YES, AND…

I’ve always hated doing improv. Whether in acting classes or on the speech and debate team, I always wanted the script ahead of time. I wanted to be able to memorize it, rehearse it, try different phrasing, different delivery styles, wanted to be sure of my lines and sure of myself. Put me on a stage with a bunch of comic geniuses and nothing more than a couple of prompts, and I froze in terror.

In life, I want a script, too. I’m a list-maker. And when life throws me a curve ball and something doesn’t go as planned … it is my natural tendency to freeze up, frustrated that life isn’t going exactly as My List indicates it should.

Several years ago, however, I decided to revisit that classic Rule of Improv #1: Say “yes, and.” In an improv sketch, a negative response kills the advancing storyline and stifles the potential for comedy. Actors are trained to always say, “yes, and” to any suggestion given to them by their scene partners, and then to build upon that suggestion by adding their own.  In that way, the storyline grows and the performance succeeds. What if I applied that to my own life, I wondered.

About that time, I was beginning my work as a Stage Manager at Walt Disney World. I was on call, part-time, and was available to float around and learn different shows. I decided to apply “Yes, and” to my Disney career, and seize every opportunity offered to me. Learn the Pocahontas show? Yes! Learn Festival of the Lion King? Yes! Come on staff as a Full Time Cast Member? Yes! Learn the Tarzan show? Here, I hesitated, just for a moment – I mean, did you ever see that show? OMG, aerialists on silks, roller blading chimps skating through the house, live musicians, rock-show lighting, geez! How many cues there must be and how fast they must come! But only a moment of hesitation, and then my “YES!”

For seven years, I said yes to every opportunity offered to me, no matter how far out of my expertise or comfort zone it might be. And from saying “YES!” I had the most incredible, over-the-top-awesome experiences. I did learn to call Tarzan Rocks, and loved every moment of it. One year, I found myself in charge of IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, which meant I spent every afternoon on a boat in the lagoon, cruising with the pyrotechs as they set up the fireworks … and then stood with the crew on the dock each night, having the honor of calling “Roll show tape” to start the mammoth show in the skies over EPCOT. I was on the stage management team for the opening of a Lopez/Anderson show – before Bobby won the EGOT and before the two of them conquered the animated musical with their score to Frozen, we worked together on Finding Nemo The Musical. I even had a day as “best friend” to Friar Tuck during a character meet-and-greet session with guests at Magic Kingdom. Sadly, on that day, Friar Tuck wasn’t the best ambassador of Disney Magic: his autograph was sloppy, and he may have bumped his big ol’ nose on the head of a cute little 3-year-old … but with his help – and by saying, “yes” -- I gained a once-in-a-lifetime lesson about how hard it is to be a front-line Disney Entertainment cast member. I did everything during those seven years, from shaking hands with Disney and Pixar executives, to driving a golf cart around Spaceship Earth at 3:00 in the morning, to spending fifteen minutes chatting with Trace Adtkins, to calling stand-by cues for a porcupine. Seven unforgettable years, with experiences I never would have imagined… all because instead of staying in my comfort zone, I said, “YES,” and jumped in with abandon.

 None of us has been handed a script to our life story, so life itself is a game of improv! What better way to live it than to follow the sacred rules of improv? Try it: say “Yes, and…” and just watch where it will take you!