30 Days of Feeling Alive: Sunshine

I woke up Tuesday morning to the sound of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. The album, recorded in 1964, is divided into four parts: Acknowledgement, Resolution, Pursuance, and Psalm. It's one of my favorite recordings.

My neighbors must hate it, though. The CD is set to play when my alarm goes off at 6 a.m. This weekend while I was away, I forgot to shut off my alarm and they had to listen to the entire CD each morning for three days. Living in a duplex, you hear lots of sounds when it's quiet, especially when the bedrooms share a wall.

This post isn't about sex...really. You'll have to believe me even as I tell you about the newest improv troupe in Santa Cruz named The Improverts. Six players make up the troupe, several of whom have been performing improv for many years. This Saturday will be their first show together, and if Tuesday night's practice is any indication, the Broadway Playhouse is going to light up with laughter. 

The six are no strangers to me. I've played with all of them on Tuesday night or Saturday morning at the Fun Institute's drop-in improv workshops. For those of you new to improv, improv is unscripted comedy theater. There is short form which consists mostly of skits, and long form which are full length plays. The Improverts perform in the Armando style, starting off with a series of monologues based on an audience suggestion. As with all improv, the actors make it all up as they go along.

Acknowledgement

Improv is alive and well in Santa Cruz, thanks in large part to Dixie Cox and Clifford Henderson of the Fun Institute. Through the years, nearly every improviser in town has taken a class with the two. In fact, next month's Santa Cruz Improv Festival features many Fun Institute alumni. There will be eight troupes, two each weekend, performing throughout the month. The Improverts are not scheduled to appear — but it's improv and anything can happen.

Resolution

I decided to try improv around this time last year. One of the items on my bucket list was to do 10 minutes of comedy onstage. Last February, I checked that item off when I performed with Six Wheel Drive. Improv has helped me weather through the weeks, giving me focus, and helping me find new friends. It's therapy, and it will be difficult if I ever have to give that up.

Pursuance

Even among clouds there is sunshine. I'm trying to find the good in people everywhere I go. Improv has taught how to accept offers — in essence, to accept whatever gets thrown my way — and to make quality offers to others so they can shine, too. I'm going to play follow the leader, and I'm going to find ways to lead.

Psalm

A Love Supreme was written seven years after Coltrane had a emerged from his addiction to heroin and experienced, as he writes in the album's liner notes, a "spiritual awakening." He adds: 

May we never forget that in the sunshine of our lives, through the storm and after the rain — it is all with God — in all ways and forever.

Watch The Improverts this weekend, take an improv class (the first one is free), catch a show or two (or more) at the Santa Cruz Improv Festival, and don't forget to bring sunshine into people's lives.