Rick Horner, new Ensemble Director

Rick Horner (photo: Jennifer Gershon)

With over 25 years experience teaching, coaching and performing improvisation, Rick Horner has been named Ensemble Director for Bright Invention for the 2022 – 2023 season. After being a member of the ensemble for two years, Executive Director Benjamin Lloyd felt this was a logical next step for Rick. Ben said “we have been fortunate to have Rick’s experience in the ensemble. Now it feels like this is the right time for new creative leadership, and Rick was the obvious choice. I’m thrilled he is stepping in!”

Rick rehearsing with ensemble member Aimee Goldstein

Since 1997, Rick has been involved in studying, performing, coaching, and leading various improv groups in Philadelphia proper.  Rick was one of the Founders of the Philadelphia Improv Festival and was sole Founder of the F. Harold Improv Festival. Rick was one of the first House Team Directors at Philly Improv Theater (PHIT) (Team Activity Book), who created monthly long-form shows to sold-out audiences. Rick also created and has facilitated the Improv Incubator, which has been running weekly for almost seventeen years and which is open to anyone who is willing. Rick performs virtually with Vintage Improv (Timeless and the Merritt House Team), Ricochet Illustrated Improv and two teams in Improv College. Rick is also half of two different virtual duos; Holdwater and PortmanTwo. Rick created LCR, the progenitor of the fledgling Blue Bell / Ambler improv community scene, focused on creating a healthy improv community in the Philadelphia suburbs. Rick also coaches and directs a musical long form improv team (coming soon to a screen near you!) When not coaching or doing improv, Rick is re-watching Planet of the Apes movies, looking for meaning. 

Rick rehearsing with ensemble member Eric Walker, Jr.

Rick is interested in assembling the diverse, talented folks in and around the Philadelphia area into an improv community. “I have been inspired by the Bright Invention mission and am excited to develop new and innovative long form improvisation with the ensemble,” says Rick. “Improv encourages us to focus our attention on the present moment. We listen to each word that is spoken and watch each movement in order to understand who, where and when you are. This is great exercise for our brains and teaches us to trust ourselves. Improv is made up mostly of trust. Trust feels wonderful and lack of trust feels terrible.”

Ben will step back from creative leadership to focus on developing the company’s corporate training work, and to launch some new initiatives serving marginalized communities. Bright Invention will debut a new show under Rick’s leadership later this fall at their new performance venue at the Arden Theatre Hamilton Family Arts Center in Old City, Philadelphia. “I can’t wait to see what they come up with!” said Ben. “I believe it will be improv like you have never experienced it before.”

Guest Blogger: Aimee Goldstein, ensemble member Bright Invention

AIMEE IN A HOLIDAY MELODRAMA, SITE-SPECIFIC STRUCTURED IMPROVISATION AT GLEN FOERD MANSION.

You know the feeling you get when a lot more time has passed than you had originally realized? That is how I feel about being Bright Invention’s most senior active member - me! What am I – some sort of physically active senior citizen at the mere age of 28?

L - R: BRIGHT INVENTION ARTISTIC DIRECTOR BENJAMIN LLOYD, ENSEMBLE MEMBER ERIC WALKER, JR., AND AIMEE ON THE WAY TO THE BALTIMORE IMPROV FESTIVAL!

My name is Aimee Goldstein, and I discovered Bright Invention in a park. Yes, you read that correctly. I had just completed an internship at a nonprofit theater company and was wandering around an arts festival in Jenkintown when I saw a sign for White Pines Productions (the previous name of Bright Invention). The education director at the time and I had been colleagues from another project, and she explained to me at this arts festival that White Pines was looking for an intern to assist with their improv group, Bright Invention. Needless to say that assisting as an intern had eventually morphed into becoming a full member of the Bright Invention ensemble today. 

Bright Invention is more than just an improv group to me. (How much more cliché can I get? I know.) I have been attracted to improv since I first saw short-form improvisation (funny, comedic, short scenes – much like Who’s Line is it Anyway) as a teenager. In college I took a course on improv where I also learned about long form improv, which is what Bright Invention specializes in. Long form is essentially longer improv scenes that are rooted storytelling. As long form improvisers, we can tell comedic, melancholy, and heartwarming stories. In my opinion, long form is based in truth and our lives. Life has happy moments, sad moments, and everything in between, and therefore long form touches all of that. 

Why Bright Invention? We tell stories. What more could an actor want. Part of why I love Bright Invention so much is that it can be an escape to just play around with people you trust. We meet every Monday evening in West Philly, and those regular rehearsals build trust and lasting relationships among all of us.

