Living the 'harold' Life

I think Life is a Harold.

The Harold is a long form improv structure in which scenes, characters and themes are discovered and reappear several times throughout the structure. It is one of the most freeing and occasionally miserable experience improvisers can have. You must let go of control. You must be free to listen and respond. You must be bold and imaginative. You must trust and take blind leaps of faith. You must make bold declarations of truth and you must play in the worlds discovered. It's brilliant. It can also be dreadful. You are often leaping into nothing.

Life is like that. Brilliant. Occasionally dreadful. Real. You have to be bold, risk, listen, play. Things and people and themes recur. That's my favorite part. Notice some oddity in your day and chances are you'll see or hear about it about 3 more times that week. Listen to what someone tells you and chances are someone else will mention it to you, or you'll see it on a billboard or on the street. Life is a Harold. Things come back. Things affect us. Themes, people, points of view recur. And thats cool. Pay attention to it. Pay attention to the details of your Harold today. Everything is connected.

Showing Up

I'm taking this GREAT class with Erin Keating called PROTOTYPE--about creating a solo performance piece. First of all, Erin is fabulous---insightful, smart and grounded. The group is also great--a brave, creative group of ladies. But it dawned on me how the only way anything gets done is by someone showing up. If none of us said YES and showed up for this class--no class, no one person shows! If nobody shows up for a meeting, no meeting. If no one shows up to clean the highway, dirty highway. If no one shows up for a performance, no show and the actors go have an early beer! Often times, things that seem impossible to start simply need someone to show up and the task is already in motion.

In Improv, we need to show up--to class, to the scene, to our lives. If we don't show up, the scene collapses or our scene partners are left hanging or the class is cancelled or we're suddenly 60 and are filled with regrets for not showing up in our lives.

Hard things, seemingly impossible, get done when one brave soul shows up. Sometimes, like on a lazy Sunday or in a bad mood, that is the hardest part. but it is also the easiest. Take a step forward. Show up. Show up for your partner, for your team, for the world. See what happens in your life.