And if you’re doing it right, you support others as much as they support you. It’s like a sports team that way, though I’ve never been on a sports team. If one of your teammates is flailing, you help out. You’re never left hanging, either.
After seeing benefits for me, I had my thirteen-year-old daughter, who has the same brand of anxiety as I do, take improv twice. As time progressed, she began speaking up more in the classroom, even reading her own essay out loud to an auditorium full of people. She self-advocates expertly instead of remaining quiet. Most important, if she wants to participate in an activity, she’s able to.
For these reasons and more, improv’s also incredibly beneficial for personal growth and interpersonal relationships. Room2Improv is a Chicago nonprofit that uses improv in schools to address bullying. Founder Eileen Kahana says that it helps bullies learn empathy and those who are bullied stand up for themselves. Many improv groups work with senior citizens and veterans’ groups, too.
To further explore how improv can benefit you in your life, I suggest looking up improv theaters in your area and taking a class. Also check out the book Relax, We’re All Just Making This Stuff Up!: Using the Tools of Improvisation to Cultivate More Courage and Joy in Your Life by Amy Lisewski.
Acknowledgments
No book is created solo, and this book required more community participation than normal. When I began writing, I asked our community for input into improv and anxiety and/or introversion and how it helped them. I am so grateful to: Jay Sukow, an instructor and performer at Second City and other places; Amy Lisewski, owner of Finest City Improv and teacher; Jacqueline Bookstein, brilliant youth teacher and performer at Old Town Improv Company; Matt Sheelen and Ryan Suffridge of Cornerstone Improv; and Eileen Kahana of Room2Improv.
Improvisers that helped me with personal stories include Matt Messerman of National Comedy Theatre and Babel Barm of FCI. Hudson Reynolds, improviser extraordinaire at FCI and Old Town Improv Company, thoughtfully answered approximately a billion different technical questions with great patience and detail; I am grateful. Thanks also to my improv teachers at FCI: Tommy Galan, Shawn Roop, Joe Partynski, Amy Lisewski, and Jessica Farber; all of you influenced this book and helped me make these connections between improv and real life.
Shout-out to my improv team, Big Shoes, a group of people thrown randomly together by a class, who became good friends and teammates: JillAnne Aden, Mark Rachel, Diane Rachel, Tristan Cole, Randy Salgado, Mike Nieto, Stacey Willard, Melissa Slawson, Austin Beals, and Paul Wisecaver—you helped me understand what being on a real team is like. Big thanks to Collider Arts, where we’re building something new and inclusive. To my sketch crew, which includes Gaby Reese, Tim Short, Ben Hardie, Mae Brayton, Damaris Treviso, Randy Salgado, and Stacey Willard—thanks for supporting my ideas and leadership with such enthusiasm—this helped inform the book more than you know. And finally to the whole FCI community—thanks for providing a space where background doesn’t matter and where people can be their authentic selves.
Thanks to the ICD and noncompaction cardiomyopathy Facebook groups I belong to for providing me with their experiences, which helped inform Ava’s. Thanks to my doctors at UCSD, Dr. Eric Adler and Dr. David Krummen, who have followed me closely and make sure I can do as many things as possible. Any factual mistakes about heart disease are my own.
I’m also extremely thankful for my critique group, Laura Shovan, Karina Yan Glaser, Casey Lyall, Timanda Wertz, and Janet Sumner Johnson, who provided crucial early feedback. Thanks to my agent, Patricia Nelson, for her support and feedback. Thanks to Mary Pender at UTA for her continued support. My editor, Kristin Rens, brilliantly untangled and polished my story to be better than I had envisioned.
And, as always, thanks to my family for supporting and believing in me.
About the Author
PHOTO BY SUTOGRAPHY
MARGARET DILLOWAY is the author of Summer of a Thousand Pies and six other books for children and adults. She lives with her family in San Diego, where she performs long-form improv on three teams and writes and produces sketch shows.
Margaret can be found online at www.margaretdilloway.com.
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Copyright
Balzer + Bray is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
FIVE THINGS ABOUT AVA ANDREWS. Copyright © 2020 by Margaret Dilloway. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Cover art © 2020 by Yaoyao Ma Van As
Cover design by David DeWitt
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2019957962
Digital Edition JUNE 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-280361-0
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-280349-8
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2021222324PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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