Todd Stashwick 11/15/06 Part 3
JF: So, why did you move to Los Angeles?
TS: Because I had aspirations of being in television and film, and this is the place to be. This is where the work is.
JF: What year did you do that?
TS: 2000.
JF: How did you find Los Angeles when you moved out there? The art scene in general and the improv scene?
TS: The improv scene or the scene?
JF: Just like the artistic culture out there.
TS: The nice part about the artistic culture in L.A. is that the people who are doing it are really doing it. If you open a theater in L.A., you mean it. If you're going to go through the trouble to open and maintain a space and start a school, that isn't about learning to act on camera or learning how to do commercials, you mean it. It's not like you're doing it to try and advance yourself. You're doing it for the love of the game.
As far as the improv community, it didn't really feel like there was as much as of a community as I felt in Chicago or New York. I think that's changing thanks to Improv Olympic and UCB. I think it's much more of a shared, group thing now. I mean, we're a little island in the Valley, so I don't necessarily feel part of the improv community. There's no judgement there. It's just we're disconnected from the rest of Hollywood, so we have a little mom and pop organization in the valley and teach our little weird improv stuff, and we're doing fine.
When I moved here I started teaching at Bang [Theater], and did that show the Doubtful Guests, which really opened up new ideas for me, got me some people who are interested in learning an alternative view of the work, and from there the Hothouse started. You know, the Hothouse itself is its own improv community. We have alumni and new students, and the friends that we have from Burn Manhattan and from teaching in festivals across the country.
JF: So, what are your own personal goals with improv right now and what are your goals for the Hothouse?
TS: My goals for the Hothouse are just keep growing, and keep that non-competitive space. Let people keep learning the work. My own personal goals, always just experimenting. I've done so much that I've wanted to do. Now it truly is love of the game. It's just thinking up different ways to use this medium to put up good theater. It's just thinking up new ways to use this medium to put up good theater. I'd like to find a way to translate what we do into television.
JF: In your opinion, how important is performing in front of an audience to improving as an improviser?
TS: It's imperiative. The phrase that we learn at the Hothouse is the lessons of the work are forged in the fire of performance. You're really not going to know what works until you're performing without a net in front of an audience. That's when you really get better, that's when you really get what it is we're talking about.
JF: In your opion, what makes a good initiation? And how do you initiate typically?
TS: Anything is a good initation. Initiating physically just means doing. There's no bad initiation. I think the best initiations are ones that the players don't even realize they're making.
JF: To you, what is the 'game of the scene?' And does it play a role in your improv?
TS: Yeah, absolutely, game of the scene, as I define it or as I learned it, is, this is my textbook definition, the discovered, agreed upon, pattern or logic to which the scene is played.
JF: And that plays a big role in your improv?
TS: Absolutely, it's how scenes are shaped. It's how the relationship is deepened. If the premise is the who, what, where: angry patrons and an absent-minded waiter in a restaraunt, that's the premise of the scene. How you express that relationship is done through the game. Basically, when we're improvising we want to create a situation where we don't have to think, raw discovery into re-discovery. So you go out and you do something, the more you do that thing and heighten it, and mirror that which is heightened, the game of the scene presents itself, just by doing it. So, it's the discovered, agreed upon pattern or logic to which the scene is played.
JF: Do you find yourself creating physical games a lot and reincorporating physical patterns?
TS: All the time.
JF: That's something that I don't see very often.
TS: [laughs] We do it all the time, becuase your mind can wander, but your body is always in the scene, so if you ground things physically, you're never going to get off scene. The characters exist in the place. Your mind might be thinking about what you need to pick up a Cosco. But if you keep yourself grounded in the character and in the environment, you're going to be in the space. You find out what the character is doing. By creating that doing, that can only be heightened and rediscovered, and heightened and rediscovered.
JF: What if someone were to say what I'm doing is sitting in a chair. Is that sufficient for you guys?
TS: Oh yeah, there's no 'don't do' anything. If sitting in a chair is what that character's doing, it's about who is sitting in a chair, how are they sitting in a chair, why are they sitting in a chair, where is that chair, then how can all those things deepen the characters and the relationship. So, if you're going to sit in a chair, really sit. What time of day are you sitting in the chair? Right now I'm sitting in a chair and talking on the phone, but I'm doing something. My body is telling a story of what it's like to sit in a chair at 1 o'clock in the afternoon in Los Angeles on the phone talking about improv. And what kind of a chair is it? Is it a swivel chair? Is it a wheel chair? Is it a stool?
JF: How do you encourage people to be that present and to incorporate that much detail into their work?
TS: Excersizes and rehearsal.
JF: How do you get into character?
TS: Physically. You do a physical hold. Character is predictable behavior, so you start behaving and you have 30 seconds to do it, or fractions of a second to do it. Once you start, you just say yes to the discovery, deepening that discovery, then you're improvising, so of course you treat everything that you've done like it's always been there. The character has a history. The character has a relationship. The character does things that they've always been doing. Then you channel that physical behavior which creates the change of the scene or that which can be mirrored or be complimented.
