Inspiring Women : November 2020

Anitra Kitts
14
I want to tell you a story. A little over ten years ago I went
to my first improv class. It was informal, like many improv
classes are. Organized by a couple of members of a local
improv group in Sonoma county, it was without
curriculum or learning goals. It was about the moment; it
was about trusting that what we would need would be
ready for us when we needed it. It was also terrible
improv - at least at first. My first lesson was how to accept
the risk of failure. But that isn’t the story I want to tell you.
The secret of good improv is “Just Say Yes” to whatever
happens. There is no story when an improv moment
begins. Most improv events start when at least two
people stand up and neither one of them has an idea of
what happens next. It could be on a grand stage with
three cameras and large audience in the theater or it
could be some old rented room in a community center or
the basement of a church with just a handful of players
trying to figure out the secrets of improv or at least what
story wants to be told in the next five minutes.
Improv stories belong to the moment. Someone falls in love, or not, or falls back out of love, or gets
fired, or gets a new job, or makes dinner while trying not to walk through the walls of the invisible
kitchen. Improv can also be a word game, a fast moving intellectual yet funny sequence of
something. For example, one game could be that every sentence of the story must begin with a word
in alphabetical order which we often see on the TV show Whose Line is it Anyway. Remember when
you watch the show that there’s still a
story inside the game that no one knew
about until two people stand up and
begin to interact.
The secret to improv is that no one can
hold an idea of what a story should be
when he or she dares to stand up to
begin a scene. You want to control the
story? Go turn on your computer and
write for a few hours. You want to tell a
wild story? Then take a big step
forward, pause for a moment, face
your partner and give him or her a