I'll always have a spot in my heart for The Project. I came up with the name for the show even, during a joint IMing session with I think Terry, Tiffany and Tony (right, guys)? I got the name from an old storyline from Jack Kirby's Jimmy Olsen comics, which I was reading at the time.
I feel like Terry gave me and my fellow newer improvisers a real chance to shine when he started it. Tuscadero was one of my favorite improv teams. All my friends, all from different places. In the Tuscadero years, getting to perform with those other teams, I felt like I was in the precence of giants and learning a lot. The Big Team Skirmish was always a fun part of the night because I got to play with amazing people I normally would not get to play with.
I remember one particular night where I did this monolouge about how I said in a really gay way "there are bees everywhere!" and Festante ended up using it later in their show, which was really cool and felt so validating.
The shows were always loose and crazy. Sometimes experiemental. There were even some skirmishes that really blew my mind they way they were approached improvisationally. I was on that Skirmish team that Ptolmy and Curtis were on and that was REALLY fun. I honestly think I learned a lot there too and you wouldn't think the Skirmish would be the best place to learn a lot about improv, but it was.
The Skirmish also gave my teen students a chance to play with adults, which was always really special to them. There was one particular Skirmish where a bunch of my kids played and it helped me get a job doing the teen program at the Magnet, because my kids were so good and it spoke really well for me as an instructor when I was just coaching a small group of them out of an apartment. A few of my kids started going to The Project even when I wasn't there so that they could watch the teams and play in The Skirmish. One of my kids once said that he loved The Project because it was always like a mini Improv marathon. I totally agree.
I loved the energy in those early Juvie Hall shows. They were crazy, sweaty, explosive fun. Everyone had such enthusiasm for what everyone else was doing. It felt like we were part of a special exciting new facet of the improv comunity.
I also have loved the other incarnations of the show as well. The Magnet period was really fun. I think the first improv show ever there was The Project. The paint was still drying on the theater's walls. At the end of the first Project show we all sat in a circle and did an old school invocation of the theater, all Del Close style. MJC lead it and it was beautiful.
I was one of the team captains for the draft season. The draft went really well and was pretty amicable. I remember that Bob and I had negotiations as to who got Elana Fishbein, but I stuck to my guns. I was really, really happy with the result of the draft. The Rebecca Factory was a really good, crazy team. A lot of weird, silly, energy on it. I miss playing with those guys!
When I got to put together my last Project team, Mice Cream, I wanted a mix of a bunch of my biggest improv influences and teachers and some of my favorite students. I totally got it. It was so exciting to play with my first level 1 teacher, Betsy. It totally felt like a coming-of-age full circle kind of thing.
I'm sad to see The Project go, but all good things... Tuscadero (Your New Look for 2005) performing one last time on Sunday. That's going to be really cool. Thanks Terry, for that one last gift!
