Get to know Cindy 3

Cindy Pittens: Improv is my life in many ways

Cindy Pittens, the Dutch improviser who has left an indelible mark in our hearts here at Improteca, talks in the last part of this interview saga about why one plus one makes three in improv, why it’s not always a good idea to try to be funny as an improviser and about how improv has helped her throughout her life’s journey. Read on till the end to get a glimpse into how improv has impacted her personal life.

Daniela Stoican: What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned from improv?
Cindy Pittens: “One of the most valuable phrases for me is <<After step one there is step one>>, meaning so many things. To start with: if you take too big steps, it’s hard. If you are allowing yourself to take the first step, it will get you going, it will get you in flow.”

She says that our expectations of ourselves are sometimes very high and we feel as if we should be able to take the first step, but actually we’re not thinking about the first step, we consider the next 10 steps to be the first and it paralyzes us.
“So are we truly honest as to what our first step is?”, she wonders. “I think it can be very helpful to allow ourselves to say yes to taking smaller steps.”
She then goes on to explain the process of adding “bricks” to the cathedral of an improv scene. “If I add a brick and you add a brick, then we add the next couple of bricks because we understand what’s going on.” Connected, one step at a time.

“So we have the one plus one is three idea, right?”, she says. “That’s because the shared reality ends up being so much more than the individual steps.”
With every new step, a new reality gets created because we learn something and it may change us. “You cannot think 10 steps ahead. It's impossible to know what would have happened in the 9 steps before! We cannot look into the future!”
Of course in hindsight you can say: “Oh, I took ten steps, but in the here and now you can only take one step.” There’s a lot of learning in not knowing stuff and still moving forward. “I think that’s very valuable,” Cindy says.”It makes you brave in life.”

DS: Is there something that you don’t like about improv?
Cindy: “Great question. There is an image about improv that I don’t necessarily like, which is the image that it’s about comedy and about being witty and funny. In my mind, improv is not only about that. But there are people who love improv because of just comedy, which is of course fine.”

She adds that she is not so much into this comedic view of improv because it puts pressure on people. To think you have to be funny or fast. “And the whole purpose about improv is that it takes pressure away, so you can be creative”.
Cindy says improvisers also tend to undervalue the ‘art’ part of it. “And as improvisers you need to because otherwise we would have the pressure of the feeling it has to be ‘art’ and again we would not feel safe improvising.” But at the same time it ís an art form, a craft, and she is interested in how to make it better.
“I want to learn, I want to improve and sometimes it’s just too bad that we as improvisers don’t always have enough courage to take it a step forward in the art sense of it.”

DS: And how would you see that step forward?
Cindy: “Having more of a sense of the whole theater experience. Understanding that you are not only having fun together on stage, but are in fact creating theater, with spectators, that offer their time, attention and maybe even money to watch. A lot of improvisers improvise because they like improvising and they don’t really care how the audience perceives the show.”
DS: More specifically, how would you see that caring about the audience?
Cindy: “Be more aware of what you are presenting to them, more than a couple of people who are having fun on stage. There is a theater experience for the audience. You have to think about: What experience am I offering them?”
DS: “But at the same time how does that go with being free and non-judgmental?”
Cindy: “Right, this can be a problem.” (smiles)
DS: Is it just a step further in your growing as an improviser?
Cindy: “No, not for everybody. There are improvisers who do it for 20 years and who don’t care about that ‘art part’ because they just like doing it, it’s just a hobby. They are having fun, with the improvisation playfulness. And they’ll grow as an improviser too. Maybe even more then the people who get stuck in the judgy ‘art part’ of improvisation.” (smiles again)

DS: So what is your way of caring about the audience?
Cindy: “I try to think of it as a whole. There is the technician, the lights, there is a visual. How do you act on stage when you are not active in a scene? Do you understand your stage presence?”
She says improvisers can be sloppy on stage, which is understandable, with all the things an improviser has to do at the same time.
“I like to take it a step further by getting the most out of it. So I want to act truthfully, I want to tell a story that makes sense or is in a way touching people.”

