It is a truth universally acknowledged that…improv is a blast
Laura Wachtel brings her Jane Austen Improv show to Sebastopol Center for the Arts next week
Improvisational theater, known as improv, is more than a professional tool for actors—it’s a means for personal growth and a lot of fun. Just ask Laura Wachtel, founder and lead coach of ZipLine Improv, a local company that teaches improv to students and corporate teams and also hosts improvisational stage shows.
In a recent interview with the Sebastopol Times, Wachtel said, “Introverts are drawn to it [improv] for some reason because it helps you find yourself, it helps you get comfortable. For me, I completely got over self-consciousness. It’s a real confidence booster.
“People go for different reasons. Some want to be improvisers, but most just want to play,” she added. “It can be energizing. It makes so many people happy. So many people say it’s the highlight of their week.”
Her journey began in 2005 when, as a shy 30-something, she migrated from screenwriting and short story writing to learning improv at BATS Improv in San Francisco. In time she grew adept at it and became a BATS company member and performed there. She still does.
She started ZipLine Improv locally in 2017, with one class, and from there, it blossomed into a successful business. Now she teaches numerous adult classes, most of which have between 10 and 14 students and meet for six, consecutive, two-hour weekly classes on weeknights at either the Sebastopol Community Center Youth Annex, the Sebastopol Main Street Theater or the Arlene Francis Center in Santa Rosa. Intro classes meet once for two and a half hours.
Wachtel’s first teen class began on Jan. 8 but still has space in it. Two of her students, Jennifer Hayworth and Dylan Pereira, teach it.
“In my first class I debunk some myths for people,” Wachtel said. “I want this to be a safe and comfortable place for people to ease into it. One of the first things I tell people is that the way I teach improv is that it’s not about being the quickest and cleverest and fastest person in the room. It’s basically about listening and responding.”
This element of training also proves useful to her corporate clients.
“They get varied things out of it, but one of the things I hear a lot is that it really connects teammates and builds empathy between them,” she said. “Another top thing is understanding how true listening plus a “Yes, and…” mindset can really change the dynamic.”
Wachtel trained in and focuses on narrative improv—that is, full-length stories—as opposed to comedy and games. While she enjoys all aspects of running ZipLine, productions have a special place in her heart. These days she hosts about six local shows per year.
Improvised Jane Austen, which she’s bringing to Sebastopol on Sunday, Jan. 19, from 3-5 p.m., first showed in San Francisco last August.
The full-length, two-act play includes an intermission. As with all narrative improv, there is no script. In “rehearsing” for the show, the actors examine the tropes and characters associated with Jane Austen and rehearse those elements, “never doing the same thing twice,” according to Wachtel.
The audience can expect the actors to physically act out the play onstage, wearing full costumes in an improvised set.
The seven-person cast includes Wachtel, six other members of the BATS Improv company, and a live improv musician. Wachtel thanks Dan O’Conner and Paul Rogan of Impro Theatre in Los Angeles for developing the improv format several years ago and allowing her to use it in this play.
Regarding her life in improv for the last 20 years, Wachtel said, “It’s great fun and I feel really lucky because I trained with some of the best people, and some of the best people are now my colleagues and some of them are coming to this show.”
And yet, her education never ends.
“I’m still training,” she said. “There’s always stuff to work on and improve—like my volume is terrible on stage. I have to really focus on projecting, so I’m still working on that.”
‘Improvised Jane Austen,’ Sunday, Jan. 19, 3-5 p.m., Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 S. High St., Sebastopol. Tickets are $15-$25. Purchase them at a discount on her website, www.ziplineimprov.com/ziplineshows, or for $25 at the door. You can reach ZipLine Improv at laura@ziplineimprov.com.
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