Improv and Identity w/ Kasia Kugay
“Observing character traits through sketch comedy makes them feel like garments in a closet we can put on and take off”
Kasia Kugay is a singer-songwriter from San Francisco, California currently exploring her cultural roots in Istanbul, Turkey. Her earlier studies in psychology have given her a fascination with the healing power of art and self-expression. In this guest blog, she writes about her experiences joining an expat improv group in the summer of 2019 and how character study in improv leads to a better understanding of yourself and others.
We have all gotten to know ourselves better in the last year. After two and a half months of lockdown in Istanbul, it became easy to cull the activities that drained me and to follow impulses of joy.
Istanbul is an enormous and diverse city with almost as many options for entertainment as there are residents. While the restrictions surrounding the outbreak of Covid-19 limited those options, we had a few months of relative relaxation from June to November. One day in late summer, I woke up in Belgrad Forest on the north side of town after a night of camping. Following a walk in the woods, I met my family for dinner in Osmanbey, followed by a socially-distanced and limited-capacity improv show in Taksim for the evening.
I remember this day well because, at the improv show, I volunteered to share it for an exercise in which the players acted out the day’s events – first in a five minute scene, then in one minute, then 30 seconds, 10, five and, finally, in one hilarious (and loud) second. Looking back, I believe that one second encapsulated the essence of my joy, given how ideal the day had been.
Intermission came after, and I dropped my name in a bowl, volunteering to be an audience participant in the next sketch. Missing being on stage, I crossed my fingers that I’d get at least one more chance. Luckily, given how small the crowd was and how few people naturally flock to the limelight, I had several chances on stage that night. After the show, the team invited me to attend their regular rehearsals. The joy this gave me showed me how important it was for me to collaborate creatively with others and to be involved in performing arts.
Joining an almost entirely expat comedy improv group in the midst of a pandemic gave me a sense of camaraderie (as well as a place to vent my anxiety about the US elections). Humor requires a bit of cultural and linguistic commonality, and sharing those elements with fellow expats offered many long overdue fits of laughter. Due to the pandemic, we naturally had a smaller group of actors, and our director took this opportunity to focus on the development of long-form improv sketches. He had us explore character traits as a method of plot development. I came to learn that every class had the potential to open up a discovery about myself or the people around me.
One night while coming home late on the metro from a rehearsal, I found myself examining shoes. Earlier that evening, we had explored how diving into specific character traits can drive the plot in a sketch. My phone battery had died and, although I had a book, my mind was tired and I found myself suddenly curious about how others on the train were spending their journeys - I noticed who was on their phone and who wasn’t, moments in which they picked them up or put them down, and how people coming on and off the train adjusted to the transition. After some time, I started noticing shoes, and found it remarkable how much they formed an impression on me. One man in a tailored suit wore sneakers; another in business attire wore fancy leather loafers; most women were wearing boots and variety was all in the heel. Every variation told a story.
I found myself wondering what story I might put forth based on a person’s footwear or phone usage; but increasingly, I found it more interesting to postpone my version of it and simply observe. I suddenly had many questions I wanted to ask these people and realized that if we weren't obliged to distance ourselves, I probably would have. As my journey neared its end, my feeling of connection deepened to those around me. Exiting the train, I silently said goodbye to them all – something I don’t think I had ever done in my decades-long relationship with public transportation.
Observing character traits through sketch comedy makes them feel like garments in a closet we can put on and take off, and perhaps that is true in life as well. As long as I see improv as a way of getting to know myself, I won’t be disappointed with the outcome, because there is always a lesson for life both on and off the stage. The traits we discover in others are an entry point, and not a means for classification. What we see in others is a reflection of what we may not have seen in ourselves, and exploring personality can give us a window into another person’s motivations, desires, strengths, and weaknesses. Along the way, we just may ignite our own creativity and freedom.
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