You might ask, why am I here? I’m here to get better. I feel out of shape as a performer. As an actor, I never really nailed down any particular process. I’d get a script, memorize it, go to rehearsal, try to absorb the blocking and direction, and try to figure out the best way to say my lines. It’s not a great process and it doesn’t seem to take advantage of all that early training which encouraged me to work off my partner. So the first priority was to find a studio, go back to class and figure out a process–a real process that starts with a script and ends with a full, dynamic, grounded and improvisational performance.

I’m in my third class at Black Box Acting Studio and I feel like I’m on my way to that goal. In the first two classes, they use exercises that are drawn from Meisner training, mostly repetition and independent activity exercises. In the next level, they bring in viewpoints and punctuation walks. Their process is a hybrid of things. It’s good practice and I feel a lot closer to that goal of a repeatable process.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve gradually fallen out of shape. I’m still well below my New York average weight, but I had lost enough ground, that I decided I had to do something about it. I’m back on a diet that is similar to the one I used a long time ago, when I first exercised seriously in my 20s. And I’m back in the gym. I’m reading the Four Hour Body by Tim Ferris and taking ideas from there. For instance, yesterday was my first day doing kettlebell swings, an exercise he recommends.

I’m doing other things too. I completed a few classes at the Annoyance, and now I’m in writing classes at Second City. I’m also taking guitar classes at the Old Town School of Folk Music. This upcoming year, I’m thinking as my DIY MFA project. My longer term plan is to start focusing on getting cast in some plays by the summer or fall. I want to get through one more class at Black Box and find a good scene study class that I can use to practice my process.

As usual I’m having trouble fitting everything in. I want to work on everything at once. I realize this is not the optimal way to do it. Eventually, I might narrow things down to writing or acting or improv again and focus my full force on that for a few years. But for the next 3-6 months, I’m going to continue down this path. It gets overwhelming if I try to think too many moves ahead. I want to keep focusing on what is the very next step and put my energy there. I’m going to trust that it will take me somewhere interesting.

I first met Evan Linder after going to see 11:11 by The New Colony, a play that he co-wrote for the company. He also performed in the play. I asked him about their development process and what he told me surprised and delighted me.

The play was a good one, interesting and funny, but what I really liked about the production was how connected the actors were to the material. It was as if they knew what they were doing at every moment of the play. Every line made sense and had purpose. That’s not a small feat for a new theater company filled with young actors performing a new script. After Evan described the extent to which the writers collaborated with the actors through improvisation, it all made sense.

If you are in Chicago, be sure to check out their new show, Pancake Breakfast, which opened on Sunday. I’m going to see it tonight!

In the mean time, I’ve been working on the IRC Improv Wiki. I wanted to get a few more pages going. I realized last week that there were no articles on Tina Fey, Jack McBrayer and Inside Vladimir. I have written a cursory entry for each and hope I can get some other people to chip in and expand them.

There is also a lot of stuff going on which is taking a higher priority right now. In the last couple of weeks, we have lost some of our staff that helps us take care of my mom, so we have been busy finding and training new people. That is somewhat stressful. Our longest standing worker gave notice two weeks ago. Today was her last day. She worked first shift with me and did a terrific job with my mom. It made things much easier for me to have her working first shift. We have found a good replacement, but it will take time getting her up to speed. I will be spending more time here at my mom’s in the interim, and that may translate into some more posts since I do most of my writing here.

I have been running again for the last couple of months, and I’m ready for some 5K races. As soon as the weather warms up a little bit, I’ll be out running different events on the weekend. I hope to run a dozen or more races this summer including some 10Ks and perhaps even a half marathon. Also, I picked up guitar last fall and I’ve been practicing a few times a week. I started a group class with the park district in Peoria. My goals with guitar are simply to keep it up, learn as many useful chords as I can so I can play a few songs. Both of these things are competing with my desire to write more. However, next week I will likely be able to complete a few of the posts I’ve been working on.