Improvisation is “the art of making it up” — of taking what you’re given, no matter how meager, and making it into something good. That’s also, as it happens, a pretty great description of Detroit. Now, some talented kids from the city are benefiting from the chance to hone their improvisation skills with the help of experts in the craft, thanks to Y-Arts and a group of successful professionals who were nurtured here and continue to give back to the city that launched them.
Students from five Detroit schools, Western International, Bates Academy, and Brenda Scott Middle School, as well as two schools for incarcerated youth, just wrapped up ten weeks of improv instruction by professional actors and will be showing off their newly acquired skills at a showcase at the Marlene Boll Theater at the Boll Family YMCA in downtown Detroit.The showcase is at 4 p.m. Sunday. Dec. 16 and the event is free.
The classes are part of the Detroit Creativity Project, which is run by Y-Arts and fueled by donations from a group of actors who are mostly in Los Angeles now and are reaching back to help bring the skills inherent in improv to city kids. While the program certainly helps fill in some of the gaps in arts education left by funding cuts at Detroit Public Schools, the benefits of learning improv will stay with these teens even if they never step on a stage again. Learning to listen, work together for the good of the team, and most importantly building confidence are all huge parts of the improv experience.
It’s especially effective for the students in the incarcerated program, says Margaret Edwartowski, director of Y-Arts who teaches some of the classes. “The whole goal is to make each other look good,” she says. “I’m sure that’s not a familiar feeling for the environment these kids are coming from. ” She adds that one of the teachers in the incarcerated schools was intimidated by the students, but ended up having a wonderful experience. “By the end he was just energized and everyone had a great time. It’s pretty miraculous what you can come up with when working with them.”
Last spring, 80 students participated in the program, and you can get look at what they did via this video:
Detroit Creativity Project Video
Next week, you can support the program and enjoy a great night of improv as well. The 313, which is a group of improv comedians who have found success on the coasts and which was the genesis of the Detroit Creativity Project, will be doing a fundraiser at 8 p.m. on December 23 at Go Comedy! in Ferndale. Cost of the show is $20 and tickets are available via gocomedy.net.