Let's open Third Space Improv in St. Augustine!

Let's give St. Augustine, a town filled with artists, makers, and entertainers, the dedicated improv space it's craving. Your help is needed to make this community space come alive - not just for improvisers, but for the creative community at large.

Although St. Johns County was the 11th fasting growing county (in the country!) during the pandemic, it still doesn't have a dedicated space for improv. With the changing demographics, and all the people moving from major cities to St. Augustine, it's time to create this space as the current venues can't accommodate the amount of improv activity that the growing community is generating.

The ongoing success of The Adventure Project's improv school has shown that St. Augustine's shifting demographics are calling for continued improv training and entertainment in a bigger, steadier way than we've seen to date. Third Space Improv, The Adventure Project's latest (and hopefully greatest) project is here to answer the call while also serving as a gathering space for the overall creative community.

Located in a 1,200-square foot former yoga studio on the edge of historic downtown, Third Space Improv is one block east of Ponce de Leon Blvd, 2.5 blocks north of King Street, adjacent to Flagler College, and, it has a parking lot! Scheduled for an official grand opening in January 2024, Third Space Improv will feature regular improv comedy shows as well as improv theatre experiences.

The improv school, will offer five levels of improv training as well as workshops and community mixers. Through this training, community members will grow personally and professionally while also making new friends along the way. Students in the improv school learn to be - and respond - in the moment, embrace - and use - failure, actively listen to each other, collaborate, co-create, and ultimately thrive in an unscripted environment whether it's on stage - or in life. Through this cooperative play, strangers become friends, and students realize their full potential on life's stage. Founded by me, Amy Angelilli, an improv theatre veteran with more than 20 years of experience (more about that later), Third Space is bigger than me individually. Without community support, the space won't be all it can be.

Up to now, I've been using my own start up capital (my credit card) to rehab the space and I've been working in multiple capacities to pay the studio's rent. The beautification labor has come from a team of improv students and performers (with me constantly getting in their way). Your financial support helps us complete the renovations and fully realize the artistic, aesthetic, and community visions for the space. Your funding will go towards things such as:

*Comfortable (padded!) seats

*An accessible stage custom built by our improvisers

*Flooring in the hallway (the old stuff was ripped in several spots)

*Paint - lots and lots of paint for the whole space

*Curtains and rods - lots and lots of both for the main room

*Cleaning supplies - so many cleaning supplies

*Outfitting a green room/rehearsal room/second classroom for performers and students

*Lights that don't continuously flicker

*Signage so people know we're there

*Licensing fees because we are doing things by the book

*And a bunch of miscellany fix-it stuff from our neighborhood fix-it shop

Please help get us across the finish line and get Third Space Improv to opening day!

History

Here's where you learn a little about my background that I mentioned earlier ...

"A 20-year improvisational theater performer and certified laughter yoga leader, Amy Angelilli also teaches classes for the stage and facilitates workshops for real world personal and professional application. She is a graduate of Philadelphia’s ComedySportz School of Improvisation and Denver’s Bovine Metropolis Theater School of Improvisation.

She has performed in the Alaska State Improv Festival, the Boulder International Fringe Festival, the Colorado Improv Festival, the Countdown Improv Festival, the Denver Improv Festival, Duofest, the Miami Improv Festival, the Omaha Improv Festival, the Palm Beach Improv Festival, the Tampa Improv Festival, and the Wasatch Improv Festival. She currently performs in “Tiny Town” – secrets of St. Augustine revealed through audience suggestions, “It’s All About Amy” – the always-new story of her life, and “3 Blind Dates” – a sometimes-romantic comedy. These unscripted theater experiences she created and produces. She has also created "genNOW," an improv troupe a la Whose Line is it Anyway? that showcases local improvisers from age 28 to 78 showing that all ages can improvise - together. This multi-generational ensemble has become St. Augustine's longest running improv troupe and performs in public and private shows.

As Chief Adventure Officer of The Adventure Project, she has facilitated team building, bonding, and development sessions for companies, conferences, and colleges as well as led improv workshops for improv festivals, adult summer camps, spiritual centers, yoga communities, retreats, and senior centers.

She also heads up a five-level improv training school (for grown-ups) in St. Augustine at Limelight Theatre. Since moving to Florida in 2015, she has facilitated cooperative play experiences for people from 9 to 92 and every age in between – at home and abroad believing that everyone can benefit from an improv mindset! For more about her improv adventures, visit The Adventure Project."

And although that's my fancy bio, the most important thing to know is that I love facilitating transformation through shared, fun(!) experiences -- and there's nothing better than improv to get a group of strangers growing together by playing their way through discomfort!

The other thing to know is that I told the universe that if it ever brought me a former yoga studio in a nice neighborhood for a price that didn't require selling a kidney, I'd set up my own studio to offer the community a dedicated gathering space. That happened the third weekend of July when I realized a yoga studio where I used to practice was vacant. On August 1, I used my savings to pay first and last month rent as I knew this space -- 200 Malaga Street, #7 -- was a special place to gather and grow. Since then it's been full steam ahead with the beautification process. (If you follow Third Space Improv on Facebook or Instagram, you've seen the photos!) Halloween week marks our soft opening with current students and performers using the space for classes and rehearsals enabling us to experience -- and tweak -- the space for the public opening in January.

Mission

The mission is simple: to create a third space for the creative community.

First space - home

Second space - work

Third space - a communal space outside of home and work

Third spaces are informal gathering spots where people come together to talk, relax, rejuvenate, and bond. They are physical spaces for serendipitous productivity-free conversation. They are familiar spots for connection with new and old friends over a shared interest or activity.

And we desperately need more of them.

Want to learn more about these spaces? Read the following articles and you'll want your own third space/place:

Do Yourself a Favor and Go Find a ‘Third Place’

What Is A Third Place and Why You Should Have One

Do You Have a 'Third Place'?

So yes, we want to host an improv school for grown-ups, improv workshops, improv shows, improv mixers, improv camps for kids, improv open space, and any other improv events you can imagine.

And we want our performers, students, and patrons to have a place where they can connect over ... say ... board games, for example!

We also want to open the space up to other creatives, makers, and artists who need a place to host a class, a performance, a reading, a workshop, a gathering, a dance, a training, or any other thing that the imagination can conjure - yes, we want the St. Augustine pirates storming Third Space and teaching us how to be pirates for a day!

So what do you say?

Do you want to be part of our Third Space?