Improv! Improv is an underappreciated art form where performers create a dialogue or scenes on stage without any pre-writing or scripting. This is an interview with one of Istanbul’s most active and welcoming improv groups, The Clap — a group of misfits creating worlds and destroying them within one performance. I took some time to speak with director Kenny Laurie, founder Kelsey Yuhara and creative director Curtis Erhart.
Could you tell us a bit about your background and how you came to be involved in Istanbul’s improv scene?
Kelsey: It had been four years since I had been abroad and I was living in Seattle. After a six week trip to China, I decided to apply for teaching jobs in a few different countries around the world. I chose Istanbul in 2012, and it has been a base for me ever since. A few months after I moved, I became involved with Square Peg Theatre Group as a manager of their theatre called The Space. I’ve done theatre my entire life and I can’t stay away from this world for long. In an effort to diversity the repertoire at The Space, I started a side group of people interested in rehearsing improv on a more regular basis. The Space has since become history, though the group lives on.
Curtis: I had been doing expat theater for 5 or 6 years, acting and directing in musicals with the Speech Bubbles theater group. I had tried to form a few long form groups but nothing would ever stick. I finally decided to just try to something with one other person, in the hope that it be more durable, and so I started doing a two man show with my friend Tyler Denison. Luckily, around that time Kelsey was starting a group, and we thought it would be a good idea to join forces.
Kenny: I came to Turkey about three years ago, beforehand I lived in Dubai and it was a lot of work and my hours meant I worked all night evenings and weekends, so no time for play. When I came here I went on Google to check if there was improv in town, but due to my poor internet skills I couldn’t find anything. Fortunately the next day I found an interview with Kelsey and Curtis about improv. I went to a show and I joined immediately after.
Kelsey, what made you decide to start something like The Clap?
Kelsey: When I was a part of a theater company called The Space, we wanted to add variety and more programming to the show. So Curtis came to us with the idea of the Improv Jam. The audience liked getting up on stage and laughing with friends. From the audiences at these events, another Frenchman came to me with another idea for a type of show called “theatre sports”. After few months of meeting to organize all the logistics and searching for rehearsal and performance venues (as The Space was closing down due to issues with a neighbor and the owner’s pregnancy), we started rehearsing. After changing rehearsal locations several times, group goals, gaining new members and saying goodbye to beloved ones, The Clap found a home at YOTA, where they continue to perform. And things keep changing with the times – in a city like Istanbul, there’s not really another option.
Does the present-day iteration of “The Clap” meet your vision of when you started it?
Kelsey: As, I said, the group was originally formed with very different goals and very different people. I myself, have often been in an out of the city, usually for months a time, and it’s always interesting to see how the group continues to evolve in my absence. As far as my own personal motivations go, I just wanted a space to continue using the muscles that you use in an effective improv environment. In the real world, we are forced to wear masks, we don’t speak to the truth of our experience and tell a million white lies of omission in order to function in normal society life. In theatre, and particularly improv, the situation is not real and the character you are portraying is not real and so, in the best of rehearsal and performance spaces, improv offers the opportunity to shed these masks and inhabit all the dark and light corners of human existence. My vision, if it is one, was to create that space for myself and for others to experience as well. Also, it’s just important to play – and as adults, many people forget that. I think that’s still true for a lot of people who continue to join the group. They want to be involved in something, they want to explore themselves and play.
Kenny, could you tell us about your role as director and what you enjoy in the project?
Kenny: Being a leader of The Clap can be tiring. As a leader I have a responsibility both to the group and to the audience. So I strive most to keep both happy to the best of my ability, which is of course not always an easy job. If I found that removing myself from a show is what’s best for the community and the audience then it would be my responsibility to do that. But what’s great about it is that the community honestly takes care of itself most of the time, mostly due to the closeness of its members. Since the community is so close it keeps itself running smoothly. My favorite part is watching the community do well and enjoying themselves and taking some meaning from the whole endeavor. It can be a bit like if you’re a teacher and the class goes well, it’s the best hour ever and if it goes badly you feel like it’s the worst hour of your life. I also enjoy the members seeing something they wrote or rehearsed come to life. When we do the sketch shows with BKM, it is very satisfying seeing how much the writers and performers take pleasure from what they have achieved. All in all, what puts a smile on my face is when both the audience and the performers are happy.
With The Clap being comprised largely of expats, how do you feel it stands out from other expat communities?
Kenny: The Clap wasn’t meant to be an expat community. Circumstantially because most of the people here in Istanbul who are looking for English speaking activities are expats, most of the members are expats. I don’t know a lot about other communities to compare really, but what we’re very proud of in The Clap is that it doesn’t cost anybody anything. And it’s completely open to all without any requirements or obligations even. We are mainly a performing group and what gets a lot of people in and keeps them in is that they’re interested in performing or in improv in general.
What are some long-term expectations for “The Clap” and where do you think it will go?
Kenny: Like I said before, I want to meet my responsibilities to audience and performer alike. We are currently performing at YOTA theater in Taksim and during the season we are part of the BKM comedy sketch show. There isn’t really a vision as it is hard to game plan for the future when talent leaves the country and new talent arrives. But I like to roll with the tide. New things come up unexpectedly, like our work with BKM, and factors outside of our control sometimes dictate what we can and can’t do, so we just have to keep rolling and adapting. We are proud of the crowd we have, because even though it’s not big, it is not made up of other improvisers as it is at a lot of other improv theatres around the world. Especially now that a lot of expats are leaving, we also lose some talent and we also gain some, so the group always stays alive and active and all I can do is keep it going in a good direction. I hope that English speaking performance art gets more recognition and that way we can gain more audience and we’re always welcome to anyone who would like to join rehearsal on Wednesday at YOTA.
Curtis, as an experienced improviser, how would you describe the improv scene in Istanbul compared to other cities in which you performed?
Curtis: I’ve done improv only in one other city, and that’s Chicago, which is a giant improv mecca. Obviously the scene here is tiny comparatively, but also the people involved often are brand new to performing and there are very few if any people with professional performing ambitions. Back in Chicago, I knew some people who were there just to make friends and have fun but also a lot of people who were angling for a slot on SNL or Mad TV or something like that. That keeps the stakes here very low, which is actually pretty liberating.
Having lived here a long time, do you think the English improv scene in Istanbul has the potential to be larger? Do you think there’s anything that can be done by other communities to help it grow?
Curtis: I would love to see it get huge! There are a lot of people in this city, so we don’t really need a huge percentage of the population to get into it whether as an audience member or performer for it to get really big. There are enough English speakers who are hip enough to get what we are doing here to make the scene here comparable with any in Europe I think.
To keep up with The Clap, be sure to check out their official Facebook page.
All images courtesy of The Clap.
