Improv 1 is free . . . ish!

“It is the cardinal difference between gift and commodity exchange that a gift establishes a feeling-bond between two people, while the sale of a commodity leaves no necessary connection.” — The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde

ENSEMBLE MEMBERS SHEA SONSKY AND AIMEE GOLDSTEIN

This week, the teachers of our Improv 1 class, ensemble members Aimee Goldstein and Shea Sonsky, decided to make it free to enroll, and “pay-what-you-can”. They are inviting students to make donations as they go, or to join our Patreon if they choose to. Of course, this is simply a request and anyone can take the full eight-week class without a donation if they need to/choose to. In making this decision, they were responding to some prospective students who have expressed an interest in attending, but can’t because of financial constraints, most of which have been brought on by the pandemic. This decision will mean that Aimee and Shea will make drastically less money as teachers, and Bright Invention will forgo its percentage of this tution income. Aimee and Shea are facing their own financial stress. Why would they do this?

There is a relationship to the concept of value which guides Bright Invention as we negotiate remuneration. We make a distinction between the gift economy and the commercial economy, a distinction I first understood by reading Lewis Hyde’s remarkable book The Gift. We understand that our artistic creative gifts - the ones that we refine as we become better and better actor/improvisors - have no price tag, and are not for sale. Likewise, our artistic creations - our shows - are also pay-what-you-can. We expect cash payment for services we render in the commercial marketplace, primarily our work as consultants through our Creative Corporate Training Program. Yes, we are using our creative gifts here too. But the relationship to our “audience” in this case is defined by a fee-for-services arrangement. You hire us to help you solve a problem in your workplace. Our ensemble members make between $50 and $100 per hour for this work, which, it should be noted, has taken a hit during the pandemic.

WHAT YOUR ONLINE BRIGHT INVENTION CLASS MIGHT LOOK LIKE!

Classes have always fallen into a grey area between the commercial and the gift economy. It’s not stated explicitly, but as Executive Director I never want money to get in the way of someone taking a class with us. And - I want our teachers compensated fairly. So this decision by Shea and Aimee - which was entirely theirs - touched me.

We have spirited discussions in rehearsals about the word “free”. Some feel it denigrates what we do, and makes it feel like it has no value. Others feel it is a powerful marketing word and gets people’s attention. I have landed on “free-ish”.

“[The] art that matters to us—which moves the heart, or revives the soul, or delights the senses, or offers courage for living, however we choose to describe the experience—that work is received by us as a gift is received.” — The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde

Something mysterious and fundamentally unquantifiable happens when an actor moves us, or a teacher inspires us. We feel like we have received something personal and precious. Most people, if you asked them to put a dollar amount on that experience, would look at you like you were nuts. Because even if we paid money somehow for access to that experience, the experience itself feels gifted, not sold. It has to do with “feeling bond” alluded to in the opening quote above. The world “gift” swirls around creativity. We speak of God-given gifts, creative gifts, artistic gifts. We artists understand that the urgent and mysterious energy that drives us to make things as something we have been given. It can be refined through practice and instruction, but its origin is essential, fundamental, innate.

This is why it’s so profoundly painful for so many if us when we feel how misunderstood and cheapened we become by selling that gift in a commercial marketplace. Because in the commercial marketplace of the performing arts, what’s actually being sold is a person. And as soon as you are in the business of buying and selling people (auditioning and casting, for instance) that person becomes a thing, a product. This is why the commerce of entertainment is dominated by visual forms: body shape, skin color, height, weight, etc. These are the measurements of things, not people. This warping of people into products does deep and lasting harm to the psyches of young performing artists - I speak from experience. Do I sound bitter? That’s okay. It’s actually outrage. And Bright Invention is my humble way to begin to address it.

So go ahead. Sign up for Improv 1 with Aimee and Shea! And play with them in the flowing circle of gifts they create online with you. You won’t be sorry, I promise. You may be inspired to make a gift in return.

“ . . . a gift is consumed when it moves from one hand to another with no assurance of anything in return. There is little difference, therefore, between its consumption and its movement. A market exchange has an equilibrium or stasis: you pay to balance the scale. But when you give a gift there is momentum, and the weight shifts from body to body.” — The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde

Help us help others tell their stories . . .

Ability in Action

As we come to the end of the year, we seek your help to ensure we can continue to help those on the margins unlock their potential through creativity. Please support Bright Invention as we bring our improv-inspired theatre classes and workshops to extraordinary people!

Help us help others tell their stories . . . 

We all deserve creative expression . . . 

Bright Invention uses improvisation to help individuals and groups unlock their potential. We seek to center the voices society has placed on the margins.

Ability in Action is our program area which serves people with disabilities, and others seeking creative expression in challenging or difficult circumstances.

Donate Now!

“I love Acting Out! because we get to express ourselves through creativity and theatre. Everyone is so welcoming and inclusive. And we get treated the same way any other acting teacher would - we do not get special treatment because of our disabilities. I think everyone should support Bright Invention because they make our community richer.” Elias Rosen, Acting Out student 2014 - present.

