Spotlight on Kerstin Caldwell

Kerstin has been performing and studying the art of improvisation since she was first introduced to it in high school. She received much of her education in Chicago at The Second City and iO, where she studied the theories and teachings of the late Del Close while performing with various Harold teams. She has also performed in Denver with the Bovine Metropolis, Rattlebrain, The Second City Denver and in 2005 Kerstin was a founding member of the Denver Improv Festival and The GroupMind Foundation. Since 2003, Kerstin has taught packed workshops at the Colorado Thespian Conference and created the Conference's first improv showcase called Improv Frenzy. Most recently, she has had the pleasure of experiencing the work of Viola Spolin and Paul Sills through The Wisconsin Theater Games Center and is deeply honored to have also been a student of Mr. Alan Arkin.

How were you first introduced to improvisation?

When I was in high school, I wanted to be Gilda Radner when I grew up. I would tease my theater teacher, telling her to bag the Shakespeare and teach us how to write sketch comedy or stand-up. I must have had some kind of influence, because she brought in one of her former students who played in ComedySportz to teach us improv. At that time, the heavens opened, and I knew what I was supposed to be doing.

What were the highlights of your Chicago Improv experience?

1. Realizing that for the first time in my life I belonged somewhere. I was always the smart ass friend in most every situation. I was kind of like Natalie from The Facts Of Life. To have found the Chicago scene and to be in a place where we were all used to being Natalie, I felt like there was finally a place I belonged, learning to use my smart ass skills for good instead of evil.

2. When I first moved to Chicago, I was interning for The Chicago Improv Festival. One of my duties was to coordinate a photo shoot in LA via the phone for four headliners; Avery Schreiber, Mina Kolb, Tina Fey & Scott Adsit. They were going to be doing a set at the festival which celebrated two generations of Second City. I had no idea who Avery Schreiber or Mina Kolb were at the time, and then I saw Avery Schreiber. He was the guy in those Doritos commercials from my childhood who scared me, intrigued me and stopped me dead in my tracks whenever one of those commercials came on. I had a feeling then, and still do to this day, that I have always been drawn to improvisers even before I knew what improv was. Perhaps my path was set long ago and I simply had to follow the clues to find it.

3. Being told I had a voice by learning how to write and produce shows based on my experiences growing up in a funeral home. I was scared out of my mind when I wrote the first one. As a challenge to myself, I signed up for a slot in a show at iO called Slugfest. You signed up for a half hour slot and would do a piece you wrote based on anything you wanted. I booked mine as far out as possible so that I would have time to prepare and was using every waking moment to configure what I wanted it to be. The night I did Slugfest was right after everyone was back from their holiday trips home and iO was packed. Everyone I admired and wanted to be like was there. Although I was extremely nervous, I don't remember another time on stage and feeling more love from an audience ever in my life. Hearing certain laughs in the audience and knowing who they were from made me feel like I belonged even more. Going from an insecure chick who felt invisible to someone people knew based on that one show really helped boost my confidence enough to rewrite the show and have my mentor, Susan Messing, direct it for an extended run about a year later. (Amazing how we allow others to dictate our value sometimes, isn't it?)

4. Singing an inspired rendition of Aretha Franklin's Respect at iO during Karaoke after CIF one night. Tina Fey and Scott Adsit were in the front row of the theater while I was singing and they watched me and nodded while conversing back and forth. In my mind, their conversation was that of being impressed by my ability as a white girl singing Aretha. Their actual conversation, a 30 Rockesque comment as to how delusional this white girl singing Aretha actually was.

5. Being completely submerged in improv every night of the week. There was a long period of time when I was either rehearsing, playing, taking a class or at a show every night of the week except maybe one. Being surrounded by what you love, being able to work with and apply your new found knowledge of it and watching others grow and do the same was probably some of the best times of my life and something I really miss.

What was your inspiration for starting Gaining Perspective?

When I moved back from Chicago I noticed that a lot of groups I had watched or even performed with before I left were still doing either the same things or very similar things to what they were doing almost five years before. I was so excited to share with them what I learned while I was gone so I decided to extend what I had been teaching high school students on to adults.

I've always been interested in the idea that in Denver most places that are known for their improv, as well as most independent groups, tend to stay to themselves. They didn't appear to really go beyond what they already know about improv to learn more. For a long time, The Bovine's training center has been the only place with a structured five-level curriculum to learn from. Since I believe that all there is to learn about improv is infinite, I knew there was an opening for more beyond just five levels. I saw that some people wanted more so I started Gaining Perspective to fill the gap of what could come beyond a structured five-level curriculum.

My goal with Gaining Perspective was to get people to see that if they truly loved improv, they would want to study from more than one voice in order to see the craft from a different point of view. Seven years later, I'm still working on convincing people of that concept, but there has certainly been progress. It hasn't always been an easy road, but it's been the best thing I could have done for myself as far as spreading my love of our work to others. I wouldn't trade a single moment... Even the icky ones.

Does your approach to teaching improv differ whether it's adults or high school students?

It used to, but I don't think that it does anymore. Coming from learning improv in high school, my passion has always been to get as many kids into it as I could. The way I saw it was that I had been given the greatest gift of my life when I was in high school. Who would a smart ass kid like me have become as an adult without this gift? So I made it my mission to get myself into as many school programs as I could to show the other smart ass kids a place to use their smart ass skills for good instead of evil, too.

Over the past couple of years, my approach with high school students has changed depending on whether I'm supplementing improv curriculum in a theater class or I'm teaching improv as a core curriculum like I do at William Smith High School in Aurora. I've made the focus for teens at William Smith about creating self-awareness and how choices they make in improv tend to be the same types of choices they make in their own lives that either help them to succeed or fall short of their goals. What's funny is that the more I developed this approach with high school students, I realized the need for this same concept with adult students, as this concept certainly isn't bound by age. My approach with high school students informed and evolved into how I teach performing and getting out of one's own way on stage to adults, thus the inception of The YES! Lab.

I guess my style now, regardless of the age of the students I'm with, is a mix of self-awareness and an authentic application of who you are in this moment in order to create a more honest you on stage and off.

What's next for The Yes! Lab?

So much is happening, its crazy-pants!

In September, our Instructor team, Preposterous, will be headlining the 11:30 show at DIF on the 30th. In October we teach Getting Your Feet Wet, our "try us on" workshop at DIF on the 1st, and we celebrate our one year anniversary with a show at The Improv on October 6th. And then in January, we relocate our workshops and shows to the Voodoo Comedy Playhouse, which we are super excited about! ... Oh yeah, and just to be extra crazy, Sam & I decided to throw a baby into the mix as well, so that's on the upcoming agenda. Not only do we train the next generation of improvisers, we also breed them. Go IMPROV!