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When asked who else could benefit from
improv, Jurek touched on nearly every
industry: accounting, human resources,
therapists and more.
“If you’re a banker, get in an improv class
immediately. Everyone who’s a frustrated actor
working around creative individuals should
get into an improv class,” she said. “Introverts,
writers, poets: improv is for you. Everyone with
a job that’s not improv should do improv.”
In her own community, Jurek wants
to expand offering improv to other
neighborhoods like Sunnyside and Long
Island City and to businesspeople for teambuilding.
“I want to reach people who are already
talking in groups,” Jurek said. “Improv levels
the playing field. You all act ridiculous; let’s do
it together.”
She produced Hallet’s Cove Theater’s first
full-length production, “A Feminine Ending” by
Sarah Treem, with a first-time female director,
which showed in Astoria First Presbyterian
Church in late February, and is teaching a
three-hour improv workshop in Sugar Loaf at
the Seligmann Center in the Hudson Valley
this spring.
Jurek said she wants to continue to bring
theater of all kinds and fun into the lives of
as many people as possible and make it
accessible, showing them they can do it, too.
“People want to do it,” Jurek said. “I want to
pull people in. It’s the ‘Yes, and’ movement.”
For more information about Hallet’s Cove
Theater, visit jenjurek.com. The next Astoria
Women’s Improv performance is April
3 at 7:30 p.m. at the Q.E.D. Jurek is also
performing puppet shows at Raising Astoria
and Okabaloo on March 18 and March 25,
respectively.
Photos courtesy of Jen Jurek
Photos by Danielle Brody