know the almost impossible to resist pull of going onstage when a scene is going well.

I’ve stood on the sidelines knowing that I am not needed — the actors are solidly playing the characters they have created, the story is flowing, the audience is laughing or crying — and yet, I want to be onstage. I want to be a part of that. Who wouldn’t? When it feels good just to be close to that action, it is easy to imagine that it would be incredible to be in the middle of it. That thought is never at the forefront of my consciousness; my imagination gives me all kinds of ideas that would justify getting out there, but underneath it all, I know that I just want to be out there for the good stuff.  From inside a scene that is rocking and rolling along, I’ve felt the “oh no” as other improvisors pile on in to try and be a part of it.

It is the flipside of hanging out in the wings when things are going badly and you don’t know what to do. When the stage is cold and the improvisors on it are floundering, just getting yourself on the stage to make some kind of offer is the best thing. When you do that, even if it doesn’t help the scene, at the very least, your fellow players know they are not alone. There is the difference — when the stage is cold, we need to be reminded that we are not alone and return to the most basic principles of taking care of our partners and triggering their imaginations.  When the stage is hot, we need to know that sometimes the best offer is the one held back in respect of what is already happening.  The choice to not to do something can be just as playful and wonderful a choice as doing something.

I have gotten (and given) the post-show note, “You weren’t needed in that scene. Stay offstage.” It is common. It is so human. When there’s fun, we want in.  Yet going on stage when you are not needed often throws a scene off-kilter.  The magic of the moment can be deflated by the over-eager newcomer.

And so it is in playing with our little people too. There is a delicate balance to be found between offering opportunities to play together, joining play, letting the little people take the lead, taking the lead, and staying out of it.

Which brings me to yesterday morning’s cat pancakes.

LP & I had a number of days in a row where all our mornings felt rushed. So yesterday we were taking it slow and I suggested making pancakes for breakfast. The response was an enthusiastic “YES!”

In the middle of helping pour and mix, she climbed down from the stepstool to harvest some cats to add. (She has long been into the book Farm Fresh Cats by Scott Santoro.  In this book, Farmer Ray’s cabbage crop mysteriously turns into a cat crop. Very quirky and fun.) She went back and forth a number of times, harvesting her imaginary cats from the other room and running in to add them to the pancake batter. Throughout this, I bantered with her –calling her “Farmer Ray” and talking about cat harvest — while cooking and cleaning up a bit.

Once the pancakes (with blueberries) were cooking, LP was back on the stool counting cat eyes (blueberries). Her face was alight with delight, her energy was big and bold; it was just fun to be next to her.  And I noticed myself start to think about making pancakes in the shape of cats. Surely that would be even more fun, right?

Fortunately there was no space to start a new pancake at the moment of that idea so I got to sit with it a minute. And realized that, LP was completely engrossed in the experience she had created.  My offer of cat-shaped pancakes (which of course won’t really look much more like real cats than my un-cat-shaped pancakes), would be the equivalent of going onstage when I am not needed. My offer of shaping the pancakes intentionally like cats might have  deflated her imagining of them.

LP’s imagination was off and running, her play was full and robust.  She was showing me the level of interaction that added to her pleasure;  my role was mostly audience with a little verbal interaction.  If she had been minimally engaged in playing this out, joining her in harvesting the cats or making my sorta-cat-shaped pancakes would be invitations for more engagement as I tested out things to spark her imagination.

Throughout breakfast, I stayed focus on being appreciative  audience for LP’s Farmer Ray;  It was easy to do, especially since Farmer Ray enjoyed her cat pancakes with gusto.

I’m always on the look out for writing about play that inspires me and (or) makes me think. Here are some of my current favorites on the web:

“A Part of Their World: Adult Roles in Child’s Play”  at Not Just Cute

“Let Kids Just Play” at Raising Happiness

“just add places to pause, places to hide, places to rest” at Let the Children Play

“Power Struggles Dissolve with Laughter” at Hand in Hand Parenting

The sunflowers we planted in our butterfly garden are giving us a lovely surprise.  The package says to expect 3-4 foot plants and ours are growing beyond expectations.