PRE-SHOW ENSEMBLE HUDDLE . . .

One of my fondest memories was last year’s Improvathon, which was held at the Arch Street Meetinghouse in Philadelphia. We set out to raise $500 for the William Way LGBT Center, and ended up raising $1,000 for them after a full day of improvisation and fun! Following our performance, we all carpooled to Chinatown for dim sum. (I want to point out that collectively, the ensemble is a HUGE fan of all Chinese, Vietnamese, and Japanese foods). Half the group got stuck behind a major traffic jam along the way, but we all made it there nevertheless. It was the first time that I realized that not only was this just an improv group that I was a member of, but this was also a family, and I am so happy to be a part of it (insert cheesy “aww” response here). 

The Bright Invention ensemble is such a supportive group of friends. When we aren’t being there for one another in a difficult time, we are celebrating in each other’s company. This all goes back to trust, which is something I can’t stress enough. I think one of my favorite parts of any improv show we do is the half hour before we go onstage, when we are all together. We talk about our day, joke about life, and can often be found lying on the floor or stuffing our faces with pizza. In Bright Invention we can just be raw with each other because we have gained and earned the trust in each other to do so. When I perform with Bright Invention, I am guaranteed that my scene partner will support me and have my back because I know that actor would do the same for me offstage as well. It’s really quite magical. You should come to a show and experience it sometime.

See you there!

Aimee Yaffa Goldstein

Click here to see Aimee in this year’s Improvathon Saturday February 15th!

Click here to see Aimee in one of our monthly shows: Improvasushi!

AIMEE AS MRS. WHITE AND ENSEMBLE MEMBER SHEA SONSKY AS MISS SCARLETT IN OUR INTERACTIVE PARTY SHOW, ROOM WITH A CLUE.

What Improv Teaches us about Community

BRIGHT INVENTION ENSEMBLE MEMBERS SHEA SONSKY AND KIERSTEN ADAMS AT THE STEEL CITY IMPROV THEATER GETTING READY FOR THE POST-SHOW JAM WITH AMAZING PITTSBURGH IMPROVISORS!

OFF WE GO

It’s Saturday morning and I’m recovering from driving 10 hours over the past 24. Members of my ensemble Bright Invention and I went to perform at the Steel City Improv Festival in Pittsburgh PA. The four of us tumbled into my cranky Subaru Outback Thursday bright and early and enjoyed the middle of the Keystone State as we passed through farmland, exits to the state capital, and finally, five hours later, the rolling hills approaching Pittsburgh. We napped (well, some did - I was driving), told stories and bad jokes, played I Spy and Would You Rather. We stopped at a couple of the fine rest stops along the way and indulged in bad food.

Our hotel was a corporate behemoth in the middle of downtown Pittsburgh - an art deco relic that had once been a Federal Reserve branch. In the basement, next to the fitness center, giant safes with lapped plates of thick steel stood open and empty. Our rooms were bland but we felt like Important People. We were staying in hotel! And - the festival organizers had left us bags of SWAG at the front desk! The Steel City Improv Festival is a CLASS ACT.

KIERSTEN AND SHEA CHILLIN’ PRE-SHOW.

At six on Thursday we Ubered to the Steel City Improv Theatre, and each of us fell in love with Pittsburgh a little. The gorgeous pre-fall weather helped, and the slanting warm sunlight. But I was captivated by the swelling hills on all sides and the blend of mid-century rust belt grandeur with multi-cultural hipness. At the theatre we were met by shiny, happy Pittburghians in Steel City Improv yellow tees, who showed us around the very cool, funky yet well-appointed theater and green room where there was - yes - more SWAG. We hung out in the green room, took selfies, warmed up a bit, felt giddy, tried to calm down, met other improvisers, drank soda and water, ate more bad food, watched the theater fill up, and - before we knew it, the act before us was coming off stage.

Our set was a 30 minute '“mono scene”, which means we picked a location from an audience suggestion and the the entire scene occurred in that location in near continuous time, with the the same characters coming and going, and new ones popping up now and then. We used “pop-out monologues” to introduce new characters by speaking in character directly to the audience then entering. The word our audience gave us was “haberdashery”, so our set took place . . . in a haberdashery. There were two generations of hat makers, new ideas competing with old ideas, visitors from Minnesota, neighbors from the Caribbean, and laughter and enjoyment from the audience. It was that particular improv blend of thrilling and terrifying. Afterward, we had a group hug and agreed that we had done well.

