Some serious level of erratic-ness

When I first open this page, I thought ‘Oh Gael, three months without a newsletter, that’s a lot!’

Well.

It’s been some six months since I wrote a Pigeon Post. This is some high-level making a task bigger than it should be! It’s one of my specialty: if I don’t feel like I can handle perfectly and 100% a task, I’ll tend to push it for later. Added to my tendency to always prioritise the work I need to do for others over my own, this is the perfect recipe for losing track of time.

Working on the craft feels good

I am back from a pretty fantastical festival where I worked with an ensemble, rehearsing, directing and being directed over a week, six-hours-a-day. It felt incredibly good!

Now being back home, and handling both the start of the school year for Flock Theatre, planning our season of shows and guest instructors, as well as working for the production of IMPRO Amsterdam, I am reflecting on the notion of formats in improv, and how we tend to approach it.

Read along for some thoughts, some news and the great come back of some cooking stuff!

A rich Summer on the road

I spent my Summer with Laura traveling Europe to teach and perform in festivals, and oh boy it feels good! It is not over and we are currently on our way to the Improfestival Karlsruhe, in Germany, for another week of work with a fantastic international cast!

Let me share a bit of what I did, how it went and an insight that I got to put in words and share with a student of ours.

We all love improv festival

At least most of us that have had the chance to go an improv festival pre-2020 have had a great experience. We like some festivals more than others, but overall, it’s awesome!

Festivals are a place where you can meet like-minded people from all over the world! It’s also a place that boils with improv all around: on stage, in workshops, in the corridors in any discussion, in the hostel rooms, etc.

I have a friend who described going to his first festival like that:

No but really, it’s really nice!

“Where is this possible?!” will gasp most of us. Well, the short answer is “In La Réunion“, but the longer answer is actually probably “Anywhere if we decide to make it happen”.

Let me share with you this fantastic experience and adventure, and also maybe make you a bit jealous.

… isn’t always improvising organisation!

Last week, I told you a bit about being the organiser of IMPRO Amsterdam, and promised you more details. Thinking about it, I realised that it actually encompass more than just the festival, but actually all of the projects I’ve organised so far.

Read below for some of my a selection of 3 of my personal experiences, tips and tricks about organising, some more food stuff and even the picture of a dog called bear—Beer in Dutch, which doesn’t mean beer, but bear, because beer would be bier (not Bieber), I mean, wait, what?

Hey friend!

This week was intense, and the reason for that was that I was organising the 26th edition of the IMPRO Amsterdam festival! Let me tell you a bit more about it, and about how it was for me.

What is IMPRO Amsterdam?

Hello friend!

As you may know, the Improv Learning Center is shutting down tomorrow. Because the Erratic Pigeon Post—which has been even more erratic in the last few months—was hosted on the same system as the ILC, I am now moving my newsletter to a new amazing provider: Buttondown!

This means that the look and feel is different, and that it’s still under construction. There might be some visual improvement to come on the newsletter in the next few issues!

Also, today’s Pigeon Post is kinda bulky, because there is so much to catch on. But I promise I’ll try to keep it between 500 and 750 words in the future.