I’m getting a lot of delight watching our sunflowers grow…especially since they are growing beyond the boundaries of our expectations and I like that as a metaphor. We, like the sunflower seeds, have all this potential for growth inside if we can find, make and/or create the conditions for it to happen.  Sometimes in the daily, weekly repetitive grind of parenting, I forget to see all the ways that I have grown.

Something I love about being an improvisor is that there is always room for growth.  There is always room to deepen storytelling, play more nuanced characters, develop new skills at an accent, learn a new genre – the list goes on and on.  I find that to be true as a parent too; there is so much room to develop patience, learn new approaches to supporting independence and skill-building, new ways to play together….yes, that list goes on and on as well. There is a challenge in both cases, to appreciate and enjoy the stage you are at, while working on the next new thing.  AND like those sunflowers growing taller than expected, I have experienced in both arenas, growth I did not predict or expect.

Those sunflower seeds have the inner code to grow and so do we.  Whatever our metaphoric water and sun and good soil is, it is good when we find it and can grow more than anyone, even ourselves expected.

LP has caught the “sunflower bug” too. When it is time to wash hands in the bathroom, she crouches on the stepstool until I act out watering and shining the sun on her and she grows tall enough to reach the sink. (Actually I quite look forward to her growing another inch or two so she can reach the faucet on her own….that or I need to find a taller stepstool for her.)

This post is part of the Moms’ 30 Minute Blog Challenge at SteadyMom.

I keep trying to write this post and failing.  My words tangle and snarl up. My thoughts that seem so clear at 3 am arrive on the screen without a sense of cohesion.  So I’m trying a 30-Minute attempt it and accept that it may take more than one post for me to dig out the meaning AND connect it to the practice of improv.

We all have habits of mind. There are many ways these are useful; we develop these habits for good reasons.  But life changes, we change and sometimes old habits of mind aren’t useful anymore.  Many spiritual practices and therapy modalities have techniques for noticing and letting go (or changing) habits of mind.

These days I find I am particularly challenged by  my own habits of mind that are not useful anymore. And it is hard to let them go.

After LP’s birth, I suffered from postpartum depression. One of the places I experience the lingering effects is in my habits of mind.  I used to be a much more hopeful, optimistic person and I miss that way of being. I have the distinct experience of having my generally positive view of the world enhanced over the years by the practice of  improv. And then I have the distinct experience of my generally positive view of the world being absorbed by all of the dark, sad and lonely feelings of ppd.

One reason that I say that the practice of improvisation builds optimism is that creating together opens us up to alternate stories.   When we create together in the moment, we have a give and take of ideas and actions. The story that I start to tell in my head, leaping forward into the future, is not the story that gets told because my partner has different ideas.  Together we find a story path which is different than the story we would tell either of us alone. The world and specifically any given moment becomes filled with possibilities.

When I get drawn back down in my negative habits of mind, I am not in the present. I am spinning in the sadness of the past. I am wrapped up in grief for the things that didn’t happen and the experiences I missed out on because I was depressed. My world becomes quite narrow and I lose sight of those possible other stories.

An example:

LP has been getting more easily frustrated recently and cries out, “I can’t do it. It’s too hard.”  This shakes me.  I believe this is all part of her normal development; she’s three and struggling to be more independent while simultaneously longing for dependence. Yet I have fears about how my ppd has affected her and those particular words are triggering for me. All those months when that is what I felt day after day — “I can’t do this. It’s too hard.” Every day for 10 months before I found a treatment that helped me and even then it took almost 2 years to feel like myself again.

To help me not go spinning off into my own sadness when this occurs, I made a plan.  When she says it, I am prepared to sit by her side and say “I know you can do this” and “Why don’t you give it another try?” and “You feel like it’s hard. It’s good to try hard things.” and “I’m going to stay right here with you while you try again” or “I’ll be in the other room when you’ve done it” (depends on the circumstance). I need these prepared responses because otherwise I get caught up in over-thinking (and over-feeling) the moment, ascribing meaning to it that it may or may not have…I cannot know for sure.  And we need to get through the day.

That’s my time cut-off too….so more to come in part two.

