Improving with PRIDE!

What fun we had on Saturday, June 4, 2022, when we were asked to offer an improvisation class with the City of Alexandria’s PRIDE celebration at the Charles Houston Recreation Center! It’s always fun to watch the shy ones slowly yet confidently move from watching to fully participating in just an hour! We laughed and moved and shared and got to be ourselves, free and proud!

Add to the Tree!

It’s April, 2022, and our Fun Friday improvisation session is almost over with the Casa Chirilagua kids. Wait, that’s “almost” over! What do you do when you have a few minutes left and the kids have soooo much energy to spare? You help them build a tree, of course! One kid is the tree, and what do you want to add to it? Then add on to that? And then…and then…. take a look how our improvisation teacher Keely Kirk gets their imagination going on a Friday afternoon!

 

Let’s Go to Guatemala – Improvisation with Casa Chirilagua

It’s hard to capture the power of improvisation with one photo (especially if the photographer is me) but this is what we have. Despite the air conditioning giving out in 95 degree heat, our improvisation teacher led 10 really cute little kids through an hour (!) of improv scenarios at Casa Chirilagua. Many Latino families live in this part of Alexandria, and this area (called “Arlandria” since it borders Arlington) was hit hard by the ravages of COVID-19. The disease, job loss, income loss, food insecurity, struggles with at-home schooling, etc., all showed up in force in Arlandria, and the Alexandria community as a whole really focused their efforts to help our neighbors living here.

By the time I arrived, improv class was ending, but I was able to capture the last game where the kids were pretending they had just landed in Guatemala. Some of these kids or their parents were born there, and these kids seemed to really enjoy an imaginary trip home. Not sure why one little girl in denim overalls is lying on the floor. It must have been part of the game. Or maybe she was just worn out?