Improv and Community w/ Ginevra Tortora
“Improv is a primordial form of dialogue in which everyone can participate, even those who never dared speak to one another before.”
Ginevra Tortora is a London based freelance journalist specialising in arts and culture and international law. She's been a professional classical actress for a decade and is a graduate of the Stella Adler Studio in New York. She recently graduated with a masters degree in International Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies and is currently training as a lawyer in London. In this blog, she writes about her experiences co-leading weekly improv workshops with refugees, migrants and displaced people, and how improvisation can make a difference in marginalised communities.
“When I am on stage I feel free.”
My friend Ahmed smiles timidly. His profound, charming and captivating eyes meet mine for a second before he breaks eye contact. He arrived in London from Damascus in 2018 when he was granted Asylum after a long judicial process. He has a passion for storytelling and wants to be an actor.
Many people from a different range of cultures coexist in London and, in spite of its very strict immigration regulations, the UK is currently the third most popular destination of refugee fluxes fleeing realities of war and abuse to find relief in the European continent. But while migrations are ancient human phenomena, the challenges of integration for asylum seekers, refugees and displaced people in the social structure of their host countries are numerous.
When I moved to London in 2018 I was a new graduate of the Stella Adler Studio in New York and eager to combine my passion for international human rights law and the theatre. So when I met Ahmed during my Masters in International Law we thought of coordinating a weekly improv theatre group with refugees, migrants and displaced people to facilitate their integration within a new community and foster elaboration of their traumatic experiences.
After all, during my drama school years in New York I was surrounded by many inspirational artists who followed similar paths, such as Brian Doerries, author of The Theatre of War and Artistic Director of Theatre of War Productions, with whom I discussed the beneficial effects of staging classical war tragedies for American combat veterans. I was also motivated by the Outreach Program at the Stella Adler Studio, organising improv workshops and classes run by professional teachers and volunteer facilitators for young people in marginalised communities.
Yet, while I firmly believe in the power of theatre and the arts to bring people together and facilitate integration and elaboration of traumas, coordinating an improv group with refugees may have been considered nothing more than a charitable, compassionate event, which risked neglecting the real enormous potential of theatre projects in these communities. For that reason, Ahmed and I decided that our workshops involving members of at-risk communities would at their heart be an opportunity for us and the audience to understand their realities of injustice.
Through making or watching theatre we develop a guttural, subconscious and more connected awareness of the experiences that we are witnessing on stage. In a few hours we are able to grasp stories in a way that decades of news, politics and human rights treaties could never convey. All the more, improv games are effective because they don’t require prior reading or contextual knowledge and it isn’t necessary to speak the same language or belong to the same cultural background to take part. Improv is a primordial form of dialogue in which everyone can participate, even those who never dared speak to one another before.
For those who aren’t familiar with the term, improvisation or improv is a form of live theatre in which the plot, characters and dialogue of a game, scene or story are made up in the moment. A group of people comes together within a fun and friendly environment, where a strong team unity along with a sense of acceptance and collaboration is created. In improv, scenes are created by the group; there is no space for the initiative of an individual alone. Well-played sketches require strong collaboration, silent agreement and quick decision-making on top of an impressive amount of trust between players who accept to take part in a scene whose outcome cannot be predicted at the start.
‘Yes, and...’ - the first rule of improv - suggests that all participants should accept what another player has stated and expand on the same line of thinking, encouraging everyone to take risks safely in a non-judgemental environment, allowing the possibility of failure. In order to do so, players have to be fully immersed in the present moment, an often uncomfortable dimension for humans who commonly tend to drift between the nostalgia of the past and the expectation of the future.
On the improv stage different cultures and experiences, which may have never met, share the space to play together, a vital primordial form of communication that goes beyond the limits of the spoken word. Being open to change by interacting with other characters allows the creation of new relationships as the scenes unfold. When you think about it, it happens both on stage and in real life.
“Having a good time with your scene partner on stage is crucial,” said Andrea Laviola, actor and trainer with the Bugiardini, an Italian improv theatre company that participated at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Shhh! - An improvised silent movie between 2013 - 2018. While theatre principles such as connection to breath, body and spatial awareness apply to improv, making your partner look good on stage and having fun are key. “Many times I thought I had a huge responsibility while working with teenagers in needy communities,” he continued. “I would come in so serious and tense but the key in improv exercises is being fully available and vulnerable in the space while you let them play.”
Improv isn’t only effective in needy communities; it has the potential to reach all kinds of minorities. Improv as a Second Language (ISL) was set up by Claudia and Marie in London in 2019 for artists whose first language is not English, to create a safe space facilitating dialogue and integration. During sessions at ISL, the purpose of improvising together is sharing experiences. Everyone is encouraged to get out of their heads and get words wrong without judgment. “Only by questioning conventions can barriers come down,” said Claudia, voice practitioner and facilitator. While the pandemic turned ISL into an online platform, currently people from all over the world are welcomed to join.
On a similar note, Olivia Brown (whose name has been changed), voice practitioner and actress who trained at the Stella Adler studio and worked as a facilitator in the Outreach Program, talked about her experience of running improv classes with at-risk and vulnerable youth at the Rikers Island jail in New York. She explained that while people belonging to difficult backgrounds tend to hardly perceive any kind of space as ‘safe’ as a result of their traumatic experiences, getting up on their feet in a friendly, fun environment can lead them to making even more committed theatrical choices on stage and eventually find that same confidence in real life. By getting used to uncomfortable feelings of anxiety and fear, they become part of our daily realities; they exist but they are no longer paralysing.
Olivia also pointed out how consistency is power and the most effective way to encourage integration is through long-term weekly improv classes rather than occasional workshops. “Sometimes it takes months before someone joins in, it can take time, as communication generally does.” As a classically trained actress and voice practitioner, she further explained that on top of getting rid of emotional barriers and shame, the connection to the voice and breath awakened during improv games has the power to rewire the entire body, facilitating physiological reactions such as regulating sleep patterns. “Changing the way you breathe changes the physiology of the entire body and therefore of your mind.”
It’s a delicate balance. As Olivia made clear, “our objective is not to teach. You can only walk in with an offer, opening a critical dialogue and wanting to hear their point of view.” We aren’t teachers or therapists but therapeutic effects come in as a side result of dealing with the spectrum of human emotions and taking risks in a safe environment. As Keith Johnstone, a pioneer of improvisational theatre said, “getting rid of fear starts with fear; when you fail, you learn to punish yourself, but you can’t do anything without failing so you should have a positive attitude about making mistakes.”
Due to the pandemic, many fellow artists relocated to their home countries and Ahmed and I had to put our project momentarily on hold. However, we observed that by instilling confidence in the participants, giving them structure and a chance to have their voices heard in a safe performative space, improv can greatly encourage integration and can be an opportunity for us and the audience to learn about realities of injustice.
The most valuable thing we can all derive from working with marginalised communities is to learn to be happy with failure, to endure in times of hardships, and to lean on others, comforted by the awareness that there will always be another opportunity to get back on your feet, to try again.
To find out ways you can support refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, check out Migrants Organise, Safe Passage and the Refugee Council, which are just a few of the incredible organisations making a difference.
If you have an interesting story on how improv has helped or is helping you in the real world, please complete the form at www.thefreeassociation.co.uk/improv-in-real-life
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