This post is part of the Moms 30 Minute Blog Challenge; a really wonderful idea (that keeps me writing at least once a week!) from Jamie over at SteadyMom.

This craft project has been in the works for a long time.  I was inspired by Future Craft Collective’s Prayer, Wish, Hope Flags. I even sewed up a bunch of muslin flags a few months ago. Where those flags have gone, I do not know.  So starting over, I decided to use the basic idea of the flags to create a photo banner that could brighten up LP’s room (with her favorite color as the base). At first I was going to make iron on photo transfers but then I remembered I had leftover photo sleeves which also have the added bonus of letting us swap the photos.

I sewed the flags while LP played with pins and thread.  Then discovered that while my old scrapbook photoholders were a good idea, they didn’t actually stick to the fabric.  So I sewed them to the flags. Voila!

LP chose the photos and I printed them out on our ink jet printer.

Here’s a close up of one flag (LP with her beloved chickens):

And here’s the whole thing:

I’m looking forward to seeing how the photo rotation goes. I think it will be a fun way to prepare for visiting family and friends and remembering special occasions.

In A World... opened last week to wonder and delight. Three worlds down, only twenty-one
to go! If you were there with us, you saw:

Thursday, 7/8: In A World . . . Where Everyone Can Talk to the Dead

Being dead can be great for your life. It can help you spy on your children, find
long-lost relatives you never knew, and even get rid of your pesky body so you can
spend more time at work. In this world, one dead man must make a choice: will he
follow a new love into the Great Beyond, or stay behind and support his pregnant
wife -- who's shacked up with his brother!

Friday, 7/9: In A World . . . Where Humans are Owned by Animals

Some humans have it made, with a cushy place to live and a wheel to run on while
their dog's at work. Some live in less friendly conditions, like underground with
earthworms. Others are strays, fleeing the Mancatcher to stay out of the pound.
In this world, can the pound posse plant an adoptee in the cat-mayor's house,
uncover the truth behind the spay/neuter law, and start a pet revolution?

Saturday, 7/10: In A World . . . Where There's No Personal Space

In this crowded world, people treat others' bodies as their own, and everyone's
pretty happy. Relationships are fluid as water, when people live and work literally
cheek to cheek. But ominous dread lurks behind this free love -- the only open
spaces left are graveyards, and when a child dies, he's replaced by a neighbor so
there's no empty space. In this world of universal bland affection, can one couple
find a REAL connection?

Tickets are onsale now for the rest of the run . . . who knows what intriguing worlds
are left to discover?

This week's cast:

    * Thursday, 7/15: Clay, Alex, Paul, Gina, Erica
    * Friday, 7/16: Dave, Clay, Bryce, Melissa, Erica
    * Saturday, 7/17: Bryce, Paul, Mandy, Gina, Larissa

I went to go see Jaws last night at the Cerrito. They were showing it as part of their "Classics" series, and had a little trivia contest before the show. I knew the answer to the second question before he'd finished reading it, but rather than raise my hand to actually win the free nachos, I just said the answer under my breath with an air of satisfaction.

Why didn't I actually try to win? It hadn't occurred to me at all to actually raise my hand, and I puzzled over why.

The answer: I'm an improvisor.

As an improvisor, when I go see an improv show, I consider myself not really an audience member. Rarely do improvisors want to see the same things from a show that a regular audience does. So, I don't give suggestions or participate really because I don't want to push the show in a direction that my thrill me and the actors but not the rest of the crowd. I'm not representative of the audience, I don't feel.

So I've trained myself so well not to interact when interacted with, that I didn't raise my hand. And that cost me nachos.

You owe me nachos, improv.

LP has taken up grunting a sound that is close to “yeah” instead of saying “yes.”

It bugs me.

So I started paying attention to what I actually say when I mean “yes.”

I say a lot of things — ok, sure, uh huh, yeah, in a minute and soon. I nod. I do what she asks without saying anything at all.

Yes is a beautiful word. It is a pleasure to hear. Truly, I find it a pleasure to say. And I had let it slip out of my vocabulary.

So that is my improv practice for the week.

To say “yes.” Literally.

This post is part of the Moms’ 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom.

