Full Circle finishes residency at Eden!
Last of a six week class at Eden with Instructors Annie Donley, Prescott Gadd, Annie Calhoun
Our last class in a six week residency with Eden Supportive Living finished up Sunday December 18th! Class participants have advanced beyond improv warm-up games to simple scene work. One class member did a great scene in a ‘state park’ with guest instructor George McAuliffe and remarked, “got to watch out for surprise lumberjackers-they could hit at any moment.” In their feedback to one another the class can now identify the components of a strong scene with good characters who have true wants and emotions. They have also become supportive scene partners who move the scene forward by making creative choices while putting “yes, and” into practice. The class will be taking a field trip to iO on the 28th to see long form improv in action. We received excellent responses on our class evaluation surveys, and hope to create a winter session so Full Circle can continue their work with Eden in the new year!
New Class at Eden Supportive Living!
Full Circle has had a great time working with the folks at Eden Supportive Living and will finish their six week of sunday evening classes on December 18th! Starting off each week with engaging group improvisation exercises, the class has started to advance towards more scenic exercises. For instance, someone asks a fellow player if they can “solve their (made up) problem” such as “my garbage is just too full and I don’t want to take it out!” The response can be creative and imaginary or realistic and one answer last week was, “just get a belt like the factories, set it up between your door and the ally, and let it take itself out!” Teachers Prescott Gadd, Annie Donley, and Annie Calhoun have been thrilled to have assistant teachers Joe Burton and Molly Wilbanks stop by to help lead and play! We hope to continue another class session in the late winter/spring!
Thresholds Class Celebrates 6 months!
“And is how you feel now at the end different than when you came in for improv class?” asks Laura Calhoun, teaching assistant for the Thresholds class that meets weekly at 11am.
“I feel less anxious” says one member while another adds, “it was fun! -and I’m more relaxed…actually this class has helped me talk to people more–like at the bus stop.”
The members of this class have really moved forward during the last 6 months in their creativity, playfulness, and freedom of expression- which loosens self-judgement as well as the judgment of others. There is a way in which Full Circle member Mike Brunlieb leads the class that is both simple and masterful. Not only is he an expert teacher; adept at selecting and guiding exercises, but he plays WITH the members modeling an energy that can’t help but radiate out and open others’ abilities to do the same. Play is our great commonality as human beings. As Viola Spolin says, “everyone can act, everyone can improvise, anyone who wants to can play.”
Non-Profit Status!
Full Circle has been invited to join with Theatre Mir (www.theatremir.com) to serve as their outreach ensemble! Theatre Mir is a Chicago theatre company striving to perform a culturally diverse body of work in order to give audiences a variety of social issues to examine. Mir was looking for a way to expand in their outreach and Full Circle was looking for a group to partner with who had solid roots in the Chicago arts community so we could sustain our programming. Now, with Theatre Mir’s non-profit status, organizations and individuals can donate to Full Circle and we are now also eligible for grants. If you’d like to donate through paypal at the link below, be sure to send an e-mail to annie.calhoun@gmail.com specifying that your donation be put towards Full Circle Outreach. This money goes to pay for our improv programs in residency at Thresholds (mental health support facility) and Eden Supportive Living Facility (housing for those with physical disabilities) so we can continue to teach classes and workshops free of charge to the under privileged populations we serve. Thanks to Theatre Mir for merging with us, and we look forward to this new exciting chapter in our history!
Theatre Mir’s home page has a paypal donation site at the bottom if you’re interested in supporting us! (link below)
http://www.theatremir.com/index.html
Mmmm… Mashed Potatoes at Thresholds
” I’d like to ask you what you felt walking into your first improv class today compared to how you feel as we end right now.” My sister, Laura, asked this question with same pose and insightful guidance that got her the case worker job she has at Thresholds, an organization that offers services to those struggling with mental illnesses.
“I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop” said one man, “but now I feel like I did something strenuous and now I feel good.”
Another raised his hand to say,”I felt anxious and self-conscious when I walked in…now I still feel a little self conscious but less anxious.”
