Camp Improv Utopia really does live up to its name!
“Amy, I really liked playing with you today – you had such a joy about you. It was obvious how much fun you were having!”
I turned around the campfire to figure out which camper Tamara was talking to even though she was looking straight at me – and using my name. A quick scan of the day’s events got me thinking about this accusation of joy. And it turns out Tamara was right. I was having a ton of fun playing – and it just so happened that I was learning, too.
On Labor Day weekend, I along with about 100-ish other pioneers, set out for the first ever Camp Improv Utopia East (CIUE). The camp is a non-profit organization that brings improv and team building training to a wonderful laid back setting in the Pennsylvania woods. The majority of profits return to the improv community via scholarships, festival and theater support.
For me, CIUE was an opportunity to play with strangers – people who don’t know any of my patterns or habits. It was also an opportunity to play for the sake of play while acquiring new tools and sharpening existing skills in the process. There was no coordinating troupe members, marketing shows or managing theater space. No postcards were made. No posters were hung. No Facebook invitations were distributed. There were no worries about empty seats or missing call times or crappy performances. I was in the woods for three days being a sponge as the national experts had their way with me. And it was a good way – a great way — because the camp’s primary focus is the art of improv … something I needed to spend more time enjoying.
At Camp Improv Utopia East, Happy Hat and I were reminded why improv makes us both happy!
Sometimes we forget why we first started doing something we supposedly love. I love to do improvisational theater. Of late, I’ve loved it less because I’ve been bogged down with what I refer to as the “back end” of things. The behind the scenes work isn’t always fun. In fact, it can be draining. And when more time is spent on the production and marketing tasks than the actual performances, you can lose the spark. Maybe it was being around the campfire, or maybe it was the all-play/no-work camp life, but the spark came back and turned into a fire. During the workshops I remembered why the hobby grabbed me more than ten years ago in Philadelphia and then later became a seed for The Adventure Project.
Having the luxury of being a student in multiple improv workshops with the woods as my backdrop, I forgot the “back end” and I put the self-loathing aside. Instead I enjoyed the pure joy of the art and the many ways the art can be interpreted. In real life, I spend much of my time hosting playshops where I explore the personal development side of improv. I lead people through their own discovery process using a play toolbox, however, I forget about myself in the process. The art has, and continues to, touch me. But, only when I keep space open in my “to do” list for it. Thanks to some happy campers, that space is now wide open again.
Flying high on improv joy with my Amelia Earhart cabin mates.
