Adjusting to Zoom, and CORE vs CROW
From Paul Rogan
On Sunday morning I wake up bright and early, looking forward to my 10:30am Character CORE class. By the way, why is it called CORE? It’s an acronym, actually — Character, Objective, Relationship, Environment, four of the pillars of our work. It actually used to be called CROW, the W standing for Where, but when I arrived at Impro I was totally confused and thought that when people were talking about CROWing, they were boasting. So it got changed to CORE.
Pre-Covid, I and a group of LA residents would be driving to Los Feliz to take a live class. Stopping off at Starbucks, struggling to find parking, and catching up on the balcony outside room 208 or 209. When lockdown happened, Kirsten, Nick and the School launched an incredible effort to urgently make the classes happen online. The unsung hours of heroic work they and others like Madi did may never be fully told, but it happened.
We had concerns that a class over Zoom might be challenging, and it can be. There are so many issues with bandwidth, backdrops, and bad connections, not to mention that feeling that you are not connecting in the same way with your classmates. But it’s amazing to see how people have adjusted. Those who thought themselves technophobes are now to be heard discussing latency, audio settings, and green screen materials.
The best thing of all is that there are people now joining for classes and shows from all over the world. Half of my present Character CORE class are on the East Coast. Same with my Jane Austen Thursday class. Maciej joins on Sundays from Katowice in Poland. On Sundays afternoons, Dan hosts Le Roundabout with actors from all over the world.
When things get back to normal, most of us will return to the Studio in Los Feliz eventually — but the online classes and shows probably won’t be going away, because the world is open to us now.
Just off to the kitchen now to make my own latte.
