The HUGE Theater Blog!

Here is a little 2022 update of a favorite essay from Jill Bernard.
The brain you had when you were a kid was just a little bit softer than the brain you have now. Let’s take a step back and soften up your grown-up brain, to let more things in. Here are some practice improv exercises from various sources, for you to do by yourself.

• • Walk around a place naming things the wrong name, i.e. point at the chair and call it a soda fountain or a gleebeldy glook.
• • Do a crossword puzzle or a Sudoku wrong. I recommend not limiting yourself to letters and numbers.
• • Close your eyes and turn your head any direction you’d like. Open your eyes and look at what’s in front of you in the frame of your vision. Appreciate it like it’s a painting or a photograph someone deliberately composed in just this way. Try to analyze the symbolism, and the artist’s intent.
• • Brush your teeth with the wrong hand.
• • Reach into space with your hands and grab an invisible object. Grab first, then look in your hand and see what it is. Notice all the details. Set it down, then reach into space and grab something again, try different sizes and weights. (This is from Mick Napier, his excellent book “Improvise: Scene from the Inside Out” has a few more.)
• • Take the wrong route home.
• • Draw a really terrible picture of a bunny and mail it to Jill Bernard HUGE Theater 3037 Lyndale Ave S Minneapolis MN 55408 U.S.A.
• • Open a document on a computer or get out a sheet of paper, and just start writing. Write whatever comes, even if it’s just, “I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what to say.”
• • Here is a variation on the game WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Find two initials in the room you are, like L.B. Then just make little verb/object or adjective/verb combos out loud, i.e. Lighting Bridges, Losing Brian, Listening Boringly, Limiting Barry, Lightly Baking, Listlessly Burying, etc. If you’d like you can physically act them out, or just keep it as a verbal-quickness exercise.
• • Tell a one-word story where you blink to separate the thoughts for yourself. [Eyes open] “once” [eyes closed] “there” [eyes open] “was” [eyes closed] “a” [eyes open] “grandmother” [eyes closed] “who” etc. This is hard to sustain for long because your brain catches up and starts unifying your thoughts into one thinker, so start over lots of times.
• • Do four little mini character monologues with the same first line of dialogue, spreading out around the room and taking different physicalities.
• • Put on your headphones and dance around to your favorite song completely unleashed and free of inhibition. It’s best to do it somewhere where it is entirely possible you will be caught.

Your brain has pathways, and unless you find ways to get off those pathways, you’ll never have a new thought. See if you can surprise yourself today.

WHAT IS IMPROVATHON?

The single most important day in HUGE’s year. 28 hours of continuous improv. HUGE’s only operational fundraiser each year. A massive community event.

Over 50 different improv groups and shows — sometimes as many as 200 people — take the stage in 20-30 minute slots, starting at 8pm on a Wednesday and going until midnight the FOLLOWING DAY! All of those groups are fundraising, semi-competitively, on behalf of HUGE, with a goal this year of raising over $60,000!! And the leadership staff is there the entire time, testing the limits of their physical and mental endurance. This event is timed to coincide with GiveMN’s Give to the Max Day, when every donation — no matter the size — gets HUGE entered in drawings for $1K-10K bonus prizes!

WHEN IS IT?!

8pm Wednesday, November 16 - midnight November 17, 2022

WHERE IS IT?!

For the VERY LAST TIME, Improvathon will take place at 3037 Lyndale Ave, HUGE’s original home. By this time next year, we’ll be in our new location at 2728 Lyndale. So you don’t want to miss this last chapter of our magical 3037 history!

HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?!

So many ways!

• * Sign your improv group up to perform at Improvathon, with a group commitment to raise at least $500! Registration will be open through October 25.
  
  
• * Sign up as a member of the “Iron Audience,” committing to stay at the theater for the full 28-hour event, with a goal of raising at least $100!
  
  
• * Sign up to volunteer… at the box office, as a photographer or sponsor-hunter, or to run errands and just generally keep the place running for a couple hours.
  
  
• * Come see shows during Improvathon. Every suggested-donation admission we receive adds to our total!
  
  
• * Encourage friends and family to give on Give to the Max Day!

OTHER FAQS:

WHAT ARE THE COVID POLICIES?!

All performers, volunteers, and audience members will abide by HUGE’s standard COVID policies: proof of vaccination (initial series) required, boosters and masks strong encouraged.

In addition, Iron Audience and leadership staff (who will be around for the whole event) are required to take a rapid test before arriving on Nov 16. And the backstage spaces will be reserved for the next two groups performing (our food table will be in the lobby).

