Make Your Mark! Villain Theater in Miami!

Finally Peter and I can begin our dream of opening a theater dedicated to improvisation in our own back yard of Miami,FL.  This has been something we both have been preparing for since we left this beautiful city in 2010.  We've been through a lot and learned even more. We'll both be alternating writing about our experiences on this blog along with our thoughts on improvisation, theater, comedy, Miami, and art at large.

Check back soon! Exciting things on the way and we can't wait to bring something to Miami that will truly empower anyone who wants to do more with everything in their life.  Make your mark.  Villain Theater is here to do just that. 

- Jeff Quintana

Artistic Director

Villain Theater

Weekender

Originally when asked to join a new Harold Team after Villain I declined. I was not ready to jump on another team right away. I had just been on an amazing team that was as close a team as I've ever been on besides a team with my best friend and my brother that I had been on for years.  I also wanted some time away from Harolds. 

I really felt I wouldn't do any more Harolds beyond Heraldo before I left town. That changed one night after about 3 weeks of being away and declining the team they put me on. I was asked to sit in with a team that was low on numbers.  Their name was Weekender, The given name they had from the Harold Commission and they had not changed it.  At iO you are first given a place holder name when your team is first made and usually what happens is the team changes it before their first show.  Its not the case for all but most teams have their new name by that first show or shortly after.  Most of the time teams change their names but in Weekenders case they were having way too much fun and it just became easier to keep it as they were getting known for it.  

After being away from Harolds a short time and being away from Villain I didn't have high hopes for the show.  That all changed in an instant right from the warm up.  Just some of the kindest and funniest people you will ever meet.  They were so welcoming of me right away and we played a really great show.  Then they had another show a week later and I played that show and it was a blast.  Then it just kept happening. Its been a total blast to play with them and they make such cool moves throughout the show that everyone jumps on real hard.  

They have a great coach in Jon Butts and he really pushes for Weekender to have a good time while also doing good work that is interesting.  When I was asked to become a regular on the team I explained that I was leaving to Miami to open a theater as it was not common knowledge yet.  Jon and the team were so kind to let me keep playing each week until I leave.  In the short time I have been with them Weekender has done some really cool shows and they have a super bright future ahead of them.  

It was nice to have another experience with the Harold beyond Villain and Heraldo.  It truly is always different and changes so much based on who you play with.  Thanks for the great times and friendship Weekender!  Hope to see you all down in Miami soon!

-Jeff Quintana

Artistic Director

Villain Theater

Ego Needs To Go

I have been improvising since 2003. In that time I have been a part of the improv cultures in Miami, Gainesville, Miami again, New York, Chicago, and finally Miami again.  Every time I moved I started from nothing and had to build up again. I also went through my fair share of trials outside of improv including being jobless and homeless for about 2 weeks. For those weeks I lived on a park bench outside in the winter of NYC. Once you have lived like that you tend to not care about material possessions and your ego is non existent.

Once I went through all that it made it so improvising and working hard forever comes much easier. It becomes a fact of life to work hard and stay humble.  I have seen so many fall in all these cities because of hubris.  Becoming too good to learn more, too good to treat new performers well, too good to try on stage, and eventually too good to realize that they were not good any more.

There is a thin line we all must walk between confidence and arrogance.  The way to stay on the right side of that line is to always be looking to learn and grow. I have learned something from the worst teachers I've had and the best teachers, learned something from the newest performers and the most veteran, learned something from every day on this Earth, and I have learned something from every person I have met.

The fact that anyone can come in and let their ego get in the way of their improvement is insane. Improv is made for people who constantly adapt, change, and grow. Too many times have I seen people fall into a "Bag Of Tricks" or let their status in an improv company cloud their view until they are no longer serving the art form. These people are slaves to Ego and Status. Neither of which makes you a better improviser or a better person.

When I arrived in NYC I had to take classes and build up my abilities. No one let's you just walk on stage. You have to earn it. Same goes in Chicago. They didn't care what I had learned before, I had to go through classes and learn more. In both cases I learned so much even in a level 1 class that stays with me forever.

Anytime I can bring some Chicago and New York performers down to teach in Miami you can expect to see me in all those workshops right along side my students if I have never taken a class with that teacher before.

There is never a time where we can stop learning and growing as people or as improvisers.  I had a big ego at one point and it's a petty and stupid thing to let get in the way of doing good work.  Smash it down and start collaborating. There is enough improv and jobs for everyone. Ego and status means nothing.

- Jeff Quintana
Artistic Director
Villain Theater

Stag: My first and My last

I have coached a lot of teams in Chicago. Sometimes I was just stepping in for  a Harold Team that wanted a different Point of view, other times I was coaching many independent teams.  I love doing it and it's something I've been doing since 2007.  Teaching and coaching really ups your game in improv, especially when working with people that have been doing this longer then you.  Once you are there coaching people that once coached you its a weird transition.

