Latest news with #improv
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Spoiled for choice
The Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival returns this week for its 38th year, and executive producer Chuck McEwen says audiences should take the fest's 2025 theme to heart. 'Choose Your Own Adventure' means flipping through the fringe program to plot your own course, making picks from a field of 145 stage productions around the city until July 27. 'The fringe is basically the same every year. What's always new are the artists,' says McEwen. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Executive director Chuck McEwen believes there is a little something for anyone at this year's fringe festival. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Executive director Chuck McEwen believes there is a little something for anyone at this year's fringe festival. And their art: this year, a notable 92 of the productions in the fringe program are classified as new works, meaning that newbies and longtime fringers alike will have ample opportunity to encounter pieces of live theatre — from storytelling and improv to one-person dramas and full-cast musicals — nobody has experienced before, for better or for worse. Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival ● Various locations ● Opens today, runs to July 27 ● Tickets, information and passes at (Throughout the festival, the Free Press is your home for fringe coverage, with our team committed as always to reviewing every single production for your theatre-going pleasure at There's not much at this point that could surprise McEwen, who's been at the helm of the fringe frigate since 2008 and steered the citywide theatre festival through the pandemic era. But amid ongoing concerns with municipal air quality, and the political climate with neighbours to the south, the executive producer says the festival team had to anticipate challenges that were outside its control. Though all of the festival's ticketed productions take place indoors at venues across the city, the spirit of the fringe is largely associated with Old Market Square, which serves as a free hub for performers, street vendors and festival-goers, with live music and family entertainment running daily. The smoke from northern wildfires is top of mind for McEwen, who says he was watching last weekend's Winnipeg Folk Festival closely to see how organizers — who didn't cancel any performances — handled air-quality concerns. 'We are going to notify the public when we have high-risk days as indicated by the air-quality health index online, and for that, we would recommend to the public to take precautions.'– Chuck McEwen 'We sort of based what we're planning on doing on what folk fest did because we're similar kinds of events. For us, we are going to notify the public when we have high-risk days as indicated by the air-quality health index online, and for that, we would recommend to the public to take precautions,' he says, adding that includes suggestions of masking, staying home and minimizing the amount of time spent outdoors. While air quality might impact outdoor festivities, for the most part, the choppy trade situation and border concerns with the United States had a minimal impact on the geographical makeup of the festival's slate of performers, McEwan says. 'Give or take, we have the same number of American and international performers we've had in the past. It's basically 50 per cent local companies, 30 per cent the rest of Canada, and 20 per cent international, including the states,' he says. That said, McEwen noticed that early in the application process, a few American artists decided against a visit to Winnipeg because they were concerned whether they'd be allowed to return to the U.S. For those artists who do make the trek, the festival's productions will be mounted at 25 venues across the city. If you're flipping through your program and notice that there's no Venue 7, it's not a clerical error. Normally, the Dave Barber Cinematheque would occupy that slot, but McEwen says a scheduling change meant the productions originally slated for the downtown movie theatre have instead been shuffled to different locations. No performances were cancelled. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Chuck McEwen has been executive producer of the fringe festival since 2008. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Chuck McEwen has been executive producer of the fringe festival since 2008. While the extended Exchange District hosts half of the festival's venues, including the Royal MTC's John Hirsch Mainstage (Venue 1), RRC Polytech (Venue 11) and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame (Venue 24), the festival has a few other performance hubs that spread audiences across the city. In St. Boniface, Theâtre Cercle Molière and Centre culturel franco-manitobain play host, while in the West End-downtown nexus, the Gargoyle Theatre, the University of Winnipeg's Asper Centre for Theatre and Film, Prairie Theatre Exchange and the West End Cultural Centre will look to draw crowds of their own. 'Having those little hubs is always great because hardcore fringers do like to maximize their time to see two or three shows in an evening if they can,' says McEwen. 'It helps people make an evening of it.' Programs are available for $10 at select Manitoba Liquor Marts, the Royal MTC box office and McNally Robinson Booksellers. Ben WaldmanReporter Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University's (now Toronto Metropolitan University's) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben. Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
