A Canadian Improviser in New York by Michael Golding

"This is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best - make it all up - but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way."
Ernest Hemmingway, in a letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Jamie "Willie" Wyllie (May 22, 1958 - October 2, 2014) created with Howard Jerome the Canadian Improv Games (CIG) a national high school improv tournament inspired by the Improv Olympics, created by David Shepherd and Howard Jerome. The program recently celebrated its 41st anniversary. In addition to CIG, Willie was also a dedicated lawyer, producer, director, teacher and one of my dearest friends.

Jamie "Willie" Wyllie

Several months before he passed away, Willie saw the above Hemmingway quote posted on the Facebook page of Chris Ramelan, regional director of the Toronto CIG tournament, as well as serving as a national judge, player, trainer, adjudicator and a masterful head referee (the CIG staff wear a lot of hats). The quote inspired Willie to write the following reminiscence on Chris' wall about the first time he traveled to Ottawa to New York to spend a weekend with David Shepherd. Willie sent me his post, feeling it might make a meaningful blog about David on my blog site. Then his health started its downward spiral, and other matters took precedence for me.

I recently found Willie's reminiscence. Unfortunately, it did not include Hemmingway's quote. I reached out to Chris, who not only sent me the quote, but the entirety of Willie's post;

Chris Ramelan at the Canadian Improv Games National Tournament

From Willie:

That quote reminds me of the first weekend I spent in Manhattan visiting one of my mentors (David Shepherd, the co-founder of the modern era's first professional improv group "The Compass"). After driving for about 9 straight hours and getting lost in a part of the Bronx where police feared to go, I eventually found David's work space (which we called the "Loft").

When I first entered the Loft at about 8:00 pm, it was teaming with people talking loudly. I was numb from the drive and the cold weather outside. So, I just quietly watched what was going on. Periodically David would intervene, quiet down the action in the Loft and ask a question or make a comment. Then, the action would resume.

David Shepherd and Willie Wyllie at the Loft.

After a while I caught on and realized that it was a mass improv of a party. I finally got a few seconds with David and asked him, "why are you all improvising a party?" He explained that they were rehearsing what might happen at the party he would be having in two nights (i.e. the following Saturday night). By rehearsing it, he explained, they could discover what interactions wouldn't work and which interactions warranted further exploration at the actual party. It seemed to me that the rehearsal was a fun, or funnier, than the actual party would be.

A person would have otherwise come to the party alone and knowing no one other than David, instead arrived to find the Loft full of people he knew to some extent (by reason of their shared rehearsal a couple of nights earlier). Each guy at the actual party had had a couple of days since the rehearsal to think about things he wished he had said two nights before at the rehearsal party. Each lady at the actual party had the necessary foreknowledge to be patient with some of the dorky guys because they were actually really nice guys once you got past their dorky exterior.

David Shepherd rehearsing a party

It turned out that the actual party, that Saturday evening, was even better than the rehearsal had been. Instead of attending one lame party, we each shared a very fascinating and memorable rehearsal, and attended one amazing party!

Hemmingway himself would have loved the end result of David's way of throwing a party. The party avoided the pitfalls that were discovered at the rehearsal, and embraced and further examined the bright spots identified during the rehearsal. Needless to say, over that weekend and many, many weekends thereafter, I always had a great time spending time with my teacher, mentor and friend David Shepherd.

P.S. I treated that first trip to NYC as a rehearsal for things to come. One of the things I learned from that rehearsal was that I should never drive alone to Manhattan. Thereafter, each weekend I would drive the 9 hour trip to Manhattan with a different, interesting and beautiful woman to keep me company during the long drives between Ottawa and NYC.

P.P.S. Upon arriving in NYC I would go immediately to the family home of Michael Golding. Michael was then becoming David's creative protégé (a role that he has kept to this very day). As pre-arranged with my driving companion, I would drop her off (late on a Thursday or Friday evening) with Michael. At that time I would  make arrangements to pick her up after lunch the following Sunday (for the return trip to Ottawa). While I worked with David that weekend, Michael would act as her personal tour guide around Manhattan. On the drive home, my fellow traveler would: (1) tell me what she had seen or done over the weekend, (2) interrogate me about Michael (leading up to the big question) "does he have a girlfriend?", and (3) go on and on about the deep connection she had made with Michael, ask if I believed in love at first sight, and offer to drive to Manhattan with me anytime I might be headed there (although Michael and I stuck to our agreed arrangement that there would be no repeat visitors). These arrangements always seemed to work at out well for all concerned.

P.P.S. Given the great detail that David spent on throwing a party, I can understand why his protégé Michael became so detail oriented when planning out workshops he conducted. Michael's improv DNA comes directly from David.

Willie Wyllie - March, 2014

1981 International Improv Olympic H.S. Match with Michael Golding & Willie Wyllie

When Chris Ramelan re-read the Hemmingway quote, it was obvious to him that it would remind Willie of his younger days; "for the quote is something he was quite good at: Bringing to life that which was only dreamed."

What a beautiful way to remember Willie. Thank you, Chris.

