Trust is a many splendored thing or who took my doughnut!?!?!?

Trust.
It's a funny thing. Some people always have it, some never do, sometimes you lose it, sometimes you have to earn it, other times it's given away for free. It's hard to predict trust. It's a slippery little thing...trust.

In improv, TRUST is ESSENTIAL to good scenework. We must trust that we're all looking out for each other and will each do our best to do the best improv work we can. Certainly, trust builds over time, but I often find that the best improvisers and the best improv ensembles have it immediately(or some nascent form of it) and don't question it (certainly be greateful for it, but no questions! Don't mess with the mojo!) In improv, we are starting from a place of nothing, of nakedness and building into something(hopefully) wonderful. In order for that to work, I believe we have to trust the process. we have to trust each other and we have to trust ourselves. All equally important.

Recently, I had an experience where I could have lost trust in someone. He didn't tell me the truth. And I'm a big fan of the truth. So I had a choice. I could be a non-truster, run with the masses, trusting no one or nothing, being skeptical about everything and getting nothing. Or I could take a leap, be a truster and risk getting hurt again, this time potentially much worse. I choose the latter. I choose to be a leaptrustrisker.

Sure, you may get hurt when you trust. Your scene may suck rocks. Life scene or improv scene! But as high as the stakes are, the potential is even higher. The reward is unmatched. And trust is the only way there.

One last thought: Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to earn trust? If it was just given? as a gift? Crazy.