学英语:不要光想 尽情说出来

每周三晚上，是Beijing Improv在“疆进酒”雷打不动的即兴话剧活动时间。Beijing Improv成立于2006年，是北京第一个即兴话剧双语工作坊，由来自美国的Jonathan Palley和来自新西兰的Fairy Lottie共同创立，主要演员来自世界各地。工作坊分为英语组和汉语组，每周三都有英语组的演员免费给喜欢即兴话剧的公众上课，担任翻译的是中文组的女孩杨征。无论男女老少，参加者都能在即兴话剧里找到笑翻天的乐趣。

"Actually, don't think at all, everything is correct,"

Parents often teach their children, "think before you speak," and so many people tend to grow up pre-calculating their words in an effort to rid themselves of impulsive banter and random eruptions of vocabulary.

However, the Beijing Improv actors group, in fact teaches that this may impede us from fully expressing ourselves and we should instead react with an enthusiastic and non planned, "Yes!"

Georg Tschebull from Vienna, Austria has been in Beijing for several years with the Beijing Improv and now leads the group workshops.

"You can sing, you can dance, but you create fun and interesting scenes and the audience loves to watch and you can explore the whole world of performance without knowing anything."

So what does Wednesday night improv look like? This gathering displays a colorfully eclectic group of Chinese mixed with expats from all over the world, completely diverse in ages, professions and mother tongues.

This composition of the group certainly makes for something interesting, Tschebull adds.

"Since it was started it was always done as a bilingual and mixed thing because although it's language based, we don't want to divide we want to bring people together. And you see in some exercises we have to split English speakers and Chinese speakers because it's language based. But you see we try as much as possible to bring in non-language exercises. We have so many people who might not be fluent in the other language but who understand Chinese or English and can still enjoy the performance."

Kelvin Wu from Shanxi Province now translates for the group and was immediately drawn to the idea of improv even though he only joined the group 3 months ago.

"Improv is a brand new idea to most Chinese people, and to me, it's a brand new idea. When I saw people on the stage, they were quite excited and I saw their performance and I was astonished and I thought it would be so great to be one of them. It gave me a feeling of excitement."

But trusting in your peers is most important, says American Jeffrey Schwab, from Virginia, who always grew up with a keen interest in acting.

"There's a quote somewhere about improv somewhere, it's like walking backwards, you can see where you've been, not where you're going so you have to have complete trust in who you're performing with on stage."

For bashful newcomers participating at the beginning can be a bit difficult.

Wu says it was hard at first to break out of his shell since he explains that generally he's used to being in the office and putting on a serious face.

"Here, it's totally different. Here you are more like yourself and you discover your childhood inside and you show imagination or creative mind which you don't use at your workplace."

But the leaders emphasize the point is to try and create a comfortable and friendly environment for everybody while emphasizing there is no wrong answer.

Emma Fang is from Fujin Province and says being around this group has definitely helped her.

"One good friend introduced me to come here, and I keep coming because I really like the atmosphere, the form of the play or the games and it can make me more relaxed and happy. Most importantly, I have my weaknesses, I'm not good at standing on the stage, and these exercises can help me overcome a lot of shyness and I also can make a lot of friends."

And that's just from the actors' perspectives. Those not on stage will encounter something quite new and unexpected. Unlike some scripted plays, the audience plays a huge part in the show, providing suggestions, characters, even lines of dialogue.

Beijing Improv tries to hold performances at the Penghao Theater about once a month on average, even though their free workshop is every Wednesday.

The brain is a wondrous thing. Quick and witty senses of humor in English and Chinese that ricochet off one other provide one funny experience for the audience.

In the capital, Beijing Improv is testing the boundaries of laughter and of language barriers through a bit of fearless, spontaneous comedy.

For CRI, I'm Andrea Hunt