JF: Do you ever find yourself doing a character and later you're like 'oh, I met that person in a store, or on the street,' or something like that?
TS: I think it all goes in the old lock box in your head, whether you know it or not. I don't ever intentionally say 'oh! I just did the person from 'Whole Foods!' I don't think there's time to make those distinctions. You're just kind of out there doing it.
JF: In your opinion, what makes a good improv coach or teacher?
TS: Somebody who gives the students room to fail. Someone who keeps the atmosphere positive, keeps the work fun, and keeps things encouraged. Someone who knows when it's time to stay in this excersize because they haven't gotten it, and when it's time to move on and challenge them further.
JF: Did you take to coaching or teaching immediately?
TS: Yeah, I knew when I started at Second City and went through the classes. I had already talked to Martin De Maat about wanting to be a teacher.
JF: What in your opinion makes a great team?
TS: Listening. Agreement. Allowing themselves to be individuals, and allowing the individuality of each person to share in the greater goal.
JF: Do you have any pet peeves that you see on stage?
TS: As John Theis said 'the lists of negatives are infinite.' You try to focus on the positive. Always there's frustration when you've been working with a group for a year, and they still may be doing the same bad habits. That can be frustrating. But for the most part, everybody has to be comfortable working at their own speed.
JF: But there's nothing like maybe somebody playing a newspaper reporter from the 20's and you're like 'oh god, I hate that'?
TS: No, because if it's grounded and good and organically discovered, it doesn't matter. I'm not so much concerned with content. I concern myself more with context. Were they listening? Were they heightened? Did it grow out of the moment? Did they play the game? Did they use their environment? Are they grounded in their relationship? So, I don't care what's going on in the scene. It's how they're going about doing it that's important to me.
JF: What would you like the future of improv to be, both artistically and commercially?
TS: Um, I don't know. That's a tough question. I guess there could be a wider base of improv. It's true of anything, of pop music, of rock music, of movies, you want a greater variety. You want a greater variety artistically and commercially.
JF: Do you have anything that you would like to say to the improv that we didn't get out?
TS: [laughs] What do I want to say? I don't know. ...I don't know. [laughs] I have nothing to say to the improv community. I mean the work speaks for itself, and to say the improv community, it's so big. It's so vast and so many people are doing it now. I guess, to keep ripping it apart, smashing it down and reinventing it. Be a part of where it's going. I guess I'm grateful that it exists and that people are still doing it, but for the most part just rip it apart. Burn it down, then see what's left. Then play with that for another 30 years.
TS: Because I had aspirations of being in television and film, and this is the place to be. This is where the work is.
JF: What year did you do that?
TS: 2000.
JF: How did you find Los Angeles when you moved out there? The art scene in general and the improv scene?
TS: The improv scene or the scene?
JF: Just like the artistic culture out there.
TS: The nice part about the artistic culture in L.A. is that the people who are doing it are really doing it. If you open a theater in L.A., you mean it. If you're going to go through the trouble to open and maintain a space and start a school, that isn't about learning to act on camera or learning how to do commercials, you mean it. It's not like you're doing it to try and advance yourself. You're doing it for the love of the game.
As far as the improv community, it didn't really feel like there was as much as of a community as I felt in Chicago or New York. I think that's changing thanks to Improv Olympic and UCB. I think it's much more of a shared, group thing now. I mean, we're a little island in the Valley, so I don't necessarily feel part of the improv community. There's no judgement there. It's just we're disconnected from the rest of Hollywood, so we have a little mom and pop organization in the valley and teach our little weird improv stuff, and we're doing fine.
When I moved here I started teaching at Bang [Theater], and did that show the Doubtful Guests, which really opened up new ideas for me, got me some people who are interested in learning an alternative view of the work, and from there the Hothouse started. You know, the Hothouse itself is its own improv community. We have alumni and new students, and the friends that we have from Burn Manhattan and from teaching in festivals across the country.
JF: So, what are your own personal goals with improv right now and what are your goals for the Hothouse?
TS: My goals for the Hothouse are just keep growing, and keep that non-competitive space. Let people keep learning the work. My own personal goals, always just experimenting. I've done so much that I've wanted to do. Now it truly is love of the game. It's just thinking up different ways to use this medium to put up good theater. It's just thinking up new ways to use this medium to put up good theater. I'd like to find a way to translate what we do into television.
JF: In your opinion, how important is performing in front of an audience to improving as an improviser?
TS: It's imperiative. The phrase that we learn at the Hothouse is the lessons of the work are forged in the fire of performance. You're really not going to know what works until you're performing without a net in front of an audience. That's when you really get better, that's when you really get what it is we're talking about.
JF: In your opion, what makes a good initiation? And how do you initiate typically?
TS: Anything is a good initation. Initiating physically just means doing. There's no bad initiation. I think the best initiations are ones that the players don't even realize they're making.
JF: To you, what is the 'game of the scene?' And does it play a role in your improv?
