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STARRING:

MIKE DRUMMEY
HELENE ZINSZNER
MEG GERLACH
MICHAEL GOLDSMAN
KAT KOJIC
JIM HOHL
RADHIKA VAZ
NADIA MANZOOR
BRETT COLLISON
HOLLIE VOSE
BARRY SACKER
SARBANI HAZRA
TYCHO ROSENFELD
DAVID FRENKIEL
SARAH HICKS
MARINA ROMASHKO
HOLLY MANDEL
& MICHAEL GOLDFRIED!

LOCATION OF ALL SHOWS:
The Producer’s Club, 358 W 44th St @ 9th Ave

RADHIKA VAZ: Unladylike (sold out shows in NY and India…on her way to LA)

VINCENT PIAZZA: Boardwalk Empire

TJ KENNEALLY: Boardwalk Empire

Adam Sobol
Douglas Turner
Monique Sanchez
Sarbani Hazra
Elissa Weiss
Jim Hohl
Michael Goldsman

Directed by Holly Mandel

Weds, June 15 – 8:00pm
THE PRODUCERS CLUB
358 w 44th @ 9th Ave – Only $5

A night of original character monologues and improv comedy…you’ll be happy you came!

13 DEGREES

These gals make long-form improv look easy…

Nadia Manzoor * Cheri Leone * Rebecca Stuard * Meg Gerlach * Mandi Bedbury * Cassey Dunn * Bernie DeLeo * Becca Landis

Directed by Holly Mandel

FOLLOWED BY…

THE IMPROVOLUTIONARIES

David Frenkiel * Holly Mandel * Paul Pinizzotto * Radhika Vaz * Anthony Minto * Darrin Giglio * Mike Drummey

Sometimes you just need firepower.

BUY TICKETS ONLINE NOW- CLICK HERE

Recently, we have been playing around with gender. At the start we stayed clear of it because it’s far too easy to rip apart what “other women” do while never really seeing it in yourself. Our goal is to see the universality of WOMAN and that whatever we see out there is to some degree in here. And from THAT place, expose, explore and create. But after watching the Harvard Sailing Club’s fantastic trio of you tube videos where the men are actually like women, the women are actually like men, we got inspired to add our spin to the whole thing. So the women all picked real men they knew and took them on as characters throughout the class. They played guys “internally” – pretending to really be these men they knew, not really caring if on the outside we could tell of they were men or women in the scenes. They didn’t do a cartoony/Mad-TV send up of over-the-top, crotch-grabbing, foul mouthed guys that we as women so often do when we are told to “play a guy”…they were real people who were men.

What happened was very, very interesting. And best of all the women in the class saw and felt it immediately…I didn’t have to work hard to point it out. Their scenes were more simple, more unified, they listened better, and it was as if there was one line through everything instead of a bunch of tangents, curves, and swirls to the story. And there was a lot of ease. Space. And like I said, not only was I amazed, but so were they. They saw and felt the difference.

The difference being that a lot of our conditioning is a distraction to that straight, simple, focused way of being and creating. And that confusing mass I described is usually much louder when we’re nervous and under pressure (which happens in improv as you can imagine). So making choices that by-passed all of that had very noticeable results…without needing to make any of the internal stuff a problem…we just eliminated the option to get caught up in it.

Now, yes, they all saw it. But interestingly enough, the next week they came in and the first warm-up we did, it was like watching the Donna Reed show…lilting voices, giggles, big smiles, everyone so nice and passive and doubting their choices….UUUG!! So I asked them to do it again like the men characters they had been doing and it went back to straight, smooth, to the point, focused.

The point? Just seeing these things is huge in itself…we have to be interested and willing to look at parts of ourselves that we’d rather not own up to – and these ladies have been willing and able for a year to keep going and keep digging. And yet, the real work seems to come in on having it stick. Having it stick means change happened. It means that you actually go against your impulses and instincts to back down, get small, be nice, bail…and do something NEW, something else…something driven by the kind of woman you WANT to be. And that’s a whole other level. It’s both humbling and exciting to think about…but the first step I feel is recognizing the difference between seeing and sticking.

Holly Mandel is offering a series of workshops on alternating Tuesday evenings, introducing you to the principles of improvisation to use at the workplace. They will:

• Improve how quickly, creatively, and efficiently you communicate

• Empower you to “yes, and…” a challenging client, co-worker, or situation

• Get you thinking on your feet and “out of the box”

• Instill trust in your instincts, ideas and insights

• Show you the advantage of listening without an agenda

Improvisation can be applied to all professions and all backgrounds.

READ MORE HERE on Holly’s corporate training site, iMERGENCE