I wake up to the sounds of little patters running across the roof and small squeaks, punctuated every so often by what I can only assume is a pinecone being dropped from way up high in the branches. Currently the morning squirrels are my only roommates for several kilometres – plus a very small but opinionated cat.
Northern Isolation
Since lockdown began way back in March I moved up north and I’ve been inside and isolated like many of you – only my isolation might be a bit more on the extreme end. Like many of you I’m missing my friends like crazy because (god help me) I’m geographically surrounded by only relatives. All of my pals are a 3 hour drive away, and for those of us without a car, that’s only a 53 hour walk… I’ve looked it up in my moments of desperation.
I know this is a crazy new *hot take*, but lockdown sucks. I do want to make clear that we’re most definitely doing the right thing, and I’m more than happy to follow as many rules as necessary to keep our communities safe. I’m just missing getting to be silly with friends. That’s one of the things I love most about improv; that your job is to make an absolute fool of yourself. You learn to find humour in the absurd and hard times – and when there aren’t any to be had, you know there will be a time where you’re once again called onstage and given an accent you most certainly cannot do and your biggest worry is you’ll pee yourself with laughter. Those days are coming again but for now we’ve got to adapt, and being humans we’re pretty d*mn good at it.
Bringing the Stage Home
That’s why I was so excited when we started doing rehearsals, jams and performances online. I couldn’t stop smiling the first time we all logged on and everyone’s screens loaded in and I could see my friend’s faces again! All in varying levels of coziness and most with a small animal also vying for their attention. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that part of what makes these meetings so fun is the beginning when Brie is trying so hard to herd us all in and focus, but we’re so excited to see each other we just want to talk about anything and everything. Once we got back into the swing of things and started doing scenes again, I remembered how incredibly funny my team members are, and even our odd boxed-in format has led to some cool moments.
We’ve played a dentist’s office scene where I saw far more detail of my friend’s mouths than I ever wanted to (when they weren’t already giggling). Whoosh has gotten 10x more confusing ‘cause our screens often don’t line up the same for everyone, and some garbled video of suggestions have led to some hilarious misunderstandings. But all of these weird idiosyncrasies just make it more fun because we’re all dealing with them together and we’re finding humour in just how silly our situation is.
Right now we’ve lost a lot of what makes a show feel so special, but we’ve also gained some really interesting ideas of what a show can look like. In one of our insta-live series I was performing to my phone propped up on a chair, on a table, stabilized by water bottles, textbooks, and hope. I of course was outside because that’s where my phone gets better reception and had to wear a hat and scarf it was so cold. My chat wasn’t able to load fast enough for me to get suggestions for the scene, so I had to ask my poor partner to sit out there with me in the cold and I would point to them every time I needed a suggestion. They then proceeded to answer “monopoly” three separate times – suggestions were not their strong suit. But still I was smiling and so happy to have the chance to make people laugh again – even if I couldn’t hear them.
Find some Silly
We all know this time has been tough with many of us grieving the loss of loved ones and a lifestyle we didn’t know we would miss. I don’t intend to say that improv is a cure-all or that we’ll magically be ok when this is all over. Our world is changing and so are we, but I urge you to find a silly and fun outlet. Because when all is going to sh*t outside; you can log on, see your friend’s faces, and make each other laugh – and I think that’s a pretty cool thing to be able to do.
