Oops,...Ouch: Responding to Unexpected Moments of Harm

We’ve all witnessed a moment where something harmful has happened in a scene. It might have come from another teammate or you may have said it yourself—and the tension, embarrassment, or discomfort continues to hang in the air. Whether you are a student, a seasoned performer, a teacher, or a coach, having the tools to handle these situations can make all the difference in fostering a community of trust. 

This workshop normalizes these hard moments of improv comedy that come from playing in the unplanned and unexpected. We will focus on strategies for how to respond to our lizard brains. You’ll get the opportunity to practice different responses that can train you to change your behavior over time. So the next time an oops happens you can begin to normalize recognizing, and naming, the ouch at the moment. 

This workshop will be led by Mary C. Parker.

Instructor: Mary C. Parker(she/her) is a performer, applied theater facilitator, independent international scholar and Executive Producer. As a performer, Mary has performed improv comedy on Portland, OR, London, UK, and Pittsburgh, PA teams in 175+ in-person shows including the Improv Festivus (Richmond, VA), Edinburgh Improv Festival (Scotland), Pittsburgh Comedy Festival (Pittsburgh, PA), and 2nd Best Fest (Richmond, VA). Her online improv has reached global audiences with over 6,300 views. In her applied theater work, Mary employs humor to deepen humility and disrupt fragility, one laugh at a time using a praxis of applied improvisation, playback theater, and theatre of the oppressed. As an international scholar, Mary has been on Faculty at Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama and Point Park Conservatory of Performing Arts and has researched and published on identity, comedy, and structural racism. As an Executive Producer of the Black Anthology Project (B.A.P.), Mary has received funding from Frank-Ratchye Further Fund and the Regional Arts and Culture Council to capture the experiences and stories form Black improvisers. Mary earned an MA in Applied Theatre, is a credentialed International Coach Federation (ICF) Professional Coach, and is a Certified Humor Professional (CHP) through the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (AATH). More at www.marycparker.com. 

“Mary is one of the most insightful, smart and eloquent women I know. Her knowledge of applied improvisation is profound and her commitment to working with communities to help support them is boundless. I have been so impressed working with her.

On top of it, she is funny, clever and a delight to work with. Her workshops are going to make this world a much better place."

— KATIE GOODMAN, DIRECTOR OF THE IMPROVISATION FOR LIFE CERTIFICATION PROGRAM

"Keep bringing that joy to this work. Your playful spirit in combination with an authentic sense of gravity in this work is a great combo."

— WORKSHOP PARTICIPANT

"Thank you for creating a space where I can be comfortable in my own skin. I truly appreciate the time I spent with you!" - WORKSHOP PARTICIPANT

“This was an expertly executed workshop. As a theatre professional, I'm very familiar with improv techniques, but this was a whole new exciting application of such methods to communication! I enjoyed the atmosphere of open-ness, safety, learning, and compassion that Mary established. The paths to good, honest, and non-judgmental interchange that Just Collaboration presented and Mary facilitated are profoundly needed now. There was no pressure and no patronizing, allowing lots of space for awareness, both individual and collective."

— MARGARET CHASE, THEATRE PROFESSIONAL

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