Making Improv Theatre Work in a Virtual World
The Second City
When COVID first hit and performing arts venues were forced to shut down, a lot of us felt scared. We wondered whether we would still be able to create art in a way that was familiar and whether we’d ever be able to gather in the same space again. And yes, a lot of those fears are just as real today as they were a year ago. But the theatre improv community? They said, “Yes, and,” to the challenges they faced and tackled them head-on just as any good improviser would.
Last week I was able to (virtually) get together with Will Luera, the current Director of Improvisation with Florida Studio Theatre to talk about the ways he’s been able to adapt to this new world. How can you improvise when you’re not physically in the same space? What has this transition been like and what discoveries have been made?
Luera began his improv journey in the spring of 1993 and eventually became a professional improv performer with Improv Boston in 1997. He then went on to become the Artistic Director of Improv Boston before eventually moving to Sarasota, FL in 2014. He now finds himself at the helm of a beloved improv program in the midst of a global pandemic, and the improvising he’s always done onstage has now moved beyond.
“The biggest challenge has been in the rehearsing and practicing of improv,” said Luera when talking about the obstacles he’s faced in transitioning from stage to computer screen. “It can be very intimate. It really requires an in-the-moment connection between individuals to create theatre on the spot. And even though we’ve gotten more and more comfortable working in the Zoom world, that one-on-one connection is really difficult.”
Will Luera is comfortable admitting that he was initially skeptical of the transition to Zoom. Would people even want to see improv outside of the theatre? But he also knew that audiences were starved for artistic content and for a sense of normalcy. So how did he manage to overcome those doubts?
“As soon as the lockdown happened, the good thing was that Europe was ahead of us in the lockdown. So by the time we locked down, we had already got contacted by groups in Europe that wanted to start online classes,” said Luera. “So I started to teach for them, and they taught me.”
Diving headfirst into a virtual improv world, Luera was able to learn, adapt, and grow in order to meet the needs of the audience and the actors. So what did he learn? How do you make Zoom improv work?
For one, breakout rooms have definitely been huge. You can also turn on and off your camera to indicate onstage and offstage, and Luera has also dabbled in replacing people’s names with numbers to replicate the idea of standing in a circle.
“Now instead of eye contact, because in Zoom you can see everyone’s name, you say the person’s name. It’s just the cue that I am making eye contact with you right now,” Luera described. “It’s worked well and I can see myself keeping parts of that even once we’re back in person. That sort of direct verbal communication has been helpful.”
He’s even experimented with the idea of a virtual improvised murder mystery! Using breakout rooms to indicate different rooms in the house, audience members were able to control where they went in order to solve the mystery.
“You have to train the audience a little bit before the show,” he explained. “You take five, ten minutes to teach them, and once everyone gets it you start the show and they have a lot of fun.”
What’s most remarkable is the discovery that there are things about virtual improv that actually work better on a computer screen than they would onstage. Are improvisers desperate to return to the theatre? Yes. But are there things they may miss? Absolutely.
For instance, Luera explained his love for virtual backgrounds and even went on to say, “There are games that require mirroring that I have found to work very well over Zoom mainly because that’s all you can focus on. I could probably see your face better over Zoom than in a room because I’m essentially getting a close up of you.”
He also emphasized the idea of improvising from the comfort of your own home. “I think there’s a value in the idea that people being at home makes them feel safer and maybe even able to open up a bit more because they are in their own space. There’s something about standing in a room with a bunch of strangers… Now, you’re standing in your bedroom, your kitchen, your living room…”
Luera also described the excitement of being able to do certain shows that he was never able to do before. For instance, he now produces an Instagram show for Florida Studio Theatre where audience members can call in as if it were a radio show.
Improvisers can also now perform with each other from completely different states and even countries. Luera now does a weekly show entirely in Spanish as a collaboration with improvisers across Latin America!
“I think that the shows that we’ve had the chance to do would never have existed without us looking for these opportunities,” continued Will. “In that way there’s been a permanent change with how we’re going to do things moving forward. We’ll be able to do shows with each other in a way that we never have.”
Finally, I asked Luera to share some advice for improvisers who are jumping into the virtual world and are maybe facing challenges and skepticism in this work.
“I was a skeptic at the beginning. I did not think there was a way to move forward. I didn’t want to do Zoom shows, I didn’t want to teach zoom classes. I only did it because I felt like we needed to keep some sort of ritual, some sort of regular activity. But then I’ve had a lot of fun doing it,” he replied. “It takes a little while to get used to and it took me a while to get used to, but once you figure out how to master the technology, it can become a lot of fun. My hope is that I show a way forward for people who might be stuck who think they can’t do anything until spaces open. Until then, there are ways to keep working our creative muscles.”