Over the course of the next 2 - 3 hours, we went and got some good food, were interviewed by a local journalist, watched the other teams perform, and then, in what might have been the coolest part of the evening, we hung out with improvisers from Pittsburgh and Detroit, ate pizza, drink libations and participated in an improv jam with them in which this cheerful group of 47 (we counted) were divided into three teams, and each team took a turn delighting the others with 20 minutes of montage improv.

THE GREEN ROOM WAS ACTUALLY . . . GREEN!

During this heady time people we didn’t know came up to us and told us how much they liked our set. We sat with improvisers from Pittsburgh and chatted, laughed, and connected. We discovered that we do indeed know what we’re doing, that we’re actually good at it, and that we are part of a tribe much bigger than our little ensemble, filled with others who also good at it, who love to share, say yes, and build stories together.

It was close to 1 AM when we all collapsed in our beds back in the hotel, tired, happy, and full.

When I created the organization now called Bright Invention I knew two things needed to be a part of it: improvisation and ensemble. As much as I loved being a scripted actor, I was keenly sensitive to the way I made these deep bonds with the casts I was in, and then those casts evaporated when the show closed, and I was left feeling bereft and lonely. I have been on a lifetime search for long-term, reliable human connection (aren’t we all, really?) Being in plays was in some ways an exercise in repetitive heartbreak, so I was determined to create an ensemble which was together over time, regardless of the vicissitudes of each person’s professional life, through the personal ups and downs we all navigate. In this way, our commitment to each other went beyond each individual’s “talent” or creative achievement. The economics of our work are irrelevant to our connection to each other. We are invested in each other’s complete wellbeing, and our rehearsals are sometimes group support for one or another’s trouble. In Bright Invention, we have helped each other with mental health resources, housing leads, creative dilemmas with outside projects, relationship woes, parenting challenges, and the list goes on. Some of us refer to us as “family” and mean it. For others, we are dependable group of talented collaborators. Each of us makes the bond to the group that is right for us. We come and go, and the ensemble changes its configuration each year.

WE CALL THIS ONE, TAKEN AT A REST STOP ON THE PA TURNPIKE, THE “ALBUM COVER.”

I believe we come together for live performance for several reasons, but one we don’t talk about enough and lift up for celebration is the mere fact of being in a room together with people we haven’t met before and sharing an experience. Improv capitalizes on this aspect of live performance in that it relies on audience participation and is spontaneously created. Community is created at improv shows through the immediacy of the performance. Knowing we are making it up right in front of you pulls you into the shared present moment more (I submit) than if you were watching us present something we had carefully rehearsed over weeks.

So now I’ll really go out on a limb. I believe that this spontaneous connecting through shared, safe and joyful experience is an essential requirement for our human wellbeing. I believe that if we don’t get it, we get sick. And yes, I mean that literally. And I believe that we now live in The Age of Isolation, making our efforts to create opportunities for this kind of connecting urgent and acute.

Most improv groups exist over time, as ensembles. They are usually called “teams” or “groups” but I like “ensemble”. To me, it emphasizes the togetherness. And not just improv groups. Many young performing artists are forming collectives of various kinds through which they devise all kinds of new and exciting shows. My Advanced Improv class has a core group of students that have been meeting with me to study improv for over two years. They have created their own ensemble and it is vital and important to them. Ensembles recognize that the performing artist seeks compensation in a variety of ways - not just money. We seek the compensation of dependable, safe and creative community. For that, many of us will make the time to connect each week, work on projects, or drive out and back to Pittsburgh for 30 minutes on stage.

HAPPY IMPROVISERS AFTER A GOOD SET . . .

For us, community isn’t a nice abstract concept to cultivate through neighborhood associations and alumni groups. It is at the center of our creative process and a pillar of our emotional and psychological wellbeing. We learn not to take it for granted, and that it only gives as good as it gets. My community shows up for me when I show up for them. The inevitable comings and goings help keep us fresh, welcoming and inclusive. The creative life can be so lonely, and it’s full of rejection, uncertainty, and hardship. But when we share it with each other, indeed, when we create joyfully out of it, our journey through this creative life ceases to be a desperate solo, and instead becomes an extraordinary chorus sung among friends.

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Short videos of Bright Invention members playing in the improv jam post show at the Steel City Improv Festival, including Ben walking a murderous platypus and getting busted, Kiersten and her artist lover, Shea telling her son to stop eating other people’s dandruff, and Eric working on someone’s teeth . . .