Mockingbird Improv has found a home away from home in Liberty Station where it can teach – and showcase – the art of comic improvisation.

The nonprofit’s mission is to provide connection, joy, and opportunities for self-expression, especially serving youth and the underserved. That is accomplished by engaging in high-quality training and performances and providing a supportive and empowering space. Through Mockingbird programs performers, patrons, and students express creativity, build confidence, and cultivate joy through laughter and play.

“Our first year in operation at the height of COVID we were a mobile outdoor space,” said Jackie Bookstein, Mockingbird’s education director, noting their Liberty Station studio at 2590 Truxtun Road, Studio 200, “is our first home, home. We’ve put a lot of work into building it. It was just a big empty space when we got here.”

Contrasting stand-up and improv comedy, Bookstein explained: “The main thing they have in common is that they are both comedy. But otherwise, they’re very different art forms. Improv is a collaborative activity, made up in the moment using spontaneity and being present. Whereas stand-up is a lot more about crafting a piece that you will deliver.”

Regarding their moniker, Bookstein noted the songbird with a varied repertoire of songs “is a symbol of freedom and innocence and, when we were narrowing in on a name, there was a common thread that made so much sense for it being a part of improv culture.”

Mockingbird has overlapping education and performance wings where “our students can go on to become performers,” said Bookstein adding, “Either we’re teaching you how to do improv, or we are providing a place for you to perform or watch improv.”

There are numerous ways to teach improvisation, said Bookstein pointing out their curriculum has five levels covering the basics, starting with teaching people how to accept their creativity while exchanging ideas which allows them to “honor both of those and create something beautiful together.”

Bookstein likened improv training to that of sports where you are “training to have good habits, and then when you get in on ‘game day,’ you have to trust those instincts are going to kick in because you don’t have time to think: You’re reacting.”

There is no “typical” client at Mockingbird, said Bookstein. “We get people here for so many different reasons,” she said. “A lot of it is social. They want to meet people. Or they want to come out of their shell and be more confident. We get people here to improve their acting. And we get people here just because they think they’re hilarious and they want somewhere to show that.”

For more information, visit mockingbirdimprov.org.

HISTORY OF IMPROV

Improvisational theatre or improv is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted, created spontaneously by performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in the present time, without the use of a pre-prepared, written script.

The earliest well-documented use of improvisational theatre in history is found in the Atellan Farce of Africa in 391 BC. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, commedia dell’arte performers improvised based on a broad outline in the streets of Italy. In the 1890s, theatrical theorists and directors such as Russian Konstantin Stanislavski and French Jacques Copeau, founders of two major streams of acting theory, both heavily utilized improvisation in acting training and rehearsal.

The Second City began in 1959 as a small comedy cabaret and has since grown to become the first name in improv and comedy, with theaters and training centers in Chicago, Toronto, and Hollywood. Many current “rules” of comedic improv were first formalized in Chicago in the late 1950s and early 1960s, initially among The Compass Players troupe.