In doing so I learned to be as humble and open as possible to whomever is in the coach / directors chair. There is always something to learn about your play and about how you learn. Even with bad coaching there was something to learn from because I would learn what I didn't like and apply it to my own coaching.  I was lucky to sub coach at iO and was eventually assigned as the steady coach of the Harold Team Stag.

This is a wonderful group of folks made up of Gina DeLuca, Marissa Rhines, Mike Anichini, Jess DeMarke, Amy Haeussler, Liz Siedt,  Spencer Walker, Michelle Fox, Jimmy Barrett, and Marie Maloney. Today I let them know I would be leaving town to open the theater in Miami. They were all so genuinely happy for me and genuinely sad I was leaving. I have learned so much from coaching them and I think when you are coaching a great team that happens.

A great team will always push you as hard as you are pushing them. Stag has been such a blast to coach and all of them I would play on stage with any time. I am sad to leave them as they are the main reason I would have stuck around longer. They deserved someone who could be there for them always and I am definitely looking to leave them in good hands.

I always hope with every team I coach that I have left them with one thing and that is the ability to be open with each other. Too many times I see teams be stifled to ignore their feelings or not have the openness to get mad and address each other in a respectful manner.  I really try to push that we are people in a family and family and humanity at large doesn't always get along. Just like family though when it's time we band together and attack the stage as a unit and we get through it. In the best cases we do more then get through it, we shine. 

I hope I have left them with at least that. Once you have that then nothing can block your progress as a team. The team will always grow and be going to the next level because they are open and willing to listen to each other. They allow themselves To Be human, Get mad, Be hurt, And Forgive Each Other. You'll never have bull shit then because everything is on the table.

I have been so lucky to have Stag, they taught me how to be a better and more well rounded improviser. They all have such strong voices and jump into everything I ask hard even if they didn't understand it right away.  Each of their playing styles I would watch and find something I love that I would add to my own arsenal of improvisation.

The coolest thing I've witnessed with Stag  is how they are adapting and assimilating each others style of play. That is just amazing to see as they start knowing what tickles each other and pushing all of each others buttons. They find joy in mistakes and escalate them so they are no longer considered mistakes.

They have everything it takes to be a great team and I can't wait to have them come down to the theater one day.  I am really looking forward to seeing their team flourish from afar and glad to have been a part of it.  STAG fo life!

The Annoyance And Villain Theater

My time is running short in Chicago but I saved the best for last. I am finally able to train with Mick Napier in his advanced improv class. I started at The Annoyance almost 5 years ago and actually was doing their classes before iO. I read Micks book Improvise back in 2006 and it made a huge impression on me. 

I got more from his book then any other I had read on improv before or since.  I still use The Annoyance techniques when I play at iO because it really defined my style.  Now that I am on the final levels it's nice to bring the most clear version of a method towards my madness.

I have a very weird style of play. I have never been the player that wouldn't listen or take care of my scene partner though. You can make strong choices for yourself and still be supportive of your fellow players.

I am lucky enough that Mick was wonderful and willing to help me look over my curriculum for Villain Theater. I have been building this curriculum for the last 6 years and thrown some pieces of iO and some pieces of Annoyance along with my own exercises to help students become what I believe to be a very complete improviser. He gave a couple of ideas for changes and additions and I am happy to include them.

It was nice meeting minds with one of the best in the biz when it comes to teaching improvisation. I am honored to be in his class and I have learned a lot in just a couple of weeks. It is my hope I can bring that same education to the performers of Miami. Mick has been nothing but complimentary of my work and just the most gracious off stage. He also has just an amazing eye for what I and others can do to be better at improvising.

A class act on and off stage. He is fiercely honest and I appreciate that a lot. I have always tried to be as kind and honest as I can be with everyone I meet. Seeing the success of someone who has been in the game much longer really gives me high hopes for the future of Villain Theater. With passion, vision, skill, and hard work, anything is possible.

- Jeff Quintana

Artistic Director

Villain Theater

Villain: An iO Harold Team And A Theater

Harold's are difficult. They are the building block for everything that is long form improvisation in my opinion. If you are trying to show someone all the different facets of improv it seems introducing them to the Harold is a no Brainer. I have performed the Harold at the highest level for the last 3 years and continue to do so at the iO Theater.

I understand it so well thanks to my many teachers and great coaches. There are a thousand ways to look at the work but all are correct if they lead to doing great Harolds. The Harold has it all, Openings, Grounded two person scenes, Group Games, Tag Runs, World Building, Closing runs, interweaving of disparate story lines, the idea of show dynamics, and a menagerie of edits all formed into one. 

