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!
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