Saying Yes from Afar

“Yes and…”

Anyone who has ever done improv before is familiar with this word combination. It is the holy godfather, the foundation of what excellent improv scenes are built upon, the keys to the kingdom, back to the beginning when “God created the Heaven and Earth.” These two words are so simple, and yet the doors they open and the opportunities they provide for scene-building are immeasurable. Entire worlds are created with “yes and…” societies rise and fall, relationships wither and grow, hamburgers broil, forests are inhabited by elvish creatures, characters live and die — all due to the magic “yes and….” creed that all improvisers live by.

How often do we find ourselves saying “no” and blocking potential opportunities and adventures, fearful of the unknown, playing it safe while we follow life’s script? Improv teaches us to take a risk, trust our instincts and say yes, even if we don’t know where that “yes” may be leading us.

For those not yet familiar with the benign “yes and” cult that is the improv mindset, it’s just about as simple as it sounds. In an improv scene, “yes and….” is accepting the information that your scene partner or partners gives you AND working with that information to add on and build a story together. In an improv scene, when someone endows our character as the big boss of a multinational corporation who has a fear of heights, we accept that information AND we build from it. The character cancels that company trip to the Grand Canyon for fear of peering over the edge and relocates the office to a single story building. We don’t deny the reality that we’re given, we work with it to build together and make our scene partners look good.

A Homerun Team-Up

In a recent corporate cross-strait collaboration, Formosa Improv Group (FIG) was given the opportunity to lead students from multiple international schools in full-day rotational online improv workshops. FIG joined forces with an organization called The Hutong, the premiere experiential education company with bases located in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Due to the severe Zero-Covid policy handed down by the PRC government, all of the in-person events and educational programs that The Hutong was originally scheduled to run were canceled by the international schools they work with. This was clearly a situation where it was up to both the schools and The Hutong to think fast on their toes and make a new plan.

In addition to putting on improv performances in Taipei, FIG also leads weekly community and skills-focused workshops. On occasion, FIG invites members of the community to step in and lead a session, highlighting their strengths and skills. This image is from a recent workshop where the workshop leader, Addi, had participants practice mask skills to emphasize focus on body language and communication.

If there’s one thing that improvisers excel at, it’s thinking fast on their toes. That’s the basic gist of what makes performing in an improv scene so exciting. No one ever knows what will happen next, and the players have to be prepared for the next curve ball that’s thrown at them. In this particular instance, the curve ball was Covid, and The Hutong was up at bat. Luckily, the bat The Hutong was holding was the magic power of “yes, and….” in the form of FIG, ready to hit a home run into the stands through some agile and creative thinking.

Hutong Program leader and coordinator for the collaboration between The Hutong and FIG, Jun Deng, seen pictured here giving instruction to students. “Overall, I was really impressed with these improv activities, and I think there was a lot of connection and magnetism from the facilitators. After we switched into breakout rooms, I was paired with Andrei and Liam from FIG. They both did an excellent job of dealing with those awkward silences that came from students, and they interacted so naturally.”

The Workshops

Although FIG went through a period of fully online workshops for a number of months starting back in May of 2021, these workshops with The Hutong and the international students were on a much larger scale. While the bilingual improv group is used to workshop participants numbering anywhere from 5 people on the lighter side to 20 people at capacity, The Hutong requested for the group to host multiple workshops in a single day for as many as 300 students. Although this number far surpassed what FIG was normally used to handling, the group was eager to live by its core value of saying yes to new opportunities!

Seen here are members of FIG, Jeffrey Schwab and Andrei Veja, as students are introduced to their agenda for the day. Besides attending online improv workshops, students also joined activities related to history, nature, and even pickling Sichuan vegetables!

This was a chance for the group to break entirely new ground on an unseen scale. The workshops would push FIG members outside of their zones of comfort in areas ranging from tech, facilitation, as well as workshop participants’ demographics. Students ranged in age from 8 years old to high school seniors. What was once a group of rag-tag improv enthusiasts was now a streamlined, tech-savvy performance group in Taipei leading online workshops for students spread out amongst their homes in Shanghai, working with a Beijing-based company. This was an example of post-Covid yes,and to say the least!

No, the spelling of the app in this image is not incorrect. The workshops were conducted not on “Zoom” but on the sister app and basic carbon-copy called “Zomo.” Regardless of the glitches in the system, the overall experience was a positive one for FIG members, Hutong staff, and students alike.

FIG started out the workshops with some basic online icebreakers, getting kids to practice using different camera angles and perspectives, apartment based scavenger hunts, and “camera magic” where they would pass objects through the camera from one participant to the next. Some age groups were more active than others, with some sessions where almost no one was turning on their cameras. While not an ideal situation, this was also another opportunity for the improvisers to go with the flow and think outside of the box, utilizing sound and chat participation when students were camera-shy.

Seen from top to bottom are Yao (Hutong), Jeffrey (FIG), Jun (Hutong), Miranda (FIG), and Andrei (FIG). The Hutong designed a week long program with educational and team-building objectives, all done from the confines of the students’ homes.

“I never thought an online improv workshop could be so amazing, and our cameras are fantastic tools.” Daisy Zhan, a core member of The Hutong, and one of the facilitators who collaborated with the FIG improv workshops.

FIG collaborated with The Hutong to lead more than twenty online improv sessions over the course of a month. Although FIG would much prefer to lead improv in person, the online sessions gave the group a chance to stretch beyond Taiwan’s borders and collaborate with a more diverse background of partners and participants. FIG hopes to build on this experience to offer more workshops for students and other diverse improv enthusiasts in the future, both on and offline.

These workshops gave FIG more opportunities to spread ideas of self-confidence, communication and listening skills and cooperation through virtual format. — FIG member and alumni Michi Fu

Seen in the middle is Rosalyn Shih, a longtime supporter, guest facilitator, and active member of the FIG community. She took part in the virtual workshops from her quarantine hotel in Hong Kong and enjoyed “Working with students to reflect on the exercises and connect it to their lives. ie. Facilitating Applied Improv.”

I would like to spread the spirit of applied improv outside the performance stage. This is great development for FIG and me personally. In short term, we could explore more business opportunities like The Hutong and in the long term I think we can really push forward to make FIG a registered entity so it will be easier and more formal for us to work with public schools/social organizations and bring greater impact to Taiwan. — FIG performer and current Finance Director, Miranda Wang

“I enjoyed the ‘yes and’ attitude. I found myself excited and comfortable as soon as I started participating. FIG members were super professional and the games we played were very engaging. Would be perfect for team building, too.” — longtime staff and superior chef at The Hutong, Yao.

Looking Forward

Although this opportunity to work remotely with The Hutong was a first for FIG, the ever-adapting group of fully bilingual ragtag improvisers hopes to continue to build upon this experience for future collaborations. While the group will always remain a workshop and performance group dedicated to community-building through improv, they will eagerly “say yes” and proactively seek more chances to carry the improv spirit to schools and businesses hoping to use applied improv to build skills and teamwork.

This is definitely an opportunity for FIG to spread the message of improvisation and it’s applications outside of the stage. It’s also a way to keep our improv group sustainable, if we are able to create opportunity for future classes. — FIG performer and current Administrative Director, Liam Fanning

FIG performs each monthly shows at Two Three Comedy on the first Saturday of the month and weekly community workshops on Monday evenings from 7–9pm. For more information about FIG’s events, check out their Facebook page here.