CAROUSEL CONNECTIONS: OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH THIS WONDERFUL GROUP BRINGS OUR IMPROVISATION AND THEATRE CLASSES TO THEIR SUMMER CAMPERS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES AND AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER.

HOPE IN ACTION: OUR EIGHT-WEEK CLASS SUPPORTS TEENS RECOVERING FROM TRAUMA, FACILITATING THEIR CREATION OF ORIGINAL PIECES OF THEATER THROUGH STRUCTURED IMPROVISATION.

ACTING OUT! NOW IN ITS FIFTH YEAR, OUR SEMESTER-LONG CLASS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ALWAYS FEATURES A SHOW TUNE WITH ORIGINAL CHOREOGRAPHY AND A SHORT THREE ACT ORIGINAL PLAY CREATED WITH STRUCTURED IMPROV.

Have a look at our extraordinary Acting Out! teachers Shea Sonsky and Kiersten Adams directing an Acting Out! rehearsal November 17th, 2019:

Our work leads to:

• emotional intelligence

• self confidence

• collaborative skills

Your donation will support:

• our skilled teaching artists

• equitable access across income levels

• program growth through low-cost partnerships

We hope you'll give a meaningful donation to support us as we continue to bring joy, and creative expression those who need it most!

Thank you!

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Improv = personal transformation.

Recently I got a letter from an improv student of mine:

“I can't tell you the impact that this class is having on me even in such a short amount of time.  I was moved to tears after class last night as I let the beauty of the experience sink in.  

Your focus on helping us build deeper connection and trust with each other has been so meaningful and powerful for me.  For so much of my life I have felt drained by the surface-level connections that most others in my world have maintained.  I've also experienced much difficulty with connections, as I've lived through a great deal of transitions, challenges, loss, and growth . . .

I greatly appreciate your sensitive and reflective teaching and coaching approaches.  Your passion for this beautiful art form is so evident, and I'm deeply grateful to be a part of this class . . .

It has taken me decades of releasing tons of physical tension to feel comfortable in my body, and similarly releasing my previously self-loathing inner critic to feel worthy and comfortable in my soul.  For years I would stand on a stage to sing, stiff as a board, feeling trapped in my body's tension, feeling so alone, and unable to see an audience as anything but cruel judges waiting to pounce.  

But in just these two weeks, being able to be up on a stage again with such a focus of presence and connection to another person, no longer feeling alone, and also sharing in such supportive community has moved me so deeply.  I didn't experience this depth of connection in my last improv class and haven't in my choir, even though I enjoy those groups.  We just don't really know each other and haven't spent time connecting even energetically in such ways.  So this class has really been powerful for me.  

I wanted to share this with you because I know how much it can matter when we humans know we're making a difference in someone's life.  We may never know the full extent of our legacies, but, just as in improv, it sure is affirming when others reciprocate, accept, and add to our life's offerings.

Thank you for sharing yourself and your work.  What you're doing and how you're doing it really matters.  I look forward to continuing.”

MEMBERS OF A BRIGHT INVENTION IMPROV CLASS DOING AN EXERCISE CALLED FIRST CROSSING.

So . . . blushing, of course. And I share this at the risk of having readers think I am just tooting my own horn through someone else’s heartfelt letter (which the writer gave me permission to share.) But my desire is rather to explore just how meaningful and important the work of the creativity teacher is - everywhere and of all disciplines - in our hard and sometimes unforgiving world.

One of my many gripes about teaching acting in colleges and universities is their incessant and ignorant demand for “quantifiable outcomes”, “data points” and “metrics of achievement” for classes in creativity - like acting. There are none. These concepts work nicely next to test scores, grades and objectively measurable achievements. You either completed the lab assignment or you didn’t. You either know how to write literary analysis in French, or you don’t. You can either execute the quantum equations or you can’t. So at the ends of classes like these, the teacher can rack up scores and percentages and give the university the data it desires. But not in an acting class. Nope. Never.

IMPROV CLASS GROUP SCENE.

How do you “score” the achievement of the shy young man who could barely be heard when speaking on the first day of class, and who got through a scene from Death of a Salesman from beginning to end with clarity and confidence at the end of class? What data point measures the lightbulb that goes off when the woman realizes, through games and exercises, that she might just be enough exactly as she is, and that all her effort to “be better” is just wasted energy getting in her own way? How am I supposed to record the measurable outcome of my student’s letter above in numbers and data which will objectively prove the transformational value of that experience?

Beyond the calcified and stale rooms of the academy, there are larger cultural issues at work here.

1. We are living in the age of the “binary plague.” We have fetishized either/or outcomes: win/lose, straight/gay, male/female, liberal/conservative, with me/against me, yes/no. What a horrible cancer this is upon the vulnerable nuance, mystery and mutability of our human experience. The binary plagues forces false choices upon us, forces us into oppositional camps, leads us into conflict with each other. Nowhere is it more awful than in our current political discourse. But in the personal realm, we are seeing new movements growing which reject old and harmful binary patterns: the world of sexuality and sexual identity is undergoing a glorious revolution with the awarenesses that our experience of gender, attraction and eros are all on continuums. New initiatives in interpersonal coaching and workshops are highlighting emotional intelligence, sensitive listening and flexible strategies which honor the pliable and beautifully inconsistent species we are.