Last fall I performed in Beer Theatre at Impact. Basically a grad student was working on his thesis and needed to do some research on how medieval plays were actually performed (i.e. drunk) and wanted to test how drinking at various levels changed the performance. (I learned that when you're drunk, it's not that you don't remember your lines--because you do--it's that you just don't care.) It was super fun and everyone wanted to do it again.

Since then the student has started his own theatre company and tonight Beer Theatre is happening again as essentially a fundraiser for Front Line Theatre and Impact. 8pm at La Val's. Get there early if you want tickets. It will sell-out fast.

I'm not performing this time. I was asked and agreed to do it, but then when I realized that it no longer had a research purpose, my enthusiasm waned. And then I realized how few weekends are left before the wedding and I started to hyperventilate.

Why did my enthusiasm wane? I'm something of a nerd and the academic angle appealed to my geeky nature. Without that, Beer Theatre becomes Bar-Prov-Sports. Now Bar-Prov-Sports can be a lot of fun for performers and audience alike, it's just not my thing. I mean, Un-Scripted basically exists for the sole purpose of not being Bar-Prov-Sports and we're constantly having to fight people's assumptions that all improv is Bar-Prov-Sports.

I think that was what made the first Beer Theatre so much fun for me. It was an excuse do to that sort of thing with an actual driving reason behind it other than "hey, that would be fun".

It is super-fun though, so if you're in Berkeley tonight, check it out.

This idea is borrowed from our friends down the block. Last week when LP & I went over to play, her friend E showed us his outdoor kitchen. I thought it was a brilliant idea AND we have a lot of old building supplies hanging around (cinder blocks, slate slabs, bricks).  Since we rent and the owner wants to hold on to this stuff, this is a great way to use it and not just keep moving it out of the way.

LP & I planted a “kitchen garden” of parsley, basil & poppies in the cinder blocks.  We’ll see what happens…for the meantime, it has added a new fun element to the yard.

This post is part of the Moms 30 minute blog challenge over at SteadyMom.

Everyone put on your best Don LaFontaine voice (may he rest in peace!) and read this text with me:

In A World ... just like our own—with one key difference.

  A cultural norm.  A technological miracle.  Or even the laws of physics...

Each night, you determine the change, and the Un-Scripted Theater Company will be your guide on a feature-length improvised-theater journey to this new world. Spanning the gamut of genres, from science fiction to magical realism to just plain . . . different, the only boundaries are in your imagination. Find out how life is different, yet strangely familiar, In A World...

Playing July 8 through August 28 in a theater near you. Which theater? There can be only one. The SF Playhouse, at 533 Sutter St. In San Francisco.

That's right! In A World..., our newestest show, opens Next Week! Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm -- and we're back at the SF Playhouse again, hurrah!

We've never done this show before, and as you probably know if you're reading our blog, the show, especially a new one, evolves throughout the process, so come help us shape our new creation! On the first night of the show (and possibly the rest of the first weekend), we have a talkback after the show -- where YOU tell US what you thought. What did you like, what were you expecting, what could we add that would be awesome, that sort of thing.

And to help you out, you can get tickets for our subscriber price: 25% off! Just use the coupon code SPECIAL on our website between now and opening weekend, to get that awesome deal.

(AND, as you also may know, patrons at the first weekend get a special present: coupons to come see the show AGAIN at half price. Cause this is an eight-week run. We expect it to change a LOT.)

See you at the show, improv fans! Start dreaming of your alternate universes NOW.

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, 2006



It's Kinda Like: Not sure . . . the most tragic romantic comedy ever?

Directed by: Karan Johar

Produced by: Hiroo Johar

Starring: Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mukerji, Preity Zinta, Abhishek Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Kirron Kher

Note: among those in the know, this movie is referred to as KANK. Yeah, no kidding.

This is sort of a blast from the recent past, with a huge all-star cast. But my Bollywood class is doing a song from it, so I thought I'd mentally revisit it. I saw this kind of awhile ago, and one thing stuck with me: its unusually high-contrast genres. There are parts of this movie that are outlandishly cheesy, and parts that are punch-someone-in-the-face tearjerky (I'm not big on the tearjerker genre ;o). Overall I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it, though they drag out that drama To Its Utmost. It's an earl(ier) directing effort by Karan Johar, and not his very best.