Michael Golding, Willie Wyllie, Howard Jerome,  & David Shepherd

Michael Golding is a writer, director and improv teacher.  He can be contacted for workshops, festivals and private consultations at migaluch@yahoo.com. Michael participated in the evolution of the Improv Olympics & Canadian Improv Games. Artistic director of the Comic Strip Improv Group in N.Y. & created the Insight Theatre Company for Planned Parenthood, Ottawa.  He is a faculty member at El Camino College in Los Angeles, working with at-risk teens and traditional students. He wrote and co-produced the documentary "David Shepherd: A Lifetime of Improvisational Theatre" (available for free on YouTube).  His book, Listen Harder, a collection of essays, curriculum and memorabilia on improvisation and educational theatre, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and CreateSpace. Michael holds a BFA degree in Drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts & an MA degree in Educational Theatre from NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education & Human Development.   

Guns, Education and Improv by Michael Golding

Due to budget cuts at high schools who normally host El Camino College’s after school outreach courses, I was not offered any assignments for the spring semester. This was not unexpected. Last fall, when Trump’s cuts to education began to take effect, my colleagues and I knew that it was just a matter of time before this impacted our program. I didn’t think it would happen so quickly.

The students I work with are at-risk. I teach Theatre Appreciation and Intro to Acting on a rotating semester basis. Students show up expecting a lecture course. Instead, they are exposed to my learning by doing approach. The objectives of the curriculum are achieved via theatre games and the class is conducted like an improv workshop.

My courses, which run from 3:30pm – 5:30pm (sometimes longer), keep the students out of trouble and from being targeted by gangs. It also instills the idea that college is a possibility for them.  Being exposed to a different approach in learning has a ripple effect on the students that enhances their academic and social skills. Attendance improves as well.

Now we don’t have the budget to keep this program going – on top of the recurring issue of no funds for supplies and resources in classrooms where enrollment hits 40 or more. This is not new for teachers. What is new is Trump’s proposal to arm teachers.

Here are my thoughts on that; I have been working with at-risk teen populations in Los Angeles since 2002. First through Los Angeles City College, then El Camino College (both the Torrance and Compton divisions). I have taught at high schools in Compton, Lynwood, Carson, Inglewood, Torrance and Hollywood. I have met and observed countless teachers doing their job extraordinarily well under the most daunting conditions.

I have also encountered a large number of teachers who do not have the temperament, patience, empathy, compassion or maturity to be working in education. Some are flat out sadists who enjoy the control they have over their students. I have witnessed this first hand. Believe me, a gun is the last thing you would want in their hands. If they could get away with shooting a student by claiming self defense, they would.

If I was teaching this semester, I would explore scenarios of a political environment that has armed teachers and how that would affect the classroom dynamic and relationships with students. A missed opportunity for me, to be sure.

A large percentage of my male students glorify guns. These students often want to improvise scenes about bank robberies, kidnappings, and hostage situations. Guns are brandished side-ways with a machismo that is simultaneously amusing and terrifying.

Occasionally, I’ll acquiesce to a scene about a bank robbery, with the guidelines of no shooting or pistol whipping.  Additionally, the guns have no bullets (or aren’t real). First time I tried that in a workshop with the guidelines one of the students playing a customer yelled out “hey, that gun isn’t real!” and I had to end the scene before it collapsed into a mass fight in the bank.  Now I instruct the students playing customers and tellers “You don’t know that the gun isn’t real or has no bullets.”  The emphasis is on the threat of the gun and power it wields – not seeing someone being shot.

I have a warm-up game where I play a series of sound effects and students have to engage in an activity that would correspond with it. The sound effects are typically bowling, ice skating, rain forest, traffic, beach, pool hall, which the students perform with varying degrees of commitment. When military battle sounds emanate from the speakers, the energy and commitment from the students spikes and there is disappointment from the class when after 30 seconds or so, the next sound effect pops up.

So, let’s review my perspective on inner city high schools in Los Angeles.

There is now no money for an after school program that keeps high school students out of trouble, enhances their academic and social skills and prepares them for college. A proposal has been made to arm teachers (some who carry resentment towards their students) around teenagers who glorify guns (and would figure out how to get the weapon from the teacher). Classes are still overcrowded.

What could possibly go wrong?

Michael Golding is a writer, director and improv teacher.  He can be contacted for workshops, festivals and private consultations at migaluch@yahoo.com. Michael participated in the evolution of the Improv Olympics & Canadian Improv Games. Artistic director of the Comic Strip Improv Group in N.Y. & created the Insight Theatre Company for Planned Parenthood, Ottawa.  He is a faculty member at El Camino College in Los Angeles, working with at-risk teens and traditional students. He wrote and co-produced the documentary "David Shepherd: A Lifetime of Improvisational Theatre" (available for free on YouTube).  His book, Listen Harder, a collection of essays, curriculum and memorabilia on improvisation and educational theatre, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and CreateSpace. Michael holds a BFA degree in Drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts & an MA degree in Educational Theatre from NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education & Human Development.