Cindy then comes back to her point about taking care of the audience. “Also, how do people come into an improvisation theater? At least in Holland what you see a lot is that it’s as if people were entering a canteen. There is not really a theater vibe.
<<Hi! Welcome to our theater! We are here for you today. You are the audience today and we think we can create something you might like>>, instead of <<I think we can create something that we like and the fact that you are here is just a bonus>>”.

DS: And in terms of humor, do you think comedy is a natural result that can be there or not and you should just let it be?
Cindy: “I think that is my style, but there are wonderful comedians who are actually capable of making witty jokes all the time and I like that too. That’s another wonderful skill.”
She says this is not really her skill “I’m not that sharp with words, but I see that as a skill that other improvisers have and that is awesome.” While she doesn’t have an opinion about it, what she sees happening is that improvisers think they have to be funny all the time. “And then they lose truthfulness in their characters.”

Cindy says that’s too bad and that she likes witty improvisers who are still connected to their body, their co-players. who are still aware of the space they are creating.
“That is something I appreciate most in theater and what if you forget about that because you are trying to be funny? Then you have to be super witty to compensate for that.”

DS: Why do you think improv is such a niche phenomenon?
“Because it is not only about performing. You see actors, going through a process together. And not everybody is interested in that process.”
She says some people just want to see a nice theater performance. So for those people, improv isn’t really their cup of tea. You have to be appreciative of “Hey, these improvisers are human beings.” And you see them sometimes struggle or not knowing and then resolving it, Cindy explains.
“Can you understand the magic of that? If you can let that happen to other people on stage, I think then you appreciate this art. If you don’t, then you’d better see a scripted show because they are most of the time better. They are actually thought through.”

Good improvisation shows, you don’t see them often, according to Cindy, but she admits she has high standards.”And what is ‘good’?”
“This is an interesting complexity of myself. I am in a way a perfectionist and maybe that is exactly why I want to improvise. I need to lower my bar to enjoy it, enjoy life maybe at all, so that I’m not stuck with the inner critic and high bar that I have inside me.”

She says she has less high expectations as she grows older, that she is learning to lower the bar. “And I think improv helps me a lot in this. I learn to value what I actually did. Because that’s what’s real. That is exactly where I am, this is what I can do right now and I can be proud of that as well. Or at least relax in the reality.”

DS: What does improv mean in your life?
Cindy: “It ís my life I think in many ways. I have no children, I have no partner, I’ve got my improv work. It is a passion, it is a hobby, it makes me curious. It’s satisfying, it is not satisfying, it is pushing me, it is relaxing me. So it’s a lot. For many things in life I have my improv glasses on and try to see things with an improv mindset. So it is a huge part of me. Who I am, who I have become has a lot to do with improv.”
DS: How exactly?
Cindy: “In the last 8 years that I have been building my career as an improviser, I have been doing that with an improvisation mindset. One step at a time. Learning to let go of programmed, fixed expectations and self image. Understand that I am a dynamic character that evolves in life, like the protagonist in the Hero’s Journey.”

Cindy tells about her personal life before her improv-career. “It was not an easy road. I had to reinvent myself a couple of times and in 2012 life was just too hard. I kind of gave up on thinking I knew and understood what life expected from me.” Cindy had a lot of coaching and therapy to get where she is now. And improvisation was a very important part of this process.

“I think I used every improv scene as a practice place, where I could safely explore human interactions and emotions, without any fear of failing. It was imagined after all. No one could get hurt.”
And a very important mindset comes back all the time, which gives so much breath and mindspace in life. “Right here, right now, this is it. Whatever you do. Wherever you choose to go. Whatever you feel or think. This is it. You can fight reality, because you think it’s not good enough. But rather you say Yes to it. And add that thing that you think makes things better. Or you just breathe with it. You are fine. This is it.”

Cindy has been part of a two-month cultural residency at Improteca theater in Bucharest Romania, where she created a show based on the Hero’s Journey called Mad World, which played to a full house. She also created several shows together with fellow residents Michalis Panagiotakis (Greece) and Matilda Lindström (Finland), as well as with top Romanian improvisers.

Read the Romanian version right here!