ONE NSU MAGAZINE would come home with new books and VHS tapes all the time,” they explained “Once we became students, we were made to feel at home and cared for by the faculty members.” According to Angelica Zadak, the students she met in the theatre program became like a second family. “Everyone was so nice and inclusive,” she said. “The program taught me that every person is an important piece of the bigger picture. We all had to work hard to make our final product. If one person was off, the whole production would be off. But if we worked together to help each other succeed, we would all find success.” Like her sister, Alexandra Zadak has a special affinity for the university that was forged early in life because of her mother and her cousin, who is a professor at the Shepard Broad College of Law. “When we were young and my grandmother couldn’t watch us, we would sit in the back of our mom’s class with some snacks and watch her teach,” she explained. “By fifth grade, I knew more than a freshman Psych 1000 class did on interviewing skills. It made me interested in people and their behavior, because figuring people out is like solving an intense puzzle.” Alexandra Zadak’s love of improv was reinforced by her participation in the annual NSU Improv Jam! every year. “The feeling I got from having my classmates forget their troubles and laugh for a while was priceless,” she said. “I loved improv so much that I would spend years writing papers in the theatre department at NSU about finding ways to combine theater with psychology, because it would be beneficial to both theatre and psychology students.” THIS IS IMPROV With valuable input from several NSU professors, the sisters decided to establish This Is Improv in 2015 while they were still pursuing their degrees. One professor, who was an alumnus of the famed The Second City in Chicago, Illinois, advised the sisters to investigate the range of classes offered at The Second City Training Center. “We had family in the area, so we took a class,” they explained. “We were hooked, because we found a community that embodied everything we would have wanted if we pursued improv as a career.” Initially, the sisters’ primary goal was to educate people about the benefits of improv. “Our mom helped us with this goal by having us implement improv into her therapy sessions. We created a safe environment for her clients while pushing the limits of their social anxiety, worked on role-play, and rehearsed with emotional coaching,” they said. “Starting This Is Improv became the next step for introducing improv to Broward County. As the years passed, we evolved to incorporate corporate training, improv classes, and performances.” A message on the This Is Improv website provides a telling insight into what the sisters offer their myriad clients: “We unconventionally help individuals be heard and respected in the community, business, and life.” According to the sisters, the philosophy behind this statement is simple. “We love improv, because we have observed how this skill and the tools we teach help people. We have been astounded by the results,” they said. “We also love to make people laugh,” they added. “Laughter has led us to perform with well-known entertainers and 58 “WE HAVE LED SIMILAR IMPROV WORKSHOPS FOR SEVERAL NSU COLLEGES, WHICH GIVE STUDENTS AND STAFF MEMBERS NEW TOOLS THEