Exploring Our Liminal Space
Written by Janice (Tatiana Godfrey, Lisa Fredrickson, and Jen Reiter)
Hi. We’re Janice. We are the new co-Artistic Directors of Impro Theatre. It’s so nice to meet you. Happy New Year!
Janice took our name after we were elected, when our outgoing Artistic Director, Dan O’Connor said off-handedly “Congratulations! What do you call yourselves? I mean, you can call yourselves whatever you want– co-Artistic Directors, or you could call yourselves ‘Janice’ if you like. Fine by me!”
And in the spirit of the way that we improvise… we did call ourselves Janice!
We are Janice.
It wasn’t long before ensemble members started asking us if we were going to spell it “Janice” or “Janus,” like the Roman God of gates and doors, beginnings and transitions. January is named after Janus. Janus has one face looking to the past and a completely different one looking to the future.
Yes, we said.
Janice. Janus.
This felt fitting, as we started our term in January.
You see, January is a transitional time of the year. We all set resolutions and goals, geared up to pay taxes, assessed the past year and how we’d lived up to our own expectations. That is part of what we were hired to do here at Impro Theatre.
Impro as an organization is also in flux. In April of 2021, Dan, who we mentioned earlier, stepped down from his position as Producing Artistic Director to encourage a new artistic direction focusing more on inclusivity. Then, in July 2021, the ensemble more than doubled its numbers adding new members to allow us to share more stories from different perspectives. THEN, inspired by the We See You White American Theater call to action and the BLKLST Collective’s Los Angeles Anti-Racist Theatre Standards, a new artistic leadership team was elected by the ensemble.
That’s us! That’s Janice! (Janus!)
Individually, we are Lisa Fredrickson, Jen Reiter & Tatiana Godfrey. We are ensemble members, teachers, directors, arts administrators, mediators, writers, collaborators, producers, facilitators, delegators, models, mothers, creators, instigators, and co-conspirators. Together, we are the new co-Artistic Directors of Impro Theatre. Collectively we are Janice. Our purpose is to lead Impro Theatre through this liminal time.
What’s that word there, huh? Liniment? Linen? Luminati? Liminal! Come to the dictionary with us, won’t ya?
Merriam Webster defines liminal as…
But what does that mean? And why are we writing about it here on this blog on the Impro Website? Why is it relevant to talk about liminality right now?
We understand liminal spaces as transitional or transformative. They are the waiting areas between one point in time and space and the next. Often, when we are in liminal spaces, we have the feeling of just being on the verge of something. Liminal space can be, of course, a literal space. Like a lobby. But, as improvisers we spend a lot of time in a more metaphorical liminal space. At Impro we sometimes call it 2nd Circle, or the Improv Faeries, or flow. It is the place where possibility lives.
Liminality is like Janus looking backward and forward at the same time. Walking through a gate or a door, being in a moment of transition, the instant where/when one thing ends and a new thing begins.
It is improv. It is possibility.
As we began our work, we as Janice strove to live in this liminal space. In order to know how to go forward, we needed to look backward.
The Impro Theatre Company Ensemble elected us with the understanding that our job would be to define this liminal space, and to set up future artistic leadership with a strong organizational foundation. So we began with a Grand Listening Tour™ of our ensemble members, staff & board members.
We used a graphic organizer to visually represent all of the feedback that we received.
The most recurring theme that came out of our listening sessions was the desire to prioritize people. We also heard about zoom fatigue and the struggle with isolation. We heard about how many different people felt they were carrying the heaviest load. We heard about how much people miss fun! Ah, fun! Remember fun? Sigh. We heard about personal struggles of managing zoom school and testing and masks and making ends meet and grief and loss and fear and confusion and loneliness and and and.
In accepting this title we became the Gods of gates and doors, beginnings and transitions. For Impro, at least. And now, here, in this space, we will explore and share together our process, our challenges and our triumphs. We hope you’ll join us on this liminal journey via this blog. Maybe click that subscribe button. We promise whatever this liminality serves up, we will document and report it. Sometimes being a God has a lot of administrative duties.
“Liminal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liminal. Accessed 11 Jan. 2022.