It's no surprise that some of the best improvisers in the world mastered the Harold first. It's a comprehensive guide to how to improvise and with its organic nature it is also the key to creating new pieces and techniques.  When you perform on a team for a while,  as I did on Villain, you eventually are brought into the realm of Breaking The Harold.  This happens once you have mastered how to do a Training Wheels Harold which is the very structured one you find in your Truth In Comedy book. 

When Villain broke the Harold we ascended and did some really amazing work. At our best each show was built in the moment creating our own edits and our own fully connected pieces. We had one show that I remember where we created a very confusing stage picture with a lot of stuff going on. We made a promise to the audience to explain how everything got there by the end of the show. We did an amazing set of scenes and Games that popped up when they liked so that when we arrived back to the original stage picture /opening we were able to infuse everything we just did in the show to recreate and explain the opening.

It was an amazing set among several amazing sets all because of learning how to Break the Harold. We learned to adapt and play the patterns of the piece. We learned to yes and the show in front of us. It was the Harold but not your traditional one. It was the Harold because the Harold is everything. All forms are the Harold and have some or all of its energy in them.

Most teams don't make it past 6 months or a year at iO and Villain lasted two and a half years. We are one of the few teams to be retired because we just couldn't play together any more. The success of all the individual players that made up Villain made it so we couldn't post the numbers we liked for rehearsal and shows. Most of the time when a team ends at iO some of the performers are asked not to come back. In Villains case every single member was put back on the iO roster.

Some of us even declined to be put on another team which is what I did. Villain was such a big part of improvising for me that just jumping on another team was not easy. I needed time and I am glad I took that time because that's when Peter Mir called me and told me it was time for us to build a theater company in Miami.  I told him I had the perfect name and wanted to honor my time and my team in Chicago. 

Villain Theater was born. The members of Villain at iO were Mike Jimerson, Cassie Ahiers, Kelsey Kinney, Mary Catherine Curran, Nick Wieme, Case Blackwell, Ryan Livingston, Sarah Cowdery, Bex Marsh, Rachel Laforce, Matt Kappmeyer, and myself, coached by Matt Higbee. The members of Villain Theater are Peter Mir and myself. Through the Villain Theater I plan to bring many more people into the Villain family and our approach to improvisation and the Harold. 

I am so happy to bring the joy of improvising to everyone I meet but especially proud to honor a team that literally opened my eyes to how improv could be done. Villains tag line was always "Take over the world."  Villain Theaters tag line is "Make Your Mark." I plan to do both in every facet of my life and help others to do the same.

-Jeff Quintana
Artistic Director
Villain Theater

The Tallest Midget

As my time living in Chicago comes to a close I find myself seeing lots of shows and getting bits of wisdom passed on to me.  I have a real fear of losing my edge once I move. I literally get to see some of the best improvisers in the world and in some cases perform with them as well on a weekly basis.  I have to keep reminding myself that I have never been satisfied with mediocre improv. Definitely I have had bad shows and because of the nature of improvisation I will continue to have bad shows and amazing shows.

It's the nature of the art form that some nights will be better then others. The only constant is that I come in focused and try as hard as I can to do the best work possible every time I have the opportunity to be on stage. I see so many take for granted the fact that people have paid to see them and that they get to perform in front of a crowd.

In Miami there is some great work happening but like anywhere outside of Chicago it is difficult to compare to the place where the art form was created and is always evolving. There is so much improv and so many different kinds of improv happening in Chicago that it truly makes it so you could be here forever learning something new every year.

In Miami I have the opportunity to bring down a lot of what I have learned and formulated into an amalgam of all the styles of improvisation I've learned in this almost 6 year journey. I spent some time training in NY and then moved on to immerse myself in the Chicago improv scene.

A good friend and mentor to me and many said something to me recently when I was talking to him about the move.  It was very simple, " Don't settle for being the tallest Midget, do the best work possible and always be growing. That's how you keep your edge wherever you go."  By tallest midget he is referring to the fact that in smaller improv markets it's very easy for people to become "The Guy" and be content with sitting at the top of a small hill.

I will never be content. There is always another level to get to. There is always something to improve on. There is always something to learn. One year you haven't been nailing your object work so you work on that. The next year your object work is great but you find you aren't being as physical. There is always something. There is always something to work on in an art form that is different every time we walk on stage.

Never get comfortable. Always be risking it all. That has been my path for improvisation and applying that philosophy to my daily life has made for a very fulfilling time on this Earth. Love and bravery will set us all on the best path.