Full Circle members Laura Calhoun, Mike Brunlieb, and Annie Calhoun lead a group of Thresholds members through a series of beginner improv exercises in their first class which included a fun name warm-up, playing the mirror game, heightening senses by listening with eyes closed, and ending with an exercise where we tried to guess what each other was eating while pantomiming eat the food! It was inspiring to watch those who have fears and social anxieties stronger than most, step out of their comfort zone and eat a pretend plate of mashed potatoes and meatloaf with enthusiasm. ”Mine were really lumpy,” clarified one player, “couldn’t you tell how I was struggling to swallow them? –they were really lumpy!”
Thresholds mission is to assists and inspire people with severe mental illnesses to reclaim their lives by providing the support, skills, and the respectful encouragement that they need to achieve hopeful and successful futures. We hope to be a part of their progress by continuing to provide social and community building skills. We’ll be meeting Wednesday mornings at 11am.
For more information on Thresholds, click here.
Post by Annie Calhoun.
Hey, I’m a Cornerstone Academy! Ding!
For two Fridays in the shivering clutch of January, members of Full Circle had the pleasure of performing for and alongside students at Chicago’s Cornerstone Academy, an independent, not-for-profit alternative school, whose mission is “to support and educate Chicago students whose academic needs are not being met by larger, traditional schools and whose talents are in dangers of being wasted.”
Three Full-Circle-ers (Annie Calhoun, Andrew Tisher, and Mike Brunlieb), plus distinguished guest Sir George McAuliffe, played the improv game “Four-Square” with the help of the following student-provided suggestions:
- A Relationship: Boyfriend/Girlfriend
- A Movie Genre: Action/Romantic Comedy
- A Location: Playground
- A Sport: Football
In Four-Square, the players jump quickly from scene to scene – each player participates in two scenes, one with the player to her left, and one with the player to her right. As the players rotate (on commands of ‘shift left!’ and ‘shift right!’), we dance from one scene to the next. In our version, Annie passed George romantic notes ‘from a friend’ (suuure, Annie), George and Mike commiserated about concession prices and the solemn waning moments of Brett Favre’s career, Mike and Andrew played a star-crossed gentleman hopelessly in love with a Terminator, and Andrew and Annie worked to keep competing playground secrets from falling into one another’s greedy hands.
For the next game, “Hitchhiker”, we got some of the students on stage to play with us. In Hitchhiker, a very-generous, very-impressionable group of travelers chat as they drive. Each time they pick up a new person from the side of the road, everyone in the car takes on the character of the new guest. We were headed to Paris, they said. Of course, the Cornerstone players picked it up right away. We met a slew of interesting characters, including London dandies, purse-crazy valley girls, broken-hearted pet owners, and Bootsy Collins-es.
Next, Annie led a marvelous game called “Conducted Story”, which melds many minds into one and uses them to tell a single, continuous narrative. When the conductor points to you, it is your turn to speak, and you must continue the story without pause until that finger points somewhere else. This improvised story touched on the mechanical limits of escalators under duress of extreme weight, and the great surprising kindnesses that can arise while one struggles to return a Christmas shirt to Macy’s.
Here, we took a pause for a short improv history lesson, where Andrew talked a bit about where improv came from, and where are some great, cheap places to see it.
To cap it off, we played a game called “Ding/Honk”, wherein the Full-Circle players labored to re-create a typical afternoon at Cornerstone. If we nailed it, we got shouts of “dings!” When we were off-base, we got honked. We did… OK 
We had a blast! The Cornerstone folks were a pleasure to work with and impressed us so much energy and their commitment to taking big risks.
Post by: Mike Brunlieb.
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!
“Can you do that one again? I like that one!” said a resident of Eden Supportive Living as we caroled for a group of folks who had come down to their dining hall to listen. We paused, looked at each other, and “Jingle Bell Rock” was put back in the running order to sing a second time!
On Saturday December 18th, Full Circle members Susie Gutowski, Mike Brunlieb, Annie Donley, Andrew Tisher, Connor Tillman, and I went on a caroling adventure to Eden Supportive Living (assisted living for people with physical disabilities) and the Bethany Retirement Community (assisted living for seniors).
