It’s about honoring

Once a year, I sit down and write a love letter to improv. It is my ode to the craft. Improv changed my life, and I do not say that lightly. I often wonder if it could change the world — or, at the very least, how we treat each other as we go about our lives in this world.

Recently I was at an Improv Leadership Summit in Cincinnati with attendees from all across the globe. And so many of our conversations over the three-day gathering centered around the construct of honoring. And I remember thinking, yes, that is exactly what happens when we lean into the craft. It’s the perfect description: honoring.

Every time I take the stage, I am given the opportunity to practice honoring:

• Honoring myself
• Honoring my scene partners
• Honoring the craft
• Honoring the audience — all at the same time

Seriously, it’s all about honoring. Let me explain.

Honoring myself:  What matters deeply is that I show up in the most authentic state of who I am and unleash that for the world to see. Because there is room for all of me to be all of who I am. I’m allowed to gloriously honor myself.

Honoring each other: While standing on stage shoulder to shoulder with your scene-mates, all you have is each other and the unspoken agreement of honoring. Together you build on each other’s ideas until you have created something far better than you could have ever created on your own. You showed up as the best version of yourself, mixed that with the best version of others and let all that interconnected brilliance play out on the stage. All because you agreed to honor each other.

Honoring the craft: While the craft of improv has various forms, structures and schools, there are only a few core fundamental principles: to suspend judgment, to build on the ideas of others, to listen intently and to agree to a shared reality. That’s it. And when you honor the craft, the rest takes care of itself.

Honoring the audience: The audience has elected to come to the show and watch you perform. And they are smart and funny and kind and enthusiastic. These people could literally be anywhere else right now, but they’re not. They want to be there, yelling out suggestions, cheering you on and laughing with you. And yes they are also laughing at you — with great love in their hearts. Shared laughter creates a powerful bond between humans. Having an audience to perform in front of is a gift; honoring them is also a gift.

Let me say it again: it’s all about honoring.

This honoring practice is about respect and integrity, admiration and truth. There’s an implied obligation; a responsibility to a predetermined code of conduct. And it’s this very same truth — this honoring — that is at the heart of the most pressing work of being a human being connected to every other human being living out our shared humanity.

So yes, improv can change the world, or at the very least, change the way we treat each other as we go about our lives in this world. And I believe that — deep in my soul. Because at the heart of improv, what we’re really doing is unconditionally fundamental to the core of human understanding and connectedness. We’re honoring. It’s all about the honoring.

Michelle Obama once said, “The arts…define who we are as a people. That is their power — to remind us of what we each have to offer and what we all have in common.” I think we all have the capacity to offer honor — and that shared potential has the power to change the world.

And that is this year’s love letter to improv.

Ancora Imparo … (Still, I am learning).  w

Stacey Mason is the founder of The Improv Lab, a professional development business in Bentonville. More information is available by calling 479-877-0131. The opinions expressed are those of the author.