-Jeff Quintana
Artistic Director
Villain Theater

Weaving The Weird Into The Greater Pattern

I have been in a lot of scenes and I am of the school that we must always take what happens on stage and fold it into the greater pattern we are making. It is always said in improvisation that a master weaver can weave any mistakes into the tapestry so that it becomes a part of it and because of this there is never a mistake.

I believed this always but I ran into a situation in a two person show the other day that just couldn't move forward because there were no honest reactions, no real people,  I found myself constantly trying to react honestly but because everything I received was so insane it made it so I was quickly just being astounded every line.

The audience grew bored because the world built made it so that there was nothing to be surprised at any more. The two characters on stage were too strange for the audience to buy into. The audience can buy into anything if we give them some actual people who speak like people. Even if we find these characters have quirks later the audience is in because you did the work of bringing them to a reality that humans can understand.

Does that mean I can't play aliens on stage? Of course I can. I just have to give the audience aliens that have humanity in them. They have human problems like feeding their family, dealing with their wife being mad about a dirty spaceship (even if she is inside of a host body that she will be bursting forth from), or losing the 10 Life Partnership rings he wears on all 10 of his arms.  We can play weird and strange but the character is still a thin veil, a filter though which the improviser can bring the comedy and tragedy of the human condition to life.

Back to the show where I had too much weird happening above and the audience was checked out. In this show I really remembered the cardinal rule of my improv is that every rule can be broken if needed to forward the piece. All improv rules are just guide lines. As we get better at it we are able to bend and break while still being commited. If we are improvising well we shouldn't even get to a point where the audience is checking out but in this case we did.

In order to jump start the show I had to call bull shit on some of the stuff that had occurred to bring us to a workable place.  It was the weirdest thing I have ever done on stage. I took what my partner and I had built, turned most of it into lies and kept the basic grounding points of location (A Dentist Office waiting room) and why we were there ( to get a yearly check up).  We were 8 minutes into a set that was a mono scene, the audience was checking out, and my improviser brain told me to trust in this course of action and not judge it even though it went against everything I knew.

Once we cleared the rubbish we started getting laughs, we still incorporated those ideas but now it was why we said those lies. We found the real scared people who were just trying to impress each other through weird fake stories and found out they both had a lot in common as very pathetic lonely folks that had found each other.

The show went on and the audience was in again and we had a great set. It was something I definitely could not have done even 3 years ago in an improv scene. My scene partner was grateful as they had felt it too and were glad to have a way to restart even though we were in a single scene for 22 minutes. 

Yes, we must always except our mistakes and weave them into the greater tapestry  but it does not mean we have to trap ourselves. Some times you have to refind your footing and incorporate that refinding of footing as part of the greater tapestry.  Weave in everything and there will never be mistakes, only discovery.

-Jeff Quintana
Artistic Director
Villain Theater

Play The Scene That's In Front Of You No Matter What.

I have been improvising for about 12 years now and every year I find that I have to update my own approach to improvisation.  Improvisation is unlike any art form because you can't guarantee the product every time.  The path to being great at it comes with constant work.  It's not a mountain to be climbed or a status to be achieved, it's a path that is long and winding with peaks and valleys through out.

If you work hard and are always growing, always trying on stage then you can be great at it.  If you can open your mind and always be willing to go with what is happening on stage then you will find success. When I am on stage I do my best to bring no judgement and react truthfully in the moment. This may mean playing a character who does not have my same beliefs or someone I would find despicable in real life. 

Playing these characters is where the idea of Playing At The Top Of Your Intelligence comes in the most.  An example would be even though as a character I may be a member of the KKK and hate all races that are not White ( a truly despicable and grotesque idiot of a character) I can play this character truthfully while pointing out the ridiculousness of being such an extreme idiot. The character is a thin veil put on by the  improviser who reacts through the character to make the scene interesting and fun.

We do the work to point out the ridiculousness of this way of thinking and play a character the audience can laugh at and also say after "That's why racism is dumb, I mean only a  stupid person like that would think that's something people should believe." We do this by playing the character honestly from our own real life point of view of what someone like this thinks like. We should stay away from stereotypes and play honestly as this character. When playing this character we have to keep our improviser brain working to find the absurdity to heighten that will give the audience the okay to invest and enjoy the scene.

We can bring light to subjects that seem terrible and give people a new outlook on things. That's the beauty of art.  So next time you get labeled something that you don't agree with, take it as an opportunity to commit hard and do something interesting with this high risk choice. Stay in the moment and don't judge your fellow player for giving you a character or scene idea you may not like or agree with. Play the scene.

The show always must go on and in improvisation there is no room to judge your own or your partners ideas. Be in the moment. React like a real person would. Always be trying. Always be growing. Every idea can be great with strong support and commitment.

- Jeff Quintana
Artistic Director
Villain Theater