East Coast Tour Day 3 – Clark University
Posted by Touch | Filed under The Touch, Uncategorized
Next Stop – Clark U – the home of the Peapod Squad improv troupe founded by our very own Molly Hale. This was the third day of our tour and it also happened to be Halloween, so we as a group decided to dress-up as five exhausted-ass-improvisers putting on a workshop. Clark University was built in the heart of Worcester (pronounced Wooster – really? Ignore more consonants.), which is a town that does not lack personality. We started the morning off by eating at Molly’s favorite breakfast joint, where the corn bread is served in a wheel barrel, and then flew down the block on the back of a mighty fall windstorm to Clark’s tree lined campus.
There were roughly 40 students participating, making this the largest workshop of the trip, so we split the group in two and got to work. I really liked the way these kids played. They seemed hungry to learn and performed with heart. It was great to watch their minds process new principles as bad habits would show up in a scene or exercise. There were points where certain students literally stopped talking, looked up and to the left, and then resumed the scene down a smarter and more productive path as if the voice in their head had said, “Whoaaa dude. You need to tell this person how you feel about them or else you’re gonna die.” By the end of the four-hour workshop, it was clear that they all had grown as improvisers and artists in their own right – as did we. Being a teacher really exposes your strengths and weaknesses like no other. Luckily, all of us but Molly have no weaknesses.
After the workshop, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then each found a couch inside a student services room to crash on for an hour. I swear to God I have never been so tired. I would have slept forever on that really small and hard couch had it not been for Dave and Tony showing up. Tony had just flown in from LA and Dave, being the gent that he is, went to the airport to pick him up. Tony was like a little kid in a Toys “R” Us the week before Christmas, and I was a zombie who wanted to eat Christmas brains. Eventually, the caffeine of hot campus coffee, coupled with the excitement of a pending performance and being with friends perked us up and we were ready to roll. The Peapod Squad had a solid short-form show, and our Harold properly reflected the lessons taught in the workshop that day. In fact, one of the main tests/accomplishments of this trip was our ability to tailor each show to a new and different audience who had never seen long-form improv before. I didn’t know how challenging that would be and am proud that we were able to pull it off.
The hours after the show were filled with your typical Halloween celebrating/socializing/freaking Annie out about going home late because she forget we gained an hour from the time change. We even learned a really great rap song by Sir-Mix-A-Lot that says “Wuss Up’” to every major city in America and then repeats the words “Jump on it! Jump on it! Jump on it!” If you haven’t heard it, go buy yourself a copy right now! But eventually the time for our departure arrived, so we said goodbye to our new Worcester (Wooster) friends, piled into our mini-van and road those howling east coast winds back to our comfy basement in Northborough.
Tags: Clark University, Peapod Squad
