So, as I promised, this past Sunday, my Level 1 Improv class at the PIT performed our class show. Our final class, in which we basically practiced the form of the show, seemed a little rough to me. I still feel like I’m struggling to be a relaxed, grounded performer. I was a little worried.

I shouldn’t have been. We rocked. Everyone in the class brought their “A” Game.

We got to the theater a bit early – 6 PM for a 7 PM show. We actually managed to do a fairly extensive rehearsal with our teacher beforehand, which I think really helped us get our heads into the game. Before the house opened, I took a moment to stand on the stage and just breathe in the theatrical air. Although I’ve done a few brief performances on that stage before now, it was the first time I ever got to just stand there and worship the space. It’s an important part of my theatrical ritual, and something I’ve missed desperately.

So, as I said, everything just seemed to fall into place with everyone. Sure, there were a few clunkers for scenes. I promised myself that I’d play more grounded, real characters. When I forgot that, it was rough (although I was often saved by my scene partners). But when I kept it in mind, I felt like we did some really good stuff up there.

Don, Alex, and Tesse were there to cheer me on, and they joined me for a few drinks at Mustang Sally’s afterwards. It was especially gratifying that Alex was there, since it was her Level 1 UCB class show that inspired me to get back into this crazy business we call improv in the first place.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our wonderful teacher, Tom Ridgely. He’s knowledgeable to be sure, but a lot of people are knowledgeable. More importantly, he’s endlessly patient and encouraging. Where my own experience might drive me (back in my improv directing days) to issue an authoritative rebuke, Tom steers the ship so gently that you can barely feel it, until 8 weeks later you find the ship has mysteriously taken the proper course. He took a motley crew of improvisers with experience ranging from extensive to none at all and made us, for one night, perform as a team.

Right now, I’m in a bit of limbo. I will definitely take a Level 2 class, but right now the only one available is during Paula’s Icky House Club rehearsals. I’m wary of going up for the open jams, just because it’s very hard to get into a groove with people that you don’t know at all. No matter what happens, though, I will continue this journey. It felt so good to be welcomed back in the congregation to worship at the altar of the theater.

Originally published at The Many Hats of Jason Specland. You can comment here or there.

Last night, I attended my penultimate level 1 improv class at The Pit. One of the consequences of having a class is having a class show at the end of the term. For the first time last night, we practiced doing the actual form we’ll be performing in our show. After being kind of down about my performance ability last week, I was actually quite encouraged.

We’re still a bit rough around the edges, but I think that (by level 1 standards) we’ll put on a solid show. For much of the rest of the class, it will be a possibly terrifying learning experience. For me, it will be getting back on a saddle that had been long collecting dust in a closet. This is the first time that I’ve performed improv on a public stage as part of a real team in 8 years.

Please come, won’t you?

The People’s Improv Theater
154 W 29th St. Between 6th and 7th Ave.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
7:00 P.M.

Originally published at The Many Hats of Jason Specland. You can comment here or there.

Two photos for you folks:

( Kittehs! )

Wind and rain, and even some hail,



and a cloud shrouded mountain top:



Did you spot the cat?

Big Wall-e helped me with an experiment today, I made myself a DIY flash diffuser using a Plastic jar thing.

One with the Diffuser and one without. You can see a big difference in the light and with looks better and more evenly lit.

--
~ B ~

Lumix TZ5
ISO 100
f/3.3, 1/30s

Photo-a-Day #544: My DIY Flash Diffuser. From what I've read keeps the flash from being too hash and sharp shadows on subjects.

--
~ B ~

Canon EOS 30D F 2.8 - 1/80 seconds ISO 100 Since we're going on vacation over Christmas, we decided to have our family Christmas today!  Partly so we could give our kids their big presents that we can't take with us, but mostly so that we could give our kids their DVD player for on the plane. :)

Fuji Finepix F31fd F 2.8 - 1/340 seconds ISO 200 The boys and I ran some errand today and, well, got a little bored waiting for the bus.

