Beginners Improv Classes in Brighton with And Also
A review by Richard, 55, from Worthing
I’d done improv classes in the past and even an improv retreat, but a really long time ago. I deflected and stalled from starting up again, in... read more spite of my friends' enthusiastic insistence, and right now, one week in, I’m really not sure why I held back…
Well actually I know exactly why. Because I’d been shutting down for the last 5 years.
Like plenty others, I’ve come to realise - through the endeavours of my grown up kids to get their own clarity - that I’m quite a bit more spectrum-y than I ever understood in my 20s, 30s and 40s. Whilst that’s answered a lot of questions for me, my tisms or my age, and the whole Covid era have conspired and caused me to recoil further from social situations.
I knew that wasn’t a sustainable path, but I didn’t really know what to do to get past that, and get back to the former me.
Well enter Level 1, week 1 of Improv Classes in Brighton…
I spent a good fortnight feeling nervous about the impending classes. It felt like such a massive leap to launch into a group of people I didn’t know and spend two and a half hours with them on a random Thursday night. I didn’t want to look stupid. I didn’t want to be the only one in their 50s in the room. I didn’t want to be rubbish at improv. I didn’t want to not get the references people half my age might come up with.
I didn’t need to worry.
Our excellent, irreverent, super-experienced, been-round-the-acting-and-improv-block teacher Rosy, sought to reassure us from the outset that we couldn’t get it wrong. “Look in the middle of the circle - there’s literally nothing there. There’s nothing to mess up” she proclaims.
And then most of the night is spent playing the gentlest, most accessible, non-threatening warm up improv games which are just stupid and funny and keep us riveted in the present moment. And that’s what I’d been missing… the play, the laughter, the absence of judgement, the collaboration and the low-stakes involvement.
I know much talk about improv is to do with people stepping out of their comfort zones. Personally, I felt that, rather than doing something uncomfortable, my comfort zone just expanded, quite naturally and effortlessly, to accommodate the things we were being asked to do.
The end result was everyone stepping up to take part in one-word-at-a-time scenes. My trio dictated a particularly terse letter to god about the bad weather we’d been having, to our warm, supportive and celebratory group. It felt cathartic in more ways than one.
The forgotten benefit of improv is that my week since has felt that bit lighter. I’ve not been overthinking work quite so much. I’ve taken more in my stride. I’ve chatted more to strangers without by brain feeling the need to process, edit and second-guess what I’m about to say, and that’s boosted my self-confidence too.
Roll on Beginners Improv Lesson 2. I already know nothing can possibly go wrong.