Improv in Practice with Synergy Theater

Part 2 of our interview with Kat and Maggie is here! We pick up where we left off last time - with the significance of inclusion in Improvised productions. Kat and Maggie's Audio Only scene is the best! Also, Synergy Theater is back at the Lesher Center. We introduce Synergy's new initiative, Theater Smarts, and tell you how you can help bring young students to live theater. And if that weren't enough, the second half of this episode honors the previous 10 (or 11, if you count the bonus) episodes. We count back through our amazing first season of Improv in Practice. Thank you, thank you - to our incredible guests and audience. Koppet.com MopCo.org Introverted Improvisers Liminal Passengers

In this long-overdue episode, Kat, Maggie, and I discuss how Kat became a highly-successful Improv practioner and owner of an Improv theater house with a colorful past. Maggie describes what its like to be loved and snubbed by her favorite Improv partner - her cat. This episode, with all its unexpected and unintended moments, was so good that I had to make it a two-parter! Please enjoy! For your reference: Deifinition of a "preist hole" Maggie from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Improv College of Montreal The Mopco Improv Theatre koppett.com More links and contact info to follow in Part 2!

Yvonne Conybeare is a director and actor and lives in New York. Robin Wiggs is a writer and improv performer and lives in London. I met them in our Improv IV class online, and I knew I had to interview them together. Yvonne and Kenn Adams, director of synergy theater, are old friends, and so we talk about Theater Sports New York, and the origin of Kenn's Play by Play. Yvonne has insights on how our defensiveness affects our improvisation and how to overcome it. Robin joins the interview a bit later and we talk about improv in London and how Robin prepares for performances. Make sure that you listen all the way through the show for something a little different at the end. Robin's Links: "Moidercats", Cariad Lloyd Yvonne's Links: conybeare.net, Thinking, Fast and Slow

Louise Ritchie and her son Akin Ritchie are both in theater, but on two sides. Louise is a performer. Akin is a technical director. Together they are a dream team. We talk about Louise's and Akin's interwoven journeys to the stage, and their hopes as we transition back to in-person performances. Synergy Theater is back to in-person shows at the Lesher Center for the Arts, in Walnut Creek, CA! If you would like to join us, visit synergytheater.com and click on performances. Mentioned in the show: Zeider's American Dream Theater

No matter who your family is, you have a matriarch in your life. A matriarch, to me, is someone who supports you with their warmth, their wit, and their enthusiasm for your dreams. Within the Synergy Theater family, I consider Deb Kern Synergy Theater's matriarch. I've heard Kenn refer to her as his longest-running student. Lynn Shields is another powerful force for good within Synergy Theater. Lynn is a Synergy Theater player, and we talk about her foray into directing the spontaneous soap opera series Days of our Wives. Deb and Lynn are wise, funny, and dedicated to the art of improvisation. They inspire everyone around them to be their best selves on and off the stage.

What makes practicing Improvised Theater an adventure? Is it overcoming your stagefright? Playing odd characters? Following a scene wherever it leads? Yes, and... it's having both the courage to follow your creative dreams and the will to be surprised by your own innate skill. In this episode, Griffen Davis Bier and Alev Gunay, of Synergy Theater, expand on these themes. And, there's Guy Fieri, Indonesian bats, and reckless drivers in Egypt - all of which could be in the next(?) episode of Adventure Serial! Watch Adventure Serial, and all of Synergy Theater's online performances, on YouTube!

What is it about villains that we like so much? How do we overcome the instinct to deny our guilt and plead our case when being painted as a villain in a scene? What role does status play in the hero-villain relationship? These are the themes that Arastoo Darkashan, Reggie Harris, and I have fun discussing. Arastoo is a regular performer with Synergy Theater, and also pursues acting, writing, and music. Reggie uses what he learns in Synergy Theater classes in his professional voiceover work. Reggie's company, Better Together, offers coaching on how to use improv principles in on-the-job settings. The truth is, every good dramatic story needs a villain. Get in touch with your dark side, in service to the story, with Reggie and Arastoo!

Arlene Hutton and Heather Adams are playwrights, and so much more. Arlene may be best known for her award-winning Nibroc trilogy of plays - Last Train to Nibroc, See Rock City, and Gulf View Drive. Heather is the founder and director of AU Quills and Capes, a group dedicated to supporting young playwrights at American University. We talk about what it's like to take part in Synergy Theater's and Freestyle Rep's Write Away - event that combines writing, improv, and acting. And there's Winnie the Pooh, Sriracha, and Haiku!

Eileen Tumlin is a performer, show director, and teacher with Synergy Theater. Ed Schriger is a fellow student. We talk about their starts in improv, their challenges, and where they hope improv with Synergy Theater will take them in the future. We may have different ideas about creating believable characters, but we agree that we create the best characters when building on each others' ideas. And Synergy Theater has big news!

Geraldine Carolan and Yafeng Wang are students of Synergy Theater's Master Class: How to Improvise a Full-Length Play. We talk about how they found Improv, what they find challenging, and the importance of inclusivity.

The Vukasin Theater inside the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California is where Synergy Theater performed full-length improvised plays before the Lesher shut its doors, temporarily, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I talk with General Manager Scott Denison about the history of the Vukasin Theater, its possible future when the Lesher reopens, and Scott's own view in bringing us all back to in-person theater.

In this episode, we talk to Nikki Vilas and Karen Harrell. Nikki is a performer with Synergy Theater. Karen, like me, is a student. We talk about stagefright, self-doubt, bouncing back from mistakes, and the fun that keeps drawing us back to improv with Synergy Theater and director Kenn Adams. You must see Nikki in her many roles in Synergy Theater's free online shows. Just go to synergytheater.com and click on WATCH LIVE.

Host Sarah Wilson previews the intentions for Improv in Practice with Synergy Theater and what listeners can expect from this new podcast's programming.