Community Building in the Washington, DC area!!

SFP Editor: What is the Washington Improv Theater and how did it get started? Mark Chalfant Essentially, WIT is a big laboratory/garden/playground for spontaneous collaboration and creativity. Please don't make me choose one metaphor! This takes the shape of a multi-ensemble improv theater company of over 40 players and an exhilarating and surprising improv training program that reaches over 150 students each semester. Plus WIT is other things: community outreach workshops, corporate training, short films ... Did I mention it's a laboratory? Around 1996/97 a bunch of us were studying improv with WIT's founding artistic director (the company was essentially dormant at this point after a successful run in the late 80s/early 90s) and we decided we wanted to perform. Once we did our first performance it just felt imperative that we do more. It's just been growth of every variety since then.

SFP Editor: : What is your role as Artistic and Executive Director of WIT for the Washington Improv Theater?

Mark Chalfant Two roles, really: As artistic director, I'm trying to create the right conditions for magic to occur. Improv is a hugely collaborative art form that ultimately comes down to the ensemble--a director can't impose an artistic vision from on high. So if I cultivate healthy, artistically ambitious ensembles and give them the proper care and feeding, then they can blossom beautifully. So there: "garden" is the metaphor that applies. There's a constant dialogue going on about our art and my job is to steer that conversation in the right directions. As executive director, I'm managing the company. In some ways it's like any other suit job, but with a pay-off that's much more meaningful to me and a culture that's a lot more fun than your typical company. Duties include: engaging the Board of Directors in creating WIT's future, keeping WIT's books, sharing WIT's story with as many people as I can, connecting with donors who support the work WIT is doing ...

SFP Editor: : How does one become a player of the Washington Improv Theater?

Mark Chalfant Existing ensembles hold auditions when they seek new players. Players who get cast are usually current or alumni students from our training program. In addition, we sometimes invite area improvisers to do guest performances during our show runs. Sometimes those guest shows stick around and can become regular things.

SFP Editor: : What about improv theatre do find the most challenging and rewarding?

Mark Chalfant The challenge is to stay present and playful within the chaos that is every moment. To relax into confidence that no matter what happens, it is what is supposed to happen. The reward is seeing the astonishing creativity that can come from simple, playful observation and agreement. The reward is also getting to SHARE the delight of that discovery with a live audience.

SFP Editor: : Can anyone do Improv? What does one learn from the Washington Improv Theater classes?

Mark Chalfant Everyone can improvise to some degree. The more you do it, the better you get (like any other martial art). I like to say that improv classes usually teach you whatever you need to learn. Then I like to apologize for sounding like a sensei. Improv heightens your listening skills and awareness, it emboldens your sense of playfulness and creativity, it gives you new skills for getting along with people and it makes you more comfortable sometimes being the center of attention. People assume that improvisers are hams, but many improvisers are the quiet ones usually standing at the edge of the room. They're the ones actually observing everything and taking it all in.

SFP Editor: : Your Rags and Riches fundraiser is coming up - what do you hope to achieve from it?

Mark Chalfant A huge pile of cash that we can all roll around in! And beyond that ... an even MORE enthusiastic group of people who understand the need WIT fulfills (esp. in a town like DC) and who champion WIT. The event proceeds go to supporting our 2008/09 season, which will be our first season in our new home at the newly refurbished SOURCE at 1835 14th Street, NW. One other thing: a bed made of cash that we can put the aforementioned pile of cash on.

SFP Editor: : What brought you to the DC area and what about DC do you enjoy the most?

Mark Chalfant When I was done with school and a year in Moscow, DC was the place to come to get my awesome fast-track international career off the ground. Plus my brother let me crash in his apartment! Then I saw a flyer in a coffee shop that let me to my first improv class and everything went off the rails ... About DC I love knowing that, if there's ever a major nuclear war, I will definitely be completely irradiated. ZERO CHANCE of surviving to become a brain-eating zombie. What can I say--I grew up in the Reagan 80s and that kind of knowledge just reassures me. Another thing about DC: I love the smart people. Smart folks make great audiences and great students. And REALLY smart people make great donors.