The Midwest is home to thousands and thousands of improvisers, some of whom have never met.Some that have studied the same lessons, the same text, the same tenets, the same teachers, and have hoped to grow under the same guidance of the golden rules.
Those players have dreamed the same dreams, maybe with some variation (I want to work here or there, I hope to be professional, I wish I could keep growing this art); the good ones – well, the really good ones – just want to be GOOD, really – and attempt to live by the same principles we practice on stage:
Listen. Play. Share. Think. Breathe. React. Understand. Be affected. Give a damn.
Say yes.
Doesn’t that sound dreamy?
Now that I think about it, I’ve never been to a retreat or conference that wasn’t organized by a church or parachurch organization. Is that bizarre? This will be my first non-bubble slumber party.
I was on the fence — “But I won’t know anyone!” nonsense — until I read this in the FAQ:
If there’s anything to take from this camp, we want you to feel like we’re all in this thing together. We’re doing this because no one’s done it yet. We’re doing this because many of us feel like there’s a little classism in our art form, and there doesn’t need to be. We’re doing this because some troupe from Iowa City or Saugatuck or Denver or Nashville or Columbus or wherever hasn’t gotten to do any kind of thing like this.
We’re doing it so Chicago troupes can get out to other folks and are reminded why they started this journey in the first place. We’re doing it, basically, for fun. So if you’re doing it for lesser reasons, don’t come.