The Nursery Panel: Writing from Improv

Improv is an artform that disappears into the ether as soon as it’s finished, but should it? Should we write down the things we improvise? Or improvise based on what we’ve written? Can the skills of improvising inform our practice as writers?

This panel will be Hosted by Heather Urquhart and feature special guests:

Mark Kendall

Mark Kendall is an Atlanta-based comedian. His one person show, “The Magic Negro and Other Blackness” was produced by Dad’s Garage Theatre and the Alliance Theatre and also performed at ARS Nova’s ANTFEST in NYC and The New Ground Play Festival at The Cleveland Play House. He completed the Comedy Central Chris Rock Summer School Program, where he pitched jokes at “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.” Mark was named best Professional Funnyman by Creative Loafing in 2015 and was the Readers Pick for Best Comedian in Creative Loafing Atlanta in 2019.
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCKV0WhtAkFaeJSTGYAMp-8g

Sehar Manji

Born and raised in Nairobi, Sehar Manji is now a Montreal-based improviser, improv teacher, actor, writer, standup and sketch comedian. She performs regularly on stages around the city and in local festivals (MPROV, Montreal Sketchfest, Ladyfest, Fringe, OFF-JFL, POP Montreal). She has also performed in Toronto (The Big City Improv Festival and JFL42), New York (The Del Close Marathon) and was a part of the International Ensemble at the Vancouver International Improv Festival three years in a row. In 2018, Sehar was part of CBC’s Kim’s Convenience Emerging Writers’ Room workshop, working alongside showrunners, Ins Choi and Kevin White.

Aih Mendoza

Faculty member and alumni of Third World Improv, the first improv school in the Philippines. A member of the TWI House Team, she has performed and taken workshops in several countries around the world. In Manila, Aih performs and teaches regularly, and is training to be an applied improv facilitator.
She is also an advertising copywriter, a freelance content writer and editor, and is in the middle of finishing her first book of essays.

and

Jenny Rowe

Jen has toured with with Fluxx, and performs with The Maydays, Impromptu Shakespeare, The Concept, and Two Seats Four Cheeks (with occasional improv partner in crime, Lloydie James Lloyd). She has trained with Secondcity and Annoyance, teaches Improv for Creative Writing and is currently researching a second scripted show. Her recent solo play in 2019, “Tiptree: No-one else’s damn secret but my own” was described by reviewers as… ‘a fascinating biography… eloquently written’; ‘uses humour to reveal moments that would break your heart if you weren’t chuckling.’