Our Open House events are popular, fun, and almost exclusively filled with laughter! They’re the perfect way for folks who’ve never taken a class with us to learn about our teaching styles, personalities, and philosophies while enjoying a (nearly) free two hours class with us.

This past Sunday, May 11th, was no different in many ways: there was laughter, insight, learning, recognition and realizations. But then, about half way through our class, something shocking happened that I wasn’t expecting…

What Happened

I ran a exercise that I developed some years ago that I call “The Martha”. It is a powerful problem-solving exercise that requires the skills of collaborative story telling and agreeing to visually portray a problem that's been established.

The exercise began, as always, with my asking someone to volunteer a personal, family, community, or neighborhood challenge they’re facing. A young woman quickly volunteered: “I was sexually assaulted and went before a judge this week to get a restraining order and faced a bunch of resistance and didn’t get one.”

The room went silent.

I looked around at everyone’s faces. No one said a word. The energy shifted quickly and noticeably. The young woman then said, “Well… maybe that’s a little too heavy for this class sorry…”

“It is heavy,” I agreed, “But I’d still like to use your suggestion if you and everyone else here is willing to do so and can treat your bravery with respect and humility.” I double-checked with the others, and then we proceded. That decision begs an obvious question:

Why - in the world - would I ever do something like this an “improv” workshop?

Reason #1: My Amazing Middle School Students

From 2016 until 2021, I taught improvisation as a life skill to teens at the amazing St. Andrew Nativity School Portland in NE Portland. I entered the job assuming that I’d be teaching them improv comedy, but… that was not what the kids ultimately needed. Oh, they said they wanted to learn how to tell stories, so we worked on that, but what they ultimately needed was a safe space in which to own and then tell their very personal and powerful stories.

As the lone white man in a room full of exclusively Black and Latino students, I worked hard to avoid suggesting ideas that would only be familiar to other upper-middle class, white, Jewish folks like myself. That proved to be a smart decision, however... About 5 weeks into our 10 week class cycle, I simply ran out of ideas. So I tossed the notion to them:

“What should this next scenario be about?” These were moody, hormonal, loud, and playful kids aged 11-14, so I figured I’d get suggestions like bullying, homework, privacy, and more. But I was wrong... by about a hundred miles. The suggestions they offered me were far deeper than I expected: domestic violence, being held up at gunpoint, getting car jacked, and an assortment of other pretty serious family dysfunction.

Wow.

I was taken aback - and petrified about what might happen if I agreed to proceed -but this is what my students wanted to work on. I said "OK”, created some ground rules for emotional and psychological safety and then… we proceeded.

The work that emerged from that class became the foundation for a 15min keynote that I delivered at the 2018 AIN Conference in Paris. You can watch that in it’s entirety here. What those kids taught me that year literally changed the trajectory of my life and career. And it brings me to…

Reason #2: The Skills of Improv Are LIFE SKILLS

At its core, improv teaches the following three things, usually in this order:

1. Hearing and/or noticing what’s just been communicated

2. Understanding and demonstrating to another person that you’ve noticed it

3. Adding information to what you’ve just heard or noticed

If you can do just those three things, you’ll be a pretty solid improviser. However, it also turns out that, if you can do just those three things, you’ll ALSO be a pretty amazing friend, spouse, partner, colleague or collaborator.

These are human skills, not performance skills.

Not everyone who comes into my studio is there to learn how to improvise on stage or perform. Far from it. We have business owners, therapists, scientists, attorneys, military veterans, and folks from all walks of life walk through our door. We welcome them all and want EVERYONE to walk away with valuable skills or lessons learned.

And so, when the moment presented itself this past Sunday, I remember what those incredible kids taught me. Then, I leaned in and decided to ask our six adult participants and and my co-teacher, Mary Pat McCoy to join me in exploring this brave woman’s suggestion. I’m so glad we did. These six strangers — who'd JUST met an hour before in our workshop — took the skills that we’d been working on for the first half of class and then found ways to use them for this far-more-powerful exercise. They offered collaboration, sympathy, empathy, understanding, and visual storytelling in ways that helped shine a light on the power of darkness, and then - more importantly - on love, and community support.

For obvious reasons, I can’t share the specifics of what transpired. However, I can certainly tell you that I was so incredibly proud of and moved by the willingness and participation off these six strangers to work together with Mary Pat and I on Sunday to do something truly extraordinary.

When we were done, there were tears, hugs, smiles, and then - at the very end - gratitude. Our volunteer shared how powerful it was to experience a version of events where she not only got what she wanted but also was able to feel the power of her community supporting her:

"Thank you for giving me a version of the experience that I wish I'd actually had...," she said.

This is, yet again, another powerful reminder that the practice of #Improvisation isn’t just for the stage and it isn’t just about laughter. I’m 100% a believer that it’s ALSO very much about healing the world.

So... can improv and community help to heal trauma? The unequivocal answer is: YES.

If you or someone you know would like to learn more about this kind of healing work, reach out: https://www.changethroughplay.com/connect