How to Improvise Your Way Through COVID-19

Welcome to one of the largest acts of global improvisation everyone. Like most, we’ve been figuring out how to move forward as we adjust to new ways of living. One thing has been clear: the improv skills we practice have become more important than ever.

It’s not a time to shut down, it’s time to put our training to use and improvise. We are fortunate enough to have technology to come together with staff and students. We are fortunate to have the financial capacity to keep our staff on payroll. And, we’re fortunate that this thing we love (improv) can be applied to our business, lives, and new routines.

Here are five improv principles that The Making-Box is using right now and how you can use them too.

1) ACCEPT THE OFFER (EVEN IF IT’S NEGATIVE) 

A core tenet of improvisation is accepting (yes) and expanding (and…). As an improviser, it’s your responsibility to accept the reality and build upon it, rather than deny it. There’s a lot of fun and fear that comes from accepting the unexpected.

Now obviously, a global pandemic forcing people into isolation is not the offer anyone was hoping for. Initially for us, this seemed like a scene stopper. How does an organization built on bringing people together fulfill its mission when we can’t come within 2 meters of each other?

What do you do with this offer? Are we stuck or doomed? Absolutely not. We accept it and build upon it. Immediately, The Making-Box team got onto a video conference and started collaborating on how we might provide value during isolation. We’re all about fostering connections and people might be craving it right now. What opportunities do we now have when many people's schedules have opened up? What will people be looking for from us in this situation? How can we make something good for us and our community? 

Thanks to our extremely eager and supportive student community, we were able to test drive five digital classes this week. Our ensembles have come together with new shows that can work online. Our staff all work from home and because we have an unlimited vacation policy, our team members can take the time they need to care for themselves and their family in these strange times.

Is this year going to be exactly like we planned in January? No. But when COVID gave us the offer of, “stay inside and don’t gather people” we accepted it.

2) MAKE YOUR PARTNER LOOK GOOD

In a good improv scene, we aim to make our partner(s) look good. We do this through deep listening and affirming other’s contributions. At The Making-Box, people feel heard and understood because we practice making our partner(s) look good. This situation would have been more difficult without a community of students. We had people who cared and felt comfortable enough to voice their opinions - even if they differed from our own. Our massive student community represents a far greater diversity pool than just our staff: they are medical professionals, healthcare workers, artists, parents and so much more.

We can frankly say, we may have made some poorer decisions if the people in our community didn’t feel safe or sure in offering their ideas. We think it helped that we practice good listening inside and out our organization. In times like these, this expertise was our most valuable resource. Who are your scene partners right now and how can you make them look good?

3) GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO FAIL 

"If you need to be right before you move - you will never win. Perfection is the enemy of the good. Speed trumps perfection.” -Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the World Health Organization

In improv, there’s no time for doubt - you just got to dive in, play and figure it out. In the words of Del Close, “improvising is like building a 747 jet mid-flight.”

At first, our staff looked at COVID like a challenge. Because it is. However, soon it become an exciting creative conundrum because we gave ourselves permission to fail. We started asking ourselves not just, “how can we take what we do and put it online?” but also, “how can we create new things we’ve never done before?” In playing around with Zoom, we were instantly finding novel ways to play, collaborate, and creating new exercises entirely.

Sure, running an online improv class or show poses some challenges when we’re used to an in-person model and have never even considered an online version of anything. Oddly, we started feel a little weird to be so excited about these challenges. Teaching online will be new, unfamiliar and strange for our instructors. They won’t be great at it out of the gate. But for us, this is another way to model the principle of giving ourselves permission to fail.

4) CELEBRATE THE SMALL VICTORIES 

As mentioned, we have run a handful of free online improv classes. There were of course, speed bumps but we did it. And that’s a small victory worth celebrating.

Despite the lack of perfection, the online classes seemed to satisfy what our community was craving. Multiple tears of joy we’re shared when reflecting on the session afterwards. Some students we’re meeting for the first time, some joined from other provinces.

We are continuing to explore these new avenues for improv jams, shows, webinars, corporate training. While we’re still in the prototyping phase, improv principles are helping accelerate the process. What small victories can you celebrate today?

5) JUST DO THE NEXT SMALL THING… 

There’s still a lot of uncertainty and fear in the world. But what improv offers is a framework of navigating these times. We want to show you how we’re using improv principles so you can too. We’re lucky to have so many brilliant people in our community that have helped us this week. We wish you all confidence, clarity, hope and fun in times of uncertainty. When in doubt, just do the next small thing…

And in this case, it may be another online class, live show or something else entirely. You can be sure to stay in the loop and improvise along with us by joining our mailing list.