Upright Citizens Brigade Workshop / Performance

Upright Citizens Brigade

Student Workshop / Performance

307 W. 26th St., New York, NY 10001

March 2, 2015

Photos courtesy of Upright Citizens Brigade

I am a high school theatre and math teacher and work in a public school in East New York, Brooklyn.  Last week I had the pleasure of bringing a group of my students to the Upright Citizens Brigade Improvisation Workshop / Performance.  Naturally, we were the largest and rowdiest group there.  I was very proud of that fact.  This was one situation where rowdy, also known as creative and enthusiastic, was appropriate.  The four improv actors, John Murray, Shaun Diston, Keisha Zollar, and Carrie McCrossen were skilled, engaging, and inspiring.

The first portion of the presentation was a workshop where students participated in activities that defined the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) improvisation techniques.  “Yes and…”, “Character Match”, and “Top of Your Intelligence” were concepts and games that build technique used to create improvisation scenes.  My students were familiar with these concepts from class, but a few of the formats were new.  The workshop atmosphere of the experience allowed the students to participate comfortably.  The students jumped on the opportunity to soar as the four actors in the performance demonstrated.  We have since repeated some of these activities in class. 

During the second portion of the presentations, one of the actors interviewed a student from the audience.  The troupe then created a number of scenes based on these interview questions and answers.  We were all amazed and entertained by how many different scenes these imaginative actors were able to come up with from the brief interview.  When asked later how long these four actors have been working together, they said it was their first time.  They explained to the students that the common language of their intense and extensive training at UCB allows them to play together with ease.  That was the most valuable portion of the day for me.  Improvisation is so often viewed as just working off the top of your head to most students.  The fact that there are skills involved that are worth studying and focusing on in order to improve and fine tune your technique is exactly what I have been wanting my students to understand.

This student workshop / performance was truly invaluable.  I want to thank Madison Stroever from UCB for inviting us and patiently arranging the field trip.  Upright Citizens Brigade performs regularly at their theatre and offers classes.  Do yourself a favor and check them out.

Domenick Danza