At the Bethany Retirement Community, residents were mid-meal when we walked in, but they immediately began humming along to the refrains of “Hark the Harold Angels Sing” and “Frosty the Snowman.” Only Annie Donley has a formal choral background, so the rest of us let our character and energy carry the songs where more vocal proficiency was needed. Connor, Mike and Andrew really knew how to put in the extra stomps on the thumpty-thump-thumps in “Frosty” and blare out the “Ho-Ho-Ho” in “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. When leaving, we ran into Art, a kind gentleman with a huge grin, who encouraged us to return and added, “You were good, but my hymn singing group I lead is pretty good too—you should hear that!”
We were on our way home in my van listening to the N’ Sync Chistmas CD, when we came upon a Whole Foods grocery store…and couldn’t help but stop once more and serenade customers coming in to buy their organic avacados and free range chicken. Our final number, performed in front of the wreaths outside the glass sliding doors and shopping cart rack, took on a Broadway-esque style when “The Twelve Days of Christmas” suddenly included ladies dancing, pipers piping, maids-a-milking, and all the rest.
Post by Annie Calhoun.
Now he hunts a bear
On Wednesday, November 24th, Full Circle member Andrew Tisher found himself outside the Eiffel Tower in a show at Heartland Alliance. But it wasn’t any old tourist scene – not only did Andrew have to juggle making it all up on the spot, he was also required to pick up slips of paper with suggestions written on them throughout the scene. Thanks to some great suggestions from the audience, Andrew was not only enjoying the sights of a historic French landmark, but he was now holding an improv gun and hunting a bear. Not one second after Andrew read the suggestion “Now he hunts a bear,” he was spontaneously joined onstage by a member of the audience, a real life Native American.
What Andrew sees in his mind's eye during the bear hunting scene.
Well, not really. The Heartland Alliance was hosting a special Thanksgiving meal that had a guest dressed head-to-toe in a “Native American” costume, a fully fringed outfit which included a giant feather headdress that went all the way to floor. In a brilliant display of Yes, And (our favorite improv principle) the “Native American” sent an imaginary arrow flying at the bear. He and Andrew exchanged satisfied nods, and our “Native American” took his seat once again. A wordless moment of improv magic had just taken place and the crowd went nuts.
This was just one of many fun and zany moments at our show at the Heartland Alliance Health Outreach Thanksgiving Lunch. Full Circle (and our two amazing guest improvisers George McAuliffe and Jon Butts) were so excited to get the opportunity to bring some fun to the Outreach center, which houses a variety of people and offers programs and classes (even an acting class, which Full Circle has been asked to help with!) that aid folks with addictions and homelessness and provides services to help them regain their footing in life. For more information about Heartland, check out their website.
Post by Annie Calhoun.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
The Full Circle fundraiser for Material Management Relief Corp (MMRC) at ComedySportz on Saturday, October 23 was a HUGE success! We raised more than $545 through ticket and raffle sales, which will go directly towards MMRC and the tremendous work they are doing to help the people of Haiti. The evening was filled with laughter and fun as the Full Circle performers, ChiArts High School students, and the Actors Training Center students performed some short and long form improvisation. Thanks to Full Circle member Annie Calhoun (Director of ChiArts High School improv team) and Philip Markel (Associate Director of ATC), the student performers were prepared to take the stage and play hard!
We recently heard from MMRC regarding the donation we were able to provide. MMRC explained they are “in the middle of an emergency cholera effort to deliver desperately needed supplies to a hospital in North Haiti.” The funds will go directly to cover the costs for the aircraft required to deliver the supplies needed, which means our donation will be used to save hundreds of children under the age of 5 in the next 48 hours. Full Circle is humbled to be able to take part in this effort and wants to thank those of you who were able to come out and support our fundraiser by attending our show, participating in the raffle, or both! We are reminded that a little bit of energy around one idea can lead towards making a significant impact on lives around us.
We’d like to recognize the following organizations that so generously donated items for our raffle:
- Dog & Pony Theatre Co
- Northlight Theatre
- Barrel of Monkeys
- Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
- ComedySportz
- Lambs Farm
- Half Acre Beer Co
- The Steppenwolf Theatre
- Improv Olympic Theater
- The Remy Bumpo Theatre Co.
Thanks to these organizations and their generosity, Full Circle was able to raffle some outstanding items such as tickets to shows and free classes!