CNN
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Ayo Edebiri really committed to a joke about being Irish and Conan O'Brien loves it
Conan O'Brien loves a good bit. Ayo Edebiri has given him a great one. 'The Bear' star began a joke back in March 2023 at the South by Southwest in which she pretended to be Irish. Edebiri kept it up, claiming she played the role of Jenny the donkey in the Ireland-set film, 'The Banshees of Inisherin.' 'I wanted to congratulate you, because you started this joke which you improvised, a joke about being Irish, and then you kept going,' O'Brien told Edebiri during a recent conversation on his 'Conan O' Brien Needs a Friend' podcast. 'There's this crucial point where a joke either becomes like, 'Okay that's enough, I've done it enough, I should stop,' or you double, triple, and quadruple down on it and refuse to let it go, which you did,' he continued. 'Now it has resonated so much that the people of Ireland have accepted you as one of their own, which they will not do with me.' O'Brien said he has the opposite impact with the people of Ireland. 'I am this figure of great shame in Ireland,' he quipped. 'But you, you got a day in Boston, and you're revered by the Irish people,' he said. 'I am rightfully loathed by the Irish and never a day in Boston.' Edebiri explained how it all came about. 'I remember talking about this with a friend. I was like, 'My favorite type of joke low-key might be a lie,'' she said. 'Like, something where it's almost not even funny, it's mostly just funny to me.' Edebiri, who like O'Brien is from Boston, tried to encourage him and said, 'I think your day could come.'
CBS News
23-06-2025
- General
- CBS News
Second City works with Chicago police to help impart improv-derived leadership skills
Three dozen police captains pair off in a Chicago conference room to play a game: They must start a sentence with the last word their partner used. Many exchanges are nonsensical, full of one-upmanship using difficult words and laughter. But the improvisation game eventually makes sense. "What we are trying to do, is get you to listen to the end of the sentence," says Kelly Leonard, wrapping up the improvisational exercise. "If my arm was a sentence, when do most people stop listening? Always the elbow! But then you're missing everything that goes after... and sometimes that's critical information." The police captains who have flown in from departments across the country nod. "I definitely do that," some call out. Officials at the University of Chicago Crime Lab's Policing Leadership Academy brought members of The Second City, Chicago's storied improv theater, to teach police leaders the more diverse skills found in improv exercises — like thinking on your feet, reserving judgment and fully listening. The academy, a workshop taught over five months, tackles some serious topics like to make data-driven decisions or how to help officers handle on-the-job trauma. "We call it yoga for social skills," said Leonard, the vice president of Creative Strategy, Innovation and Business Development at The Second City. The skills might not apply to all policing situations in the field, but being a better listener or learning to take a breath before responding can make for better leaders, according to Tree Branch, a strategic client partner at The Second City Works. The creation of improv and of The Second City is rooted in social work. Both trace their beginnings to Viola Spolin, who created some of the exercises still used in improv while she was a resettlement worker in the 1920s helping immigrant children and local Chicago children connect. Spolin was also the mother of Second City cofounder, Paul Sills. The Policing Leadership Academy's creators believe those skills can also help meet their goals to increase community engagement, improve officer morale and ultimately reduce violent crime. "We are trying to make the case that you can do all three things," without compromising one over the other, said Kim Smith, director of programs at the Crime Lab. The academy is focused on working with leaders from departments dealing with high levels of community gun violence and pays for them to fly to Chicago one week a month to attend the five-month training. Crime Lab researchers found that district and precinct captains have the largest potential impact on their colleagues, despite often receiving little leadership training for the job. A precinct could have high marks for morale, community relationships, or be making a dent in crime numbers, but if the