This film is packed with stars, all doing their starry best in roles that suit them. There's Shahrukh Khan, today's most (?) famous Bollywood star, playing the comic/tragic love interest to the solid and stolid Rani Mukerji -- rounding out the love square (?) are their spouses, respectively played by the adorably bubbly Preity Zinta and the charmingly petulant Abhishek Bachchan (do they call him the Little B?). Parents in the film are played by yesterday's favorite Bollywood action hero, now Bollywood's favorite dad and narrator -- here he is, everyone's favorite, the Big B -- Amitabh Bachchan, and everyone's favorite most huggable Bollywood mom, Kirron Kher. All the stars are out, and they're emoting up a storm.

With four essentially likeable people involved in the Love Square, the sad parts are that much sadder, and of course there's every Romantic Misunderstanding and Missed Moment that you could think of. (If you're studying to remount Love At First Sight, Jennifer Kah, this would be a great microcosm of Romantic Distress.) And yet it's that kind of movie where the main characters are so in love that their time together is mostly spent crying because they feel So Guilty For Being In Love.

But there's also comedy, my friends -- for what is Bollywood if not for everyone? Of course Shahrukh Khan's character is charming, irreverent, witty, ever the jester and gadfly (when he's not doing that thing he does where he's sucking air through his lips in a Brave Attempt Not to Cry -- I'll have to imitate it for you). And then there's The Big B, who plays his real-life son's father in the film. In what might be a parody of their actual relationship, Amitabh's character Samarjit Singh Talwar goes by "Sexy Sam," and keeps being discovered by his son in corners, canoodling with young white hotties, a different one every scene. (Whenever he appears onscreen, he gets his own "Sexy Sam" background singers in the score. Awesome!) And his outfits are HIGH-larious. See this highlarious turtleneck and fur-collar jacket? He wears this in this movie.

And the musical numbers are half cheesy sadness and half cheesy goodness. Here are the cheesy-goodness songs from this movie, which, though they seem to fall from nowhere, are nonetheless welcome for their unabashed wackiness.

First: the song we're doing a choreography to -- I include this YouTube clip which has the dialogue preceding it, exposing all the romantic entanglements in a nutshell. (And of course, the parents have a longtime romantic rivalry too -- here they meet at the sumptuous party and trade barbs -- she asks him, "Oh, is that your daughter?" and when he finally ends the conversation, the chick asks Amitabh, "Who was that?" he replies, "My mother.")The scenes preceding the song are only about half in English, but the body language is pretty universal, and sets up the rivalries better than a lengthy plot explanation could. (also, watch out for Sexy Sam! he's got his own the actual lines from this song: "Sexy Sam, Sexy Sam, wham bam, wham bam, thank you, Sam." No kidding, watch for it around 5:20 in this clip):



Now, wouldn't you guess that that song came from a COMEDY? But comedy is just tragedy that you laugh at, and they stop laughing for the second act. Even this song doesn't manage to tip the genre scale, and it's pretty awesome . . . . And now, here and blaring from clubs worldwide, it's everyone's favorite hilarious party anthem . . .


(even more hilarious: both likely "item girls" are in this movie already -- and Kajol is a surprise Item Girl in the first song posted -- so there's kind of an "item guy" here -- the DJ is John Abraham, muscle-man star of action films like Dhoom.)

And then watch the genres collide! That's Bollywood for you -- there's enough time to see both sides of everything. The complications from comedy become tragic. The lousy spouses might be nice people. The silly father becomes noble. Romantic gestures turn practical and vice-versa. Will love triumph? And will throwing popcorn at the TV make it happen FASTER, already? Find out when you watch it.

Verdict: Mixed . . . depends on your mood? There are so many great actors doing their thing that they're fun to watch. And if you like heckling, there's plenty of over-the-top tearjerking to heckle. Again, depending on your mood, it's either a fun romantic comedy that suddenly runs off the rails into the Grand Canyon dug by all that crying, or else it's a Sumptuously Tragic Romance that springs from a silly comedy. Definitely a solid example of that kind of Bollywood tragicomedy romance.