TS: Yeah, absolutely, game of the scene, as I define it or as I learned it, is, this is my textbook definition, the discovered, agreed upon, pattern or logic to which the scene is played.
JF: And that plays a big role in your improv?
TS: Absolutely, it's how scenes are shaped. It's how the relationship is deepened. If the premise is the who, what, where: angry patrons and an absent-minded waiter in a restaraunt, that's the premise of the scene. How you express that relationship is done through the game. Basically, when we're improvising we want to create a situation where we don't have to think, raw discovery into re-discovery. So you go out and you do something, the more you do that thing and heighten it, and mirror that which is heightened, the game of the scene presents itself, just by doing it. So, it's the discovered, agreed upon pattern or logic to which the scene is played.
JF: Do you find yourself creating physical games a lot and reincorporating physical patterns?
TS: All the time.
JF: That's something that I don't see very often.
TS: [laughs] We do it all the time, becuase your mind can wander, but your body is always in the scene, so if you ground things physically, you're never going to get off scene. The characters exist in the place. Your mind might be thinking about what you need to pick up a Cosco. But if you keep yourself grounded in the character and in the environment, you're going to be in the space. You find out what the character is doing. By creating that doing, that can only be heightened and rediscovered, and heightened and rediscovered.
JF: What if someone were to say what I'm doing is sitting in a chair. Is that sufficient for you guys?
TS: Oh yeah, there's no 'don't do' anything. If sitting in a chair is what that character's doing, it's about who is sitting in a chair, how are they sitting in a chair, why are they sitting in a chair, where is that chair, then how can all those things deepen the characters and the relationship. So, if you're going to sit in a chair, really sit. What time of day are you sitting in the chair? Right now I'm sitting in a chair and talking on the phone, but I'm doing something. My body is telling a story of what it's like to sit in a chair at 1 o'clock in the afternoon in Los Angeles on the phone talking about improv. And what kind of a chair is it? Is it a swivel chair? Is it a wheel chair? Is it a stool?
JF: How do you encourage people to be that present and to incorporate that much detail into their work?
TS: Excersizes and rehearsal.
JF: How do you get into character?
TS: Physically. You do a physical hold. Character is predictable behavior, so you start behaving and you have 30 seconds to do it, or fractions of a second to do it. Once you start, you just say yes to the discovery, deepening that discovery, then you're improvising, so of course you treat everything that you've done like it's always been there. The character has a history. The character has a relationship. The character does things that they've always been doing. Then you channel that physical behavior which creates the change of the scene or that which can be mirrored or be complimented.
JF: Do you ever find yourself doing a character and later you're like 'oh, I met that person in a store, or on the street,' or something like that?
TS: I think it all goes in the old lock box in your head, whether you know it or not. I don't ever intentionally say 'oh! I just did the person from 'Whole Foods!' I don't think there's time to make those distinctions. You're just kind of out there doing it.
JF: In your opinion, what makes a good improv coach or teacher?
TS: Somebody who gives the students room to fail. Someone who keeps the atmosphere positive, keeps the work fun, and keeps things encouraged. Someone who knows when it's time to stay in this excersize because they haven't gotten it, and when it's time to move on and challenge them further.
JF: Did you take to coaching or teaching immediately?
TS: Yeah, I knew when I started at Second City and went through the classes. I had already talked to Martin De Maat about wanting to be a teacher.
JF: What in your opinion makes a great team?
TS: Listening. Agreement. Allowing themselves to be individuals, and allowing the individuality of each person to share in the greater goal.
JF: Do you have any pet peeves that you see on stage?
TS: As John Theis said 'the lists of negatives are infinite.' You try to focus on the positive. Always there's frustration when you've been working with a group for a year, and they still may be doing the same bad habits. That can be frustrating. But for the most part, everybody has to be comfortable working at their own speed.
JF: But there's nothing like maybe somebody playing a newspaper reporter from the 20's and you're like 'oh god, I hate that'?
TS: No, because if it's grounded and good and organically discovered, it doesn't matter. I'm not so much concerned with content. I concern myself more with context. Were they listening? Were they heightened? Did it grow out of the moment? Did they play the game? Did they use their environment? Are they grounded in their relationship? So, I don't care what's going on in the scene. It's how they're going about doing it that's important to me.
JF: What would you like the future of improv to be, both artistically and commercially?
TS: Um, I don't know. That's a tough question. I guess there could be a wider base of improv. It's true of anything, of pop music, of rock music, of movies, you want a greater variety. You want a greater variety artistically and commercially.
JF: Do you have anything that you would like to say to the improv that we didn't get out?
TS: [laughs] What do I want to say? I don't know. ...I don't know. [laughs] I have nothing to say to the improv community. I mean the work speaks for itself, and to say the improv community, it's so big. It's so vast and so many people are doing it now. I guess, to keep ripping it apart, smashing it down and reinventing it. Be a part of where it's going. I guess I'm grateful that it exists and that people are still doing it, but for the most part just rip it apart. Burn it down, then see what's left. Then play with that for another 30 years.
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