captain changes, those gains could plummet, researchers found, even if the community, the officers and everything else stayed the same. Professors, researchers and police leaders teach courses on topics like developing transparent policing cultures, using and collecting data, managing stress and building community partnerships. So far, about 130 police leaders from about 70 departments including tribal police departments and even a police inspector from Toronto have participated. Capt. Louis Higginson with the Philadelphia Police Department said the academy provided a much broader training than the two weeks of police job training he got before being promoted to captain a little more than a year ago. "The big thing for me was thinking about the things we allow to happen because they've been that way before us," he said. "And the ways we can change the culture of our district by changing the thinking around why we do things." He said he did some of the improv exercises with his wife and daughters when he returned home and it opened up communication in a way he hadn't expected. "I think it opened their eyes, like it did for me," Higginson said. Albuquerque Police Department Commander Ray Del Greco said he's still thinking more about how he communicates weeks after the improv class. "When people talk to you and come to have you help solve their issues, to be able to push your ego out and worry less about your own agenda and listen, that's an understanding of leadership," Del Greco said. "To me that was the most valuable class we had." Academy leaders stressed the learning doesn't stop at graduation. They create communication channels so classmates can continue to support each other, they encourage captains to put on trainings with their departments, and participants are required to implement a capstone project that lasts well past the last day of class and addresses a real problem in their district or department. Many of the projects implement programs to address specific crimes, like involving the community in programs to prevent car thefts or piloting drones as first responders. One previous graduate created a partnership with community groups to increase community pride and reduce gun violence by reducing quality of life issues like littering, overgrown lots and graffiti. Stephen Donohue, a San Jose Police Department captain and recent academy graduate, is creating an early intervention system focusing on officer wellness. A typical system might flag citizen complaints or driving accidents, but Donohue's program gathers input from supervisors and peers to flag when an officer is taking on too much on-duty trauma, such as multiple murders or shooting investigations within a short time. "It's a Venn diagram between training, wellness and internal affairs," he said. "And we can help them, we can lessen use-of-force complaints and allegations, offer better training and improve services put out by the department." The trainers hope in a few years more captains and officers will be saying "yes and" during improv classes. They are keeping tabs through a randomized control study on how well the overall training works. And with that evidence they hope funders, police departments or other universities will help expand the trainings to more departments. "We want there to be rigorously tested scientific evidence behind this," said Academy Executive Director Meredith Stricker. "We work to design a curriculum to ultimately make better leaders and better policing. The participants definitely talk about the improv class as one of their favorites. We hope all of it will work in tandem."
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Comedy and crime fighting join forces for police learning leadership skills
CHICAGO (AP) — Three dozen police captains pair off in a Chicago conference room to play a game: They must start a sentence with the last word their partner used. Many exchanges are nonsensical, full of one-upmanship using difficult words and laughter. But the improvisation game eventually makes sense. 'What we are trying to do, is get you to listen to the end of the sentence,' says Kelly Leonard, wrapping up the improvisational exercise. 'If my arm was a sentence, when do most people stop listening? Always the elbow! But then you're missing everything that goes after... and sometimes that's critical information.' The police captains who have flown in from departments across the country nod. 'I definitely do that," some call out. Officials at the University of Chicago Crime Lab's Policing Leadership Academy brought members of The Second City, Chicago's storied improv theater, to teach police leaders the more diverse skills found in improv exercises — like thinking on your feet, reserving judgment and fully listening. The academy, a workshop taught over five months, tackles some serious topics like to make data-driven decisions or how to help officers handle on-the-job trauma. Improving social skills 'We call it yoga for social skills,' said Leonard, the vice president of Creative Strategy, Innovation and Business Development at The Second City. The skills might not apply to all policing situations in the field, but being a better listener or learning to take a breath before responding can make for better leaders, according to Tree Branch, a strategic client partner at The Second City Works. The creation of improv and of The Second City is rooted in social work. Both trace their beginnings to Viola Spolin, who created some of the exercises still used in improv while she was a resettlement worker in the 1920s helping immigrant children and local Chicago children connect. Spolin was also the mother of Second City cofounder, Paul Sills. The Policing Leadership Academy's creators believe those skills can also help meet their goals to increase community engagement, improve officer morale and ultimately reduce violent crime. 'We are trying to make the case that you can do all three things," without compromising one over the other, said Kim Smith, director of programs at the Crime Lab. The academy is focused on working with leaders from departments dealing with high levels of community gun violence and pays for them to fly to Chicago one week a month to attend the five-month training. Crime Lab researchers found that district and precinct captains have the largest potential impact on their colleagues, despite often receiving little leadership training for the job. A precinct could have high marks for morale, community relationships, or be making a dent in crime numbers, but if the captain changes, those gains could plummet, researchers found, even if the community, the officers and everything else stayed the same. Professors, researchers and police leaders teach courses on topics like developing transparent policing cultures, using and collecting data, managing stress and building community partnerships. So far, about 130 police leaders from about 70 departments including tribal police departments and even a police inspector from Toronto have participated. Communication is key Capt. Louis Higginson with the Philadelphia Police Department said the academy provided a much broader training than the two weeks of police job training he got before being promoted to captain a little more than a year ago. 'The big thing for me was thinking about the things we allow to happen because they've been that way before us,' he said. 'And the ways we can change the culture of our district by changing the thinking around why we do things.' He said he did some of the improv exercises with his wife and daughters when he returned home and it opened up communication in a way he hadn't expected. 'I think it opened their eyes, like it did for me,' Higginson said. Albuquerque Police Department Commander Ray Del Greco said he's still thinking more about how he communicates weeks after the improv class. 'When people talk to you and come to have you help solve their issues, to be able to push your ego out and worry less about your own agenda and listen, that's an understanding of leadership,' Del Greco said. 'To me that was the most valuable class we had.' The student becomes the teacher Academy leaders stressed the learning doesn't stop at graduation. They create communication channels so classmates can continue to support each other, they encourage captains to put on trainings with their departments, and participants are required to implement a capstone project that lasts well past the last day of class and addresses a real problem in their district or department. Many of the projects implement programs to address specific crimes, like involving the community in programs to prevent car thefts or piloting drones as first responders. One previous graduate created a partnership with community groups to increase community pride and reduce gun violence by reducing quality of life issues like littering, overgrown lots and graffiti. Stephen Donohue, a San Jose Police Department captain and recent academy graduate, is creating an early intervention system focusing on officer wellness. A typical system might flag citizen complaints or driving accidents, but Donohue's program gathers input from supervisors and peers to flag when an officer is taking on too much on-duty trauma, such as multiple murders or shooting investigations within a short time. 'It's a Venn diagram between training, wellness and internal affairs," he said. "And we can help them, we can lessen use-of-force complaints and allegations, offer better training and improve services put out by the department.' The trainers hope in a few years more captains and officers will be saying 'yes and' during improv classes. They are keeping tabs through a randomized control study on how well the overall training works. And with that evidence they hope funders, police departments or other universities will help expand the trainings to more departments. 'We want there to be rigorously tested scientific evidence behind this,' said Academy Executive Director Meredith Stricker. 'We work to design a curriculum to ultimately make better leaders and better policing. The participants definitely talk about the improv class as one of their favorites. We hope all of it will work in tandem.'
The Independent
23-06-2025
- General
- The Independent
Comedy and crime fighting join forces for police learning leadership skills
Three dozen police captains pair off in a Chicago conference room to play a game: They must start a sentence with the last word their partner used. Many exchanges are nonsensical, full of one-upmanship using difficult words and laughter. But the improvisation game eventually makes sense. 'What we are trying to do, is get you to listen to the end of the sentence,' says Kelly Leonard, wrapping up the improvisational exercise. 'If my arm was a sentence, when do most people stop listening? Always the elbow! But then you're missing everything that goes after... and sometimes that's critical information.' The police captains who have flown in from departments across the country nod. 'I definitely do that," some call out. Officials at the University of Chicago Crime Lab's Policing Leadership Academy brought members of The Second City, Chicago's storied improv theater, to teach police leaders the more diverse skills found in improv exercises — like thinking on your feet, reserving judgment and fully listening. The academy, a workshop taught over five months, tackles some serious topics like to make data-driven decisions or how to help officers handle on-the-job trauma. Improving social skills 'We call it yoga for social skills,' said Leonard, the vice president of Creative Strategy, Innovation and Business Development at The Second City. The skills might not apply to all policing situations in the field, but being a better listener or learning to take a breath before responding can make for better leaders, according to Tree Branch, a strategic client partner at The Second City Works. The creation of improv and of The Second City is rooted in social work. Both trace their beginnings to Viola Spolin, who created some of the exercises still used in improv while she was a resettlement worker in the 1920s helping immigrant children and local Chicago children connect. Spolin was also the mother of Second City cofounder, Paul Sills. The Policing Leadership Academy's creators believe those skills can also help meet their goals to increase community engagement, improve officer morale and ultimately reduce violent crime. 'We are trying to make the case that you can do all three things," without compromising one over the other, said Kim Smith, director of programs at the Crime Lab. The academy is focused on working with leaders from departments dealing with high levels of community gun violence and pays for them to fly to Chicago one week a month to attend the five-month training. Crime Lab researchers found that district and precinct captains have the largest potential impact on their colleagues, despite often receiving little leadership training for the job. A precinct could have high marks for morale, community relationships, or be making a dent in crime numbers, but if the captain changes, those gains could plummet, researchers found, even if the community, the officers and everything else stayed the same. Professors, researchers and police leaders teach courses on topics like developing transparent policing cultures, using and collecting data, managing stress and building community partnerships. So far, about 130 police leaders from about 70 departments including tribal police departments and even a police inspector from Toronto have participated. Communication is key Capt. Louis Higginson with the Philadelphia Police Department said the academy provided a much broader training than the two weeks of police job training he got before being promoted to captain a little more than a year ago. 'The big thing for me was thinking about the things we allow to happen because they've been that way before us,' he said. 'And the ways we can change the culture of our district by changing the thinking around why we do things.' He said he did some of the improv exercises with his wife and daughters when he returned home and it opened up communication in a way he hadn't expected. 'I think it opened their eyes, like it did for me,' Higginson said. Albuquerque Police Department Commander Ray Del Greco said he's still thinking more about how he communicates weeks after the improv class. 'When people talk to you and come to have you help solve their issues, to be able to push your ego out and worry less about your own agenda and listen, that's an understanding of leadership,' Del Greco said. 'To me that was the most valuable class we had.' The student becomes the teacher Academy leaders stressed the learning doesn't stop at graduation. They create communication channels so classmates can continue to support each other, they encourage captains to put on trainings with their departments, and participants are required to implement a capstone project that lasts well past the last day of class and addresses a real problem in their district or department. Many of the projects implement programs to address specific crimes, like involving the community in programs to prevent car thefts or piloting drones as first responders. One previous graduate created a partnership with community groups to increase community pride and reduce gun violence by reducing quality of life issues like littering, overgrown lots and graffiti. Stephen Donohue, a San Jose Police Department captain and recent academy graduate, is creating an early intervention system focusing on officer wellness. A typical system might flag citizen complaints or driving accidents, but Donohue's program gathers input from supervisors and peers to flag when an officer is taking on too much on-duty trauma, such as multiple murders or shooting investigations within a short time. 'It's a Venn diagram between training, wellness and internal affairs," he said. "And we can help them, we can lessen use-of-force complaints and allegations, offer better training and improve services put out by the department.' The trainers hope in a few years more captains and officers will be saying 'yes and' during improv classes. They are keeping tabs through a randomized control study on how well the overall training works. And with that evidence they hope funders, police departments or other universities will help expand the trainings to more departments. 'We want there to be rigorously tested scientific evidence behind this,' said Academy Executive Director Meredith Stricker. 'We work to design a curriculum to ultimately make better leaders and better policing. The participants definitely talk about the improv class as one of their favorites. We hope all of it will work in tandem.'
