Improv-ing The Night Away And Other Adventures
Tonight I had the honor and privilege of performing with my church's improv group! It was for the gala which was also a fundraiser for the church. I had a blast! The improv games we played were the dating game and the photo slide one, for any of you familiar with improv. For those of you who don't know the dating game is where there are 2-3 contestants and one bachelor(ette). Each contestant is asked roughly around three questions and has to answer them while in-character. Eventually the bachelor(ette) picks who they want, at the same time guessing who each contestant is. For the photo slide game there's the person who's narrating and in charge of the slide show "clicker" and the other 3-4 people are characters doing their thing in regards to the audience suggestion and freezing in place when the narrator says "click". It can get pretty hilarious for both! In the dating game one we did tonight I was a stoner snowboarder and the other guy was Oprah. (I'm now wondering if I'm going to be known as the "stoner snowboarder" at church...) I'd say it was our best run of the game yet! And as a bonus it was 70's themed. The slide show depicted us on a trip to Las Vegas.
It was so great being able to perform for an audience. I got a bit of a rush from being on stage tonight and was sort of giddy from it after. Bottom line was I actually really enjoyed it even though I was nervous, which is normal right before one goes on stage. This was the most I've ever gotten to talk in front of a large audience because the roles I had in the past were minor where I either had few lines or none at all. It wasn't the first time performing for a large audience though because the last 4 years when in college I was part of something called RUSH, which is a dance concert made up of around 10-15-ish choreographed dances. I liked the rush (pun intended) I got while dancing, to the rush I got while on stage tonight. I'll have the opportunity to continue doing improv when it starts back up again in January which I'm pretty excited about.
Earlier today I was super hyper and silly and loopy in anticipation of tonight. I amused myself and likely many of the people around me. I didn't even care that I was probably being over-dramatic. Perhaps I spent too long by myself yesterday- though it doesn't quite make sense because I felt a bit anti-social during church today. Yay for confusing emotions! JK. (just kidding) I was seriously in a really good mood all day today which has been really awesome given the last few weeks and how I've been feeling.
The rest of the gala was awesome too- I was able to hang out with some of the people I've met so far here in Denver who also go to my church, which was great! Some of those included people from the improv group, my writing group, and the discussion group from Wednesday, which just ended a few days ago. There were SO MANY PEOPLE there tonight, to the point where I had to dodge and weave just to get some food and drink and find those I knew. Bonus: try finding people when you're short! It was fun to witness some of the performances from tonight, such as "Are You Smarter Than A Drag Queen" and dancing in the isles to Christmas music.
This last week when it snowed and was super cold the kids had to have inside recess. When they have to stay inside we, the paraprofessionals, have to set up a projector for them to watch a movie on. One of the other paras came by the Kindergarten classroom to find me to see if I could help her set up the projector. It brought me back to college and all the hours spent in TPE (theatre production ensemble) and in the classroom learning about this kind of stuff. All of that came in handy and we were able to set up the projector for the movie. The other para was super excited that I knew how to set it up and she slapped my back, jumped up in the air, and was in general just really happy. I was amused. The next day I did it again by myself and it only took me about a minute. Needless to say I felt fairly accomplished! (And we don't need to mention the time I accidentally scared the living daylights out of a teacher for about 5 minutes while getting a drink of water...)
Last week and this week the sermon(s) brought up a very interesting point I want to share with you all that sort of blew my mind: the God of the Old Testament = New Testament Jesus. What I mean by that is the same loving Jesus that we find in the New Testament IS the same God depicted in the Old Testament. I mean, God doesn't just flip a switch and change all of a sudden- in fact, I don't really think the character of God changes at all! It just doesn't make sense to me that he would go from smiting enemies to loving them as soon as Jesus is born- didn't he already love everyone? At least, I thought that was the point of sending Jesus in the first place. If God was only about destruction he wouldn't have cared enough to send his only son for us! In case you didn't already know- God loves us, each and every one, no matter what, and cares deeply about us too. Just my "two cents" about that.
Bonus: I can now, with the help of a sheet of paper, solve the Rubik's cube in 5 minutes!! 😄
To the King!
It was so great being able to perform for an audience. I got a bit of a rush from being on stage tonight and was sort of giddy from it after. Bottom line was I actually really enjoyed it even though I was nervous, which is normal right before one goes on stage. This was the most I've ever gotten to talk in front of a large audience because the roles I had in the past were minor where I either had few lines or none at all. It wasn't the first time performing for a large audience though because the last 4 years when in college I was part of something called RUSH, which is a dance concert made up of around 10-15-ish choreographed dances. I liked the rush (pun intended) I got while dancing, to the rush I got while on stage tonight. I'll have the opportunity to continue doing improv when it starts back up again in January which I'm pretty excited about.
Earlier today I was super hyper and silly and loopy in anticipation of tonight. I amused myself and likely many of the people around me. I didn't even care that I was probably being over-dramatic. Perhaps I spent too long by myself yesterday- though it doesn't quite make sense because I felt a bit anti-social during church today. Yay for confusing emotions! JK. (just kidding) I was seriously in a really good mood all day today which has been really awesome given the last few weeks and how I've been feeling.
The rest of the gala was awesome too- I was able to hang out with some of the people I've met so far here in Denver who also go to my church, which was great! Some of those included people from the improv group, my writing group, and the discussion group from Wednesday, which just ended a few days ago. There were SO MANY PEOPLE there tonight, to the point where I had to dodge and weave just to get some food and drink and find those I knew. Bonus: try finding people when you're short! It was fun to witness some of the performances from tonight, such as "Are You Smarter Than A Drag Queen" and dancing in the isles to Christmas music.
This last week when it snowed and was super cold the kids had to have inside recess. When they have to stay inside we, the paraprofessionals, have to set up a projector for them to watch a movie on. One of the other paras came by the Kindergarten classroom to find me to see if I could help her set up the projector. It brought me back to college and all the hours spent in TPE (theatre production ensemble) and in the classroom learning about this kind of stuff. All of that came in handy and we were able to set up the projector for the movie. The other para was super excited that I knew how to set it up and she slapped my back, jumped up in the air, and was in general just really happy. I was amused. The next day I did it again by myself and it only took me about a minute. Needless to say I felt fairly accomplished! (And we don't need to mention the time I accidentally scared the living daylights out of a teacher for about 5 minutes while getting a drink of water...)
Last week and this week the sermon(s) brought up a very interesting point I want to share with you all that sort of blew my mind: the God of the Old Testament = New Testament Jesus. What I mean by that is the same loving Jesus that we find in the New Testament IS the same God depicted in the Old Testament. I mean, God doesn't just flip a switch and change all of a sudden- in fact, I don't really think the character of God changes at all! It just doesn't make sense to me that he would go from smiting enemies to loving them as soon as Jesus is born- didn't he already love everyone? At least, I thought that was the point of sending Jesus in the first place. If God was only about destruction he wouldn't have cared enough to send his only son for us! In case you didn't already know- God loves us, each and every one, no matter what, and cares deeply about us too. Just my "two cents" about that.
Bonus: I can now, with the help of a sheet of paper, solve the Rubik's cube in 5 minutes!! 😄
To the King!
Kudos and jazz hands for doing improv at the gala! You all were fun and brave and everyone loved it.
ReplyDeleteKeep writing, keep improving, keep in the thick of God's love for you! Keep finding your voice.