Moderator: Connor Ratliff, UCB House Performer & Dead Eyes Creator
Panel: Casey Berkery (University of Central Florida), Grant Bruns (Bowling Green State University), Isaac Empson (Texas A&M - Corpus Christi), Marissa Salett (Bard College)
Panel #2 is perhaps the nerdiest topic among all the panels. This panel asks the question, "Why is organizational design important to a college improv team?" For real, can you believe how nerdy that is?
The only other panel that comes close to being as nerdy is The Succession one. In order to preserve all the nerdiness and to make referencing that nerdiness as easy as can be, I have included a time stamped summarization just below the video.
TIME STAMPED SUMMARY
Executive Positions On College Improv Teams - What Are They & How Do They Function?
3:15 - 9:00
Discussion Points:
A round robin review of the panelists’ executive positions, where they fit into their teams overall leadership structure with some focus on how experience intersects with positional authority.
Imposter syndrome is discussed as a common feature of assuming a leadership role in collegiate improv. It seems like the leaders of your team knew more when you are a freshman, but when you get into a leadership role you realize how little they knew.
Should teams be formed via auditions or should anyone who wants to show up be on the team?
9:00 - 19:47
Discussion Points:
Without auditions you run the risk of not being able to trust your teammates to show up. If you don’t have to audition, is there value to being on the team? Will members show up?
An unlikely reference to Napster is brought up.
At UCF any can join and take classes through a school. But then there is also an audition based house team. One year there were two house teams, which counterintuitively led to more bad vibes and shows that were too long. Although the system already featured a hierarchy, (anyone can join club vs audition based team) the addition of a second audition based team (the addition of more opportunity) led to problems.
At TAMUCC anyone can join the club or take classes. But they also feature an audition based team that requires you to have taken the open to everyone class. This team offers members a scholarship, adding to its importance, but also carries responsibilities. For example representing the university at local public schools through scheduled performances, or by improvising chrome scenes for law enforcement students or illnesses for medical students.
At Bowling Green State University there are three teams, all audition based. One short form, one long form and one for women and gender minorities. These teams do hold open practices and workshops open to the general student body however.
Should teams have a set number of members or does membership numbers fluctuate?
19:47 - 26:00
Discussion Points:
One team has 6 set membership slots plus two alternates, if someone drops that position remains open until the next year’s audition, causing problems.
At Bard there was no set membership number auditions. Once auditions were established membership has been set at 12 with the expectation that some members will drop (due to interest, studying abroad or other reasons.)
At TAMUCC the audition based team is always set at 6 members while the club membership fluctuates greatly. There is a contract which reduces the chance of someone dropping!
The moderator (Connor) compares the organizational needs of colleges to the needs of professional theaters. 20-30 years ago improv on college campuses was less likely, since then there has been an explosion. There needs to be a balance between how many opportunities there are vs how much interest there is in major cities or you risk building bitterness. Is the same dynamic at play on college campuses.
What are the main things that need to be changed about how your team is structured?
26:00 - 39:30
Discussion Points:
One team had members who wanted to contribute more, so new roles were added. Going into this upcoming year more roles are planned to be added. Specific roles are discussed, Director, Asst Director, PR, Treasurer, etc…
At Bard they are thinking about changes that can build more engagement and loyalty in the group and within the large student body (audience development).
The problem of how the decisions of the previous year affect the current year more than current decisions is discussed.
Moderator Connor discusses outside the box thinking regarding performance venues. He strongly advises valuing more performance opportunities over finding the perfect performance opportunities.
How does your organization select improv teachers or the people who lead the educational effort on your team?
39:39 - 48:00
Discussion Points:
At UCF auditionees send resumes to the Officer Board, they have to have completed the class program, answer a few questions on their teaching style and from those applications teachers are selected. These teachers follow a set curriculum including exercises and teaching goals. Classes are broken into four levels, inspired loosely by UCB’s class system.
At TAMUCC there is an increased demand for seeing improv. By splitting the responsibilities between Co-Presidents (instead of there being just one President) more shows are possible. This includes sharing the responsibility of teaching improv to the team and club.
At Bowling Green the Director and Assistant Directors take on this responsibility, and ability to cover this responsibility is a big part of selecting people for those roles. With more demand for improv shows and performance opportunities, these roles may expand.
How does your organization include or prioritize the inclusion of theatre majors versus non theatre majors?
48:00 - 52:00
Discussion Points:
At UCF they are almost all non theatre majors, which Casey theorizes is more fun for them, since performing is more of a novelty.
People who are not theatre majors are less likely to panic in performances because they don’t care wat people think about their acting.
A couple production notes.
Once again For the silly green robot (named “Ernie Impro”) associated with all of my Gmail, YouTube and Zoom accounts was featured early in the panel discussion. What can I say except next year I will fix it!
Link to the light piano music everyone loves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAMuW_QdicA
Once again I invited the moderator and panelists to flip their cameras and mics on without giving them the necessary Zoom permissions. That’s my fault! Will I make the same mistake in the next panel? Tune in to find out!
Reach out to terry@radicalagreement.com with any questions or suggestions! A new panel will be out next week.
And thanks to all of the wonderful panelists from Panel #2! And thanks to Connor Ratliff for an amazing job moderating!
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