In Improv 101 at The Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) Training Center in New York City, students are taught the foundations of long form improv. For 8 weeks, UCB students in the 101 course learn how to establish a base reality (the who, what, where, of the scene) and how to find the game (what specifically makes the scene funny). At the end of the course, students perform a long form show with a monologue opening based on one word suggested from the audience. Out of curiosity and a love of theater, I found myself in an Improv 101 class in the middle of 2015. I fell in love with the UCB Theater, the improvisers in my courses, and the stories - monologues that I often heard in class, on a stage, or over a post-show celebratory drink.

Wanting to remove any distraction from the improviser and their real life story, I removed them from the stage - putting them instead in front of a white seamless backdrop. I photographed them in black and white to place an equal weight on the black text of their transcribed monologue and to place emphasis on their facial expressions, body movements, and any object work that they might utilize. Lastly, I requested each improviser to strike a pose inspired by Communist-Utopianism propaganda art due to my own experiences living and traveling through post Communist countries and the parallels I saw in the cultlike following I observed within the improv community.