JadaJada improvises in English

The three year old improvisation group was conceived when Trent Pancy was in need of a hobby in his own language

Anna Egutkina, text & photo

Translated by Oskari mäkelä

There are some strange noises coming from the back room of O’Connell’s  Irish Bar on a Thursday night. Rapping, singing, screams and laughter mingle with the clink of beer mugs. Improvisational theatre group JadaJada is warming up for their three year anniversary performance. Every once in a while somebody messes up their rhymes and the others cheer them on.

”You can’t take yourself too seriously in this business. Sure, a good sense of humour helps with  improvisation shows, but most good improv actors are not actually trying to be all that funny in their everyday lives”, says Trent Pancy, the founding member of JadaJada who is from the United States.

The point of improvisational theatre is that the actors do not have a previously planned script to read from, but the scenes, songs and ideas are conceived from the audience’s suggestions. You must think fast and be quick on your feet when the dialogue is made up on the spot in mere seconds.

”The biggest challenge in improv is to be in the moment. My motto is: think, but don’t think. You can’t stay behind on the stage and regret what you said afterwards”, says Marju Grabovci from JadaJada.

”Sometimes your head is empty and you cannot immediately react to the situation. You learn to deal with this kind of stuff through practice and then you will not be afraid of it anymore”, says JadaJada actor Ari Puustinen. Like many other performers, he belongs also to another improvisation group, Snorkkeli.

”Improvising in English is sometimes challenging and you have to think about your word choices more. My English language skill has improved tremendously thanks to JadaJada”, Puustinen rejoices.

JadaJada, the only English language improvisation group in Finland, was conceived three years ago when Trent Pancy met Janne Järvinen, who was also an enthusiastic improvisation performer, at the improvisational theatre event Impromaraatooni in Jyväskylä.

”I was looking for some English language activity in Tampere, because there wasn’t much to do there for foreigners except making music in English. Improv has always been close to my heart, I’ve been doing it for already 12 years since I graduated theatre academy in Chicago”, says Pancy, who followed his wife to Finland.

JadaJada has since performed also in Tallinn and Chicago. In November the group is heading to Barcelona.