How an improv class led us to build a coloring room at San Diego's first ImprovCon
Valentina and I took a six level improv class together, and it changed how I think about paying attention.
Improv asks you to notice what's actually happening in the room right now, not the line you planned three beats ago. The whole thing runs on one rule: "yes, and". You take what your scene partner gives you and build on it, instead of blocking it or steering things back to your own plan. It sounded simple in the first class. By level six it had turned into something closer to a way of being in a room with someone.
So when we heard San Diego was about to host ImprovCon, the first convention of its kind, we got curious fast. Four days of workshops, performances, and panels at the Town and Country Resort, and a whole crowd of people who train for a living to stay present with each other. It felt close to what Swil Arts is already trying to do. We reached out to the organizers and asked if there was a way to be part of it, not just attend it.
There was. For the full run of the convention, we hosted a Swil Arts Creative Pause room. A table, some chairs, boxes of colored pencils, scented candles, chill music, and coloring pages I designed just for the weekend.
People wandered in between sessions and stayed longer than I expected. They colored, talked to strangers, compared notes on the workshop they'd just come from. One person left their finished postcard behind with a note on the back: "Thank you for making this place better."
That's the whole idea behind a pause room, and honestly the whole idea behind most of what I make. Give someone five minutes to slow their hands down and see what they notice once they do.
If a stretch of coloring sounds like your kind of pause, my book, Coloring Nostalgia: San Diego Edition, does the same thing on your own couch. You can find it in the shop.
And if you've got your own version of a pause room, the thing you build into a full day just to notice where you are, hit reply and tell me about it. I'd like to hear it.