Fuji Finepix F31fd F 2.8 - 1/20 seconds ISO 1600 We had our Lucia party at work today (I know, this like the 3rd Lucia related post...  It's pretty big here.)  Pardon the quality of the picture - I was pressing my little Finepix against the door jamb to serve as a tripod.

Fuji Finepix F31fd F 4 - 1/38 seconds ISO 1600 In addition to being able to take the photographs yesterday, I was also lucky enough to score a ticket to the actual ceremony.  No photography was allowed during the actual ceremony, so you get the stage (at least what I could see from my vantage point, I was kind of far back...).  The red seats are where the Nobel Laureates sat.  Afterwards a group of us went to dinner.  Thai food.  Good Thai food.  I liked it. ( +dinner )

Canon EOS 50D F 3.5 - 1/60 seconds ISO 200 Today I had one of the coolest experiences ever.  I was asked to take photos at the U.S. Embassy's Nobel Luncheon in honor of U.S. Nobel Laureates.  Below is the group shot of the eight winners who attended (From left to right: Oliver E. Williamson (Economics), Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (Chemistry), Elinor Ostrom (Economics), Jack W. Szostak (Medicine), Thomas A. Steitz (Chemistry), Ambassador Matthew Barzun, George E. Smith (Physics), Carol W. Greider (Medicine), Elizabeth H. Blackburn(Medicine)).  The rest of the pics from the day are on the U.S. Embassy's Flickr page here.  Below is a self-pic I took while I was waiting, which I thought turned out kind of neat-o.    ( + me in a Christmas Ornament )

Fuji Finepix F31fd F 3.4 - 1/80 seconds ISO 400 I had a very long day today, working hard (which is a good thing really) and then heading over to the church for a meeting, grabbing some Kebab House food (or some other self-descriptive name like that) to scarf down before my evening began.  Took the pic and once again proved the rule-of-thumb that you should never take pictures of people while they're eating.

Canon EOS 30D F 3.2 - 1/125 seconds ISO 1600 Audrey had her little Lucia concert today, which was fun.  Unfortunately, I was sitting in the exact wrong place to take pictures of her. This was the best I could muster.  Can you even spot her?

Трохи хворію, тому обклалася на ліжку ноутом і книжками й працюю/вчуся. А ще дозволила собі порозкошувати: почитати те, що хочеться. І це - О. Генрі. Мій улюблений письменник, чия книжечка чекає свого зоряного часу: скоро ми її та ще гору інших передамо в інтернат. Насолоджувалася, тішилася і трохи сумувала, що не можу підкреслити хоча б олівцем найсмачніші вислови... І тільки я дочитала книжку й відклала її вбік, як бабуся принесла з пошти дві посилки: одну від olcja (це така добра фея зі Львова) - там був... томик оповідань О. Генрі! Тепер уже для мене особисто! А ще - диск із "Як ми говоримо", книжка Богдани Матіяш, чудесна новорічна рукавичка й ціла купа листівок! Мені буде надто велика честь зберігати їх усіх, а для діток одного класу листівок цілком вистачить! Собі ж я залишила одну, з найактуальнішими словами на сьогодні: "Життєві перепони - це простір, де ти формуєшся в особу, якою повинен бути". Генрі Ноуен. На жаль, я ніколи не бачила Ольці в реальному житті... І тому абсолютно переконана, що вона не жінка, а чарівниця))). Дякую тобі дуже!!!!!!! Друга посилка була відvent_de_la_mer із черговим стосом книжок для діток із інтернату. З нетерпінням чекаю акції, тим паче до неї долучився Володими Мороз із "20 хвилин" і ми робитимемо її в дуже цікавому форматі... А поки - гарячий чай, потріскування дров у п"єці й роботароботаробота...

"Sometimes I feel so sick at the state of the world I can’t even finish my second apple pie."

I didn't do it, Mom - honest, I didn't!