The first rehearsal was powerful because everyone came in. Angelique Lisboa and John Gebretatose both express the palpable feeling of magic as the improv show known as The Colonizer’s Nightmare came together. That first rehearsal was January 23^rd, 2024. Angelique identifies that one of the biggest milestones in this show was in casting.

A Coloniser’s Nightmare began when Lisboa was dong a horror show in 2023.  She approached Gebretatose with and idea for an improv show for Black History Month. He thought it was a great idea. Cut to months later and Gebretatose approached Lisboa with, “It’s going to be ‘Colonizer’s Nightmare.’”

Initially the idea was to convey Black history with improv attached. A Colonizer’s Nightmare pivoted more into a storyteller which inspires improv scenes. It is a 45 minute show that makes time for two different storytellers. Their first shows was on March 2^nd, 2024 and the first cast was: Alsa Bruno, Dorian Beal, Chris Rodriguez, Mahmoud Hakim, Destiny Davison, Linc Owens, Jill Bernard, Eric Heiberg and Gwin Zachariah White (Vann Daley had to drop because of life stuff). The pair expressed that if you were white you got to catch up – the Black and brown people are playing.

The name comes from the trope “America’s worst nightmare is a black male from the United States.”  It stretched to include the philosophy of a “colonizer” and modfied to become A Colonizer’s Nightmare. Gebretatose is quick to identify “coloniser ideas that are in all of us.” One of the goals of the project is for audience members to recognize the parts of their lives where they express the colonizer’s attitudes as well.

So far through the production of this project it has been “the lightest, easiest, breeziest situation.” (Gebretatose) Which is fantastic news for any improv producer.

Lisboa identifies that a lof of impro is “a white person at the front” and then they tell you what’s going to happen. She goes on to describe improv as “flowing free and safe” and that she gravitates to places where it’s received. Lisboa goes on to say. “I’m not going to do it where people are going to exploit that or tolkenise that. I’ve received media my whole life on what it means to be white. I don’t need to slow it (my life) down or make it more accessible.”

Both Lisboa and Gebretatose share that one of the most rewarding experiences has been audience, cast and storytellers coming up to them after the shows and gushing. People saying “I didn’t know it could be done like this.” Lisboa’s reaction has always been:

“F**K YEAH!”

Trailblazers is a series focusing on people who are building and contributing to the improv artform today. It is meant to document that new ideas pop up in improv all the time. We have tendency to uphold historical things as the most significant, and overlook that we are making history all the time. 10 years from now someone may be talking about the people in this series and what amazing things they accomplished. It isn’t too late for you to start your own team or company.

DAVID ESCOBEDO is a post graduate student researching improv in England. He has been performing and coaching since 1994. He still loves seeing new students perform and watching imperfect improv. He runs the Improv Boost and has a couple of series where he interviews practitioners regardless of their experience or years in improv. You can check out his podcast David is Curious on iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher.