Tim wrote a beautiful short essay about how the guests at the Lamb Center, a day shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness, were transformed during a visit with Resonance Improv Alliance volunteers.
Pretending to be Martians
Photograph used with permission of The Lamb Center
Improv At TLC – The Invisible Becoming Visible
It is a quiet Wednesday afternoon, July 31. The diminished “after lunch” crowd is present, talking quietly, nursing their phones. Three women and two men unobtrusively take “center stage” to begin “Improv at The Lamb Center.”
Chuck and I are at our laundry labors, but we soon become aware something different . . . something very special . . . is going on in the room. My scant knowledge of improv leaves me with the impression of wannabe Nate Bargatzes standing up in a noisy bar to test their mostly blue comic routines. It soon becomes apparent this is not going to be that. These men and women do provoke laughter with their few words, but it is obvious from the outset that they are not to be the focus today. Their entire attention is directed to our guests, and for the next 60 plus minutes the room is transformed into a place of comfortable interactive hilarity.
From our perch in the laundry, we cannot hear the prompts from the improv leaders, but the guests’ responses are wonderfully obvious: various invisible objects of all sizes—ping pong balls, pieces of lumber, watermelons—are blown, handed, thrown from one to another, producing incredibly realistic body movements to make the arduous catches possible. Chuck and I, non-participants of course, are caught up in contagious laughter.
There is soft-spoken, emotionally-fragile Benjamin,* who usually enters into the noise and guests at the Lamb Center and immediately fades to the edges of the room, craving invisibility. On this afternoon, he is waving his arms, broadly smiling, contorting his limbs, hoping to snag one of the illusive missiles. Then, Rachel,* an E-bike rider in her first day here . . . she can’t contain her giggles, and it is obvious she inspires the same in so many others.
Of course, there are a host of other interactive activities taking place as the afternoon wears on, activities that gently require safe risk-taking and bring forth a definite sense of satisfaction. There were also those who remained ‘most valuable spectators’, definitely engaged, laughing, cheering, but not yet ready to take the risk. Maybe next time.
There is genuine happiness throughout the room, people laughing at each other and, more importantly, at themselves.
It is a great Lamb Center day. Thank you!
*Not their actual names.
The Lamb Center is a day shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness in Fairfax, VA.
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