Press Release for IGGE (now Moment of Inertia) October 29, 2006

IGGE is a group of 7 local high school students (6 from BCC, 1 from Walter Johnson) that have been studying Improvisation since middle school. The group evolved from a class that was taught for 4 years at Adventure Theater in Glen Echo. The members of the group were students that continued to come back to play, interact, and create together in this class.

IGGE (which stands for Improvisation Guild of Glen Echo) was formed to satisfy the performance need that these players have. Class or rehearsals are great fun, but the charge of fresh and unexpected ideas and the input from a live audience brings the creative interaction to a higher level. And the reaction from audiences has been, from the onset, extremely positive.

What makes this different from a high school improv club that gets together weekly is the presence of a teacher/director for the group. One of the members of the group, Judson Battaglia, became enamored of the show ‘Who’s Line Is It’, especially the early English version. His father, Rich Battaglia, had performed with the company National Improv Theater (NIT) in New York, from 1983 to 1990. Rich had done weekly group shows, one man and two man shows, taught classes to New York actors, literati and corporate trainers while with the NIT. He came to the DC area in 1990, and created and performed with the musical comedy improv troop, ‘Now This!’ After a legal dispute with the members, he left the group in 1994. He kept a low profile on the improv scene until Judson decided that he wanted to learn improv.

“I coached Jud’s baseball team, with what can be referred to as limited success. But I knew I was a much better coach of Improv than baseball.” Adventure Theater needed a class for middle school kids, and Rich arranged to teach a class there, returning the salary to the Theater. “I didn’t make any money at coaching baseball, and this was something I loved”. The class was a great success. From the very first show, parents were stunned at the level of humor and performance the kids achieved. And they kept coming back.

How do you teach improv? Well, says Rich, you don’t. “What you teach is how to trust your instinct, your first idea: How to support other people’s ideas and how to help the collective idea grow; How to suppress or trick the chattering ego that evaluates your performance and prevents you from listening; How to instantaneously immerse yourself in a character and discover what the character will do and say. This all needs to be done in a supportive environment where people are comfortable enough to take risks.”

All four guys are seniors at BCC, and three of IGGE members, Chris Wilson, Judson Battaglia and Andrew Brooks have been friends since third grade. Sometimes, their interaction and communication is so quick, it’s frightens the director. From ‘Corn in the Morn’, a weekly farm report show, to conversations between between a man’s two nipples and a third, unwanted nipple, the three have taken many distinctive points of view. Having left BCC’s offensive line, Chris is working on a stand up routine and looking at creative writing in college. Jud is a certified Emergency Medical Technician who is considering pre med next year. Andrew Brooks is a physics enthusiast who did research on nano technologies at Penn State this past summer and will study physics next year.

Josh Silverman is an original member of the troop and is a long term, dedicated student of comedy, studying and taking classes at Adventure Theater, Round House Theater and other venues, not only in improv but in physical comedy, stand up, comedy one acts, and more. He has recent a coop job utilizing his computer knowledge on robotics to disarm IEDs. Mae Gowin, also an original troop member, is a sophomore at Herdon High, a sci-fi fan and Theater standout in her schools’ productions. She is always discovering and extending distinctive new characters that are inside her and shocking the boys with her extensive sci-fi knowledge. Catalina Walker is the most recent member of IGGE, being new to the area from Honduras by way of Northern England. Katie is a sophomore at BCC where she is cast in “Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”. She is fluent in Spanish and French, is learning Chinese, a gymnast, and is finding time to study piano.

IGGE performed in Shepherdtown, West Virginia at Shepherd University with the band Emitt Keller this past February. It was great success, a nice blend of acoustic/progressive rock with comedy. It was the first time IGGE had been called back for an encore, and everyone was a little stunned, but able to recover quickly enough to do a good closing number. And that the audience was college students and older was an indication at the level of sophistication IGGE has arrived at.

Rich Battaglia works for IBM Software Sales division, working with the Federal Government. He finds teaching and coaching improv much more rewarding than coaching baseball. “I have to admit, if it weren’t for Jud’s interest, I wouldn’t be doing anything with improv now. He brought me back to it.” How does it fit with Software Sales? “I’m always talking and presenting technical details to groups, small or large. Teaching improv has helped the ‘Thinking On Your Feet’ requirement that is important in complex business transactions.”

Rich will be teaching the class again, ‘The Art of Improvisation’, at the church in Bethesda this coming January. “I have 4 graduating seniors. I need to get a new crop planted for next year.” Luckily, Rich has a younger son, Phillip, who is 13. No surprise, but Phillip wants to perform improv too. “I’d really like to see an ongoing troop performing, where kids could perform while they are home from college with the current troop.”

Information about the band ‘Emmitt Keller’ can be found at:

www.myspace.com/emmittkeller

The Harvest Moon Rock and Comedy Showcase is Friday, November 3, 2006, 8 to 11 PM, at the Church in Bethesda, 5033 Wilson Lane, Bethesda. Enter in the rear.