And finally, we’d like to extend our biggest thanks to David Montgomery and everyone at ComedySportz for graciously sharing the CSz stage with our young performers (as well as a portion of the ticket sales to their mainstage show!) This night would not have been possible without this support.
Upon reflection of this experience, we feel strongly about the need to seek out more opportunities to give back to the community surrounding us – whether that is teaching improvisation workshops at schools in Chicago, performing at community shelters, interacting with residents at assisted living facilities, or sponsoring fundraising events for those in need overseas. We are committed to spreading the joy of improvisation to those around us and we have found that as we seek opportunities to spread our passion, it comes right back to us with a positive energy that is impossible to deny! This cyclical passing of joy is contagious and invigorating!
Missed the event but still want to donate? You’re not too late! You can make a donation to MMRC by clicking here.
Post by Laura Calhoun.
Full Circle hosts event to fund aid workers in Haiti
This Saturday, Oct 23rd, Full Circle Performance Outreach will be hosting an event at ComedySportz Chicago to help raise money for Materials Management Relief Corp (MMRC), a non-profit organization dedicated serving people whose lives have been affected by natural disaster or conflicts. ComedySportz has generously offered to give a portion of tickets sales from their 6pm show to MMRC – we are so excited to help out this incredible organization.
I wanted to tell you about a really inspirational guy, Paul Sebring, an American fashion photographer who felt a strong urge to help with the relief efforts after the earthquake ravaged Haiti back in January of this year. A few weeks into his time there, ‘Big Paul’ (as he is known) started an organization with a friend called MMRC. And he’s been there since.
At the present moment, MMRC operates as the only system in the whole country that resembles a 911 service. Unfortunately, there are very few working hospitals or clinics at the moment and all of the country’s second year nursing students were killed in the earthquake when their school (the only nursing institution in the whole country) collapsed.
With the help of friends (nurses, doctors, ex-militaries, locals), Big Paul has been working often 14-16 hour days to support local organizations in Port au Prince. They are currently running the only “ambulance” system in the country, doing all patient transfers between tent communities and hospitals. They know which hospitals have burn units, incubators, oxygen, specialized surgeons and they have saved countless lives by getting local Haitians the help they need in time.
For example, on a Sunday night back in May, my friend Anne, a nurse from Canada, explained how she was working the night shift at a local hospital, and had 4 patients in critical condition requiring oxygen (3 were on ventilators, another was completely oxygen dependent). 
Throughout the day the hospital staff attempted to find additional oxygen, with no luck. When Anne started her shift, there was less than 4 hours of oxygen left in the tanks. It was rainy season and the power was out. The phone lines were down and everything was closed. The roads were a complete mess. Anne and the other medical volunteers realized they would soon have the task of deciding which of these patients would get that last reservoir of oxygen and which ones would have to die. Anne then remembered that she had done an ambulance transport with Big Paul a few days earlier and immediately contacted him on Facebook. Within 2 hours, he showed up with 4 tanks transported from another hospital, as well as a family he had recovered whose home had fallen on them during the storm. Paul and his crew had spent those two hours driving around to all of the local hospitals in the area searching for extra tanks. Thanks to MMRC, everyone survived the night.
Aside from patient transfers, they are also focused on distributing supplies and allocating resources where they find the needs to be the greatest. Whether it be IV solutions, medications, pedialyte, or anything else they find a surplus of at different sites, MMRC is consistently there to diminish the waiting time between arrival and distribution of goods. There have also been instances where they have gone to bring extra supplies to orphanages, as well as medical attention to children requiring it.
Big Paul and his team ‘save the day’ every day; they help get people the help and care the need. Paul and MMRC rely solely on individual donations to continue their work. Unfortunately, they are running out of funds and we are going to help them out in any way we can.
We’d love for you to come enjoy this night of comedy with us and support MMRC. For only $22 you can see Full Circle Performance Outreach perform alongside two teen groups we have worked with this summer at 4:30pm and then stick around for the 6pm ComedySportz show! So come early and stay late! Ticket and additional event information is available by clicking here.
If you would like to make a private donation to MMRC, you can make it via PayPal by clicking here.
Post by Connor Tillman.