2. We favor “logos” over “eros” in popular culture generally. From Wikipedia: “Logos became a technical term in Western philosophy beginning with Heraclitus (c. 535 – c. 475 BC), who used the term for a principle of order and knowledge. Logos is the logic behind an argument. Logos tries to persuade an audience using logical arguments and supportive evidence.” I use "eros” in a Jungian sense: “Jung considers logos to be a masculine principle, while eros is a feminine principle. According to Jung, ‘woman's psychology is founded on the principle of Eros, the great binder and loosener, whereas from ancient times the ruling principle ascribed to man is Logos. The concept of Eros could be expressed in modern terms as psychic relatedness, and that of Logos as objective interest’” (Wikipedia). So my critique is in some sense a critique of patriarchy, which relies on logos - legalistic, argumentative reasoning - to at best bring enlightenment, and at worst dominate and oppress. Eros is not concerned with winning and losing. Instead it meditates on and explores relatedness, connections, patterns, feelings and sensations. Logos loves data. Eros loves intuition. And it’s not either/or - see binary plague above. Our task is to apply these two powerful approaches to experience in appropriate ways. But all too often, eros is marginalized and logos celebrated in the data-driven, consumer frenzied, capitalist culture we live in. Logos is good for selling things, eros is good for connecting people.

ME AND JOSHUA BODEN PERFORMING OUR SHOW THE DEEP END IN STAUNTON, VIRGINIA.

Improv is an antidote for many cultural irritants, including these ones. Endless conflict is the kiss of death for improv, which relentlessly drives towards agreement, cooperation and collaboration. So it rejects the binary plague right at the outset. It’s never you or me - it’s always us, building the story together. Which places us at the center of eros - it’s all about relationships, listening, connecting, sharing. When we sink into a learning experience based on those attributes, personal transformation is possible - like the one my student describes in the letter.

Bright Invention uses improvisation to empower individuals and organizations to unlock their potential (that’s actually our official mission statement.) My student’s letter is a heartfelt example of one way we are walking the walk. In my eleven years of improvising and twenty-plus years of teaching acting, I have witnessed such transformation over and over. It’s why I keep doing this - in spite of the uncertainty and cultural resistance. And it’s not because I’m some altruistic guru. I keep doing it because I need it. I am replenished, buoyed, transformed every time I enter the classroom, rehearsal space, performance.

And occasionally, I get inspiring letters like this one.

Ability in Action

PARTICIPANTS IN ACTING OUT!

Ability In Action is a comprehensive, immersive and experiential program for youth and young adults living with a disability. Ability In Action utilizes performance creativity and embodied activities to enhance social skills, verbal and physical expression, communication and self determination. Here’s what Bright Invention is up to this winter/spring in Ability in Action:

Acting Out! is open to all youth and young adults with ASD, Aspergers, or any Physical or Developmental Disability. This class introduces basics of acting and collaboration in a safe and structured environment. Students will engage in an opening ritual at the beginning of each class and will gradually be introduced to games and activities over the course of the class semester. The final class will feature a share for family and friends based on the comfort level of students. This class is open to youth between 10 and 20 years old (but we’re flexible!) and is currently held at the Cheltenham Center for the Arts. Class begins February 24 - click here!

Stepping Out! Let us come to you and co-create fun and meaningful workshops and classes for your amazing community! Participants engage in Storytelling, Drama, Movement and Improvisation activities which explore specific themes curated to each group we work with. One workshop may explore the challenges in day to day workplace interactions while other workshops may help participants talk about relationships. Each Ability in Action experience addresses the personalized goals and needs of the participants. If you are interested in bringing Ability In Action to your organization or community. Please reach out today!

PARTICIPANTS IN A STEPPING OUT! CLASS THIS PAST SUMMER AT COMMON SPACE.

This winter we are offering Real Life Drama as part of Stepping Out! In this class we will create scenes about Real Life - the ups and downs, the highs and lows, the sweet and sour! Using a fun technique called "structured improvisation" we will play games, do some exercises and act in scenes we invent together. At the end of the class we might even do a show for our friends and families! This class is held in Ardmore at Common Space. Class begins February 23rd - click here!

Ability In Action builds a safe and supportive (and fun!) social environment which encourages risk-taking, deeper relationships and personal growth through embodied techniques and ensemble building. We love to work on special projects with blended groups. Examples of our special projects include developing an original holiday musical based on the arrangements of Fred Waring, an original production for the gala fundraising event supporting the Philly Friendship Circle, and an original play written and performed by one of our Acting Out! graduates. Got an idea? We want to hear it!

PARTICIPANTS IN A STEPPING OUT! CLASS THIS PAST SUMMER AT COMMON SPACE.