I’M UNCOMFORTABLE FUNDRAISING BUT STILL WANT TO PARTICIPATE. CAN I?!

We’d LOVE to have you attend or volunteer. But we are asking all of our performing groups and Iron Audience to fundraise. And we've got some great advice to share to help make fundraising painless -- most groups make it to the $500 mark without much trouble.

CAN I PERFORM WITH MORE THAN ONE GROUP?!

Totally -- but keep in mind that each group is responsible for fundraising $500. So be careful about spreading yourself TOO thin.

YOU SAID IT’S SEMI-COMPETITIVE?

Yeah! We'll have a leaderboard on our Give-to-the-Max-Day site, and our top-fundraising Iron Audience and top 3 groups get a piece of HUGE swag (like a mug or hoodie) as a thank-you. Our #1 top fundraising group also gets a free workshop or coaching session during the Twin Cities Improv Festival or Black and Funny Improv Festival!

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?!

Improvathon is an “operational” fundraiser. It supports the day-to-day costs of running HUGE Theater. That means it supports our class scholarships, our low ticket prices, our ability to pay performers, and our ability to underwrite important programs and festivals that may not pay for themselves. This money isn’t specifically for the build-out of our new space, but it helps us keep our doors open, so we can open our new doors. Ultimately, it is all the same bucket.

WE CAN'T WAIT! THANK YOU FOR JOINING US ON THIS BIG ADVENTURE!

Any more questions? You can send those to sean@hugetheater.com!

As a performer with several years of training in both improv and scripted acting programs, Neco will take you through vocal exploration exercises that can help you take your performance to the next level.

In this workshop you’ll expand your awareness of how your body and voice are interconnected, and how you can best set yourself up for success to project and explore character vocality. We’ll focus a lot of time on breath work and practicing getting out of the way of our natural ability to make a lot of sound. We’ll then explore the different sounds we can make with our voice and explore best practices for how to sustain various types of pitches, tones, and character voices for long periods of time.

By the end of this workshop, we hope to achieve the following goals:

• • Increase your confidence in your ability to project
• • Set you up to project healthily and consistently
• • Find new sounds you can make and use in your character work
• • Provide you with warmups you can use before any performance

Sign up and learn a bit more here: https://forms.gle/SfqNvbMykNTD3YME6

Shows submitted this round by September 30, 2022 will be considered for January-June of 2023, our final months in the 3037 Lyndale Avenue space. After that, we will make our big move down the street. We’re excited to see what you’ve been working on!

Submit here!

Register HERE

Course Description
Summer League is a two-day improv workshop, Saturday and Sunday, August 27-28, from 1-5 pm with a student showcase on Sunday from 4 pm - 5 pm. This class is for Black, Indigenous, and people of color, age 18+. The main objective is to play and learn improv games from two BIPOC teaching artists. We will work on improv short form games.

Schedule
Saturday, August 27, 1 - 4 pm, and Sunday, August 28, 1 - 5 pm. The student showcase will be on Sunday, August 28, 4 - 5 pm at HUGE Theater.

About your instructors

Photos of John Gebretatose on a white background and C Michael Menge on a black background.

C Michael Menge (They & He) is a Black trans theater-maker in pursuit of liberated joy. Named Best Actor Twin Cities 2019 by City Pages, C Michael has worked with theaters such as Mixed Blood Theatre, Pillsbury House + Theatre, the Jungle Theater, the Playwrights' Center, HUGE Improv Theater, Blackout Improv Comedy, and more. He was a 2020 Jerome Naked Stages Fellow, recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Support for Individuals grant, and co-facilitator of the Black and Funny Improv Festival. Their art centers joy, embodiment, and the exploration of trans aesthetics.

John Gebretatose has been performing stand-up, improv, and sketch comedy in Minnesota's Twin Cities for over ten years. He is an instructor and Director of Diversity & Inclusion at HUGE Improv Theater in Minneapolis, MN, and has taught improv workshops in theaters, hospitals, corporate workspaces, K-12 schools, and colleges. He has also led and facilitated diversity and inclusion programming for improv theaters worldwide through his mission to uplift all voices. John trained and worked at the Brave New Workshop and is a founding member of Blackout Improv, Late Nights Minneapolis (a sketch comedy show), and co-founder of the Black and Funny Improv Festival. He has traveled the world performing, teaching, and directing improv.

Register HERE