The Hague: Fin

After 8 months The Hague had our last show tonight. It was a very eclectic group and our time together fun and challenging. Everyone had their own style and more often than not we would come together, clash, and create something that worked despite the disparity of our different approaches. Sometimes it didn't work which is no rarity in improv. And when it didn't it was never boring, everyone on the team is strong, aggressive, and opinionated so our failures were just as interesting as our successes. Sometimes we were water and vinegar other times we were vinegar and baking soda. There were always surprises.

I don't feel any regret. For me the desire for the luster and love- the cultivating of a close knit group- faded after my first iO team FireCup. It's not as if we weren't friends but we were all, or at least I was, more concerned with the shows and the quality of the improv than with hanging out with each other a ton. I'm grateful for our time together and for a chance to get to know the people on the team I didn't and to spend more time with the people on the team I did. I took pleasure in most of the shows, pride in some, and I learned something from them all.

The two people that made the whole experience exceptionally special for me were Rich and Caitlin. Caitlin I've been friends with for over a decade and aside from one directing scene in college where I was Richard III and she was Lady Anne we never got to perform together. I consider it a great gift and something I'll very much miss, seeing her each week and improvising with her. The Hague gave us a chance to reconnect and get close again. Rich on the other hand I did not know. I knew who he was but we had no connection. When he was added I think we were all a little cautious. We had no need to be because although Rich is perpetually dry he is open. I loved playing with him despite, at times, his moves and ideas going directly counter to mine. It was frustrating but stimulating. He made me stretch. And he became a friend, not something I anticipated given his outward reserve and sarcasm.

Of course I loved playing with everyone else. I always love playing with Julia, James, Pants, and Ellen who I've been on teams with on and off for a couple years and it was a treat to be on a team with Mark and Dan who I had known previously only tangentially.

It was a good run and a good team. Improv can be fleeting and ethereal. Sometimes the teams are too.