A Wee Banter with Breen
Colleen Breen, Director extraordinaire of All Out Comedy Theater, granted me an interview with her likeness within the theater’s lobby space, last year, in the autumnal sun of an October’s afternoon.
A great teacher helps you feel strong, and capable, so that one day you can feel that way on your own.
Colleen is a very generous person. She’s strong and balanced, so it always feels like she’s got yet more to give. She makes me feel so at home and alive, seen and at peace. When I would clean the theater on Wednesday afternoons, we’d laugh ‘n’ chat. She’d always be so darn present, and like she had my back to the zillionth degree. Like my back was her own. Sweet unity, baby.
I now come in to clean the theater over the weekend, due to my new job as a “preschool aide” during the workweek, and because Ole “Big Dog” (a.k.a yours truly a.k.a. me) has a key to the theater now, Colleen and I shoot the breeze more sporadically now. But it happens here and there, before shows and class. It’s an insane balm for my soul. Let it be no mere whisper that I LOVE COLLEEN. She is a very important person in my life, the role she plays and what she represents. She is utterly brilliant. But yet– I dooze on.
Of course, most of the readership here on “BIG DOG ENERGY.COM” is likely to be aware of Collen’s greatness. But might they have seen nine freshly dropped You Tube Videos containing Colleen’s answers to a solid smack of interview questions, probing her process and more?Unlikely. Because them baddies are hosted on my very own You Tube Chan, with approx 17 subs to date. I watch that piece close, like a hawk on Fergus Day. I’d notice an uptick in viewership.
Allow me to pepper you with the links to those Fine 09 Viddys throughout the following essay, wherein I weave them inbewtixt my reactions to her reactions. It’s like looking into a wee sconce of infinity, eh?
Be not afeary.
I am jazzed that Colleen Breen exists and does her thing, day in, day out. I am so SPIFFED that she is always so kind, so funny, so thoroughly amazing, as a performer, administrator, producer, teacher, and friend to all. She’s a creative’s creative. Whatever that means! She is the real deal, baby. From when I used to read all about Chicago ‘prov when I was a young newt, it seems like we’ve caught ourselves the baddest of the bizniss, boys. Colleen is a true leader of ‘man. HU-MAN. She has helped me to open my eyes up to this wide, wonderful world, now that I know folk like her exist. They may be rare indeed, but they are real! Magic is real! HUZZAH! FROM THE ‘TOPS! (Rooftops.)
In Viddy #1: How Do You Approach Improv? , Colleen reveals her ulterior identity: preschool teach’. Yep, that’s right– turns out that Colleen is big into the Montessori Method, an approach to education developed in the early 1900s that focuses on engendering independent students through “hands on” learning and a “prepared environment”,” wherein students experience freedom within limits, with sturdy heapings of observation and respect.
Shit tracks. Looks like little old genius Colleen strikes again: she’s out here applying one of the most well known educational approaches to her improv theater operation.
Colleen’s loving nature is so amazing to me. She makes everyone feel at ease, comfortable with themselves, ultimately in their power. She for sure has the heart of a true preschool teacher. Her love for the delicate and for that which has not yet been fully formed, creates a very brave space, I’ve noticed, with more free-flowing, easy to spark friendships flourishing here than perhaps at other theaters I’ve come to know.
She’s consistent: always kind, always present. She noticed that this kind of consistency of character in terms of “how you show up” for your life becomes “your voice.”
How Do You Confront Your Nerves When You Perform? showcases quintessential Colleen, breaking down how she becomes free to play. And play she certainly does. Mama’s a force. I’ve seen her torque her stuff on stage during “Challenge Tonight” but I experienced it to a whole ‘nother level when I got to perform alongside her a few Friday nights at the theater. She’s there to bust up the team as best she can, keeping them loose and goose. She’s the “class clown”/ Australian Sheepdog, keeping the group rollin.’ She describes herself as a “quarterback” comin’ out guns ablaze. However, she later said that maybe she was like a ‘linebacker’ who would be more on the attack, and that she didn’t feel up to 100% on the football analogies. Either way, we get the idea– we’re talking physical competitors, leaving it all out on the field. Tight pants. All out attaque. I was curious as to how she handles those pesky pre-show tummy flies, and she delivers up a hearty dish of response. Pragmatique.
Sometimes at preschool, I’m cruising off to lunch. When it ain’t 12:15. That means danger. I can become disengaged, plugged out of what’s specifically happening in the classroom I’m duty- bound to help protect and keep happy and safe. Most times, within seconds of the fog creeping in, I hear Colleen’s whippoorwill of a voice wisp though my mental, saying, “When I lean in, it always works out.” I remember my physical body and I’m able to integrate my physical mind and mental mind; I become activated, delivered from sluggy detach.That’s such the mark of the most fabulous teacher. She’s able to help me milk all of my potential from my coconut cup, if you know what I mean.
Colleen walks us back to her ‘Cago days, studying with greats Mick Napier and others. Mick would say “keep doing it” with regard to choices– no apologies and do it more. It’s neat to hear tell of her times amid improv greatness, ‘Cago style, and to glean some insight into how driven Colleen was and remains about comedy and the science of it.
Improv is valuable, she says, because It makes all of us a better person. We’re actively listening without judgment. That’s how you learn, she explains.
The best improv, Colleen says, is the product of purest goof betwixt friends. That’s the spirit of it. That’s where “Ole Collie” dwells in her Haus of Craft, All Out Comedy Theater that sits so gailey on Oakland’s own Telegraph Ave. She humbles herself to each of her audiences, and gains their love and trust brick by brick. She honors the craft. Legacy.
We’ve got shows pumpin’ the good stuff Friday through Sunday, and classes continuing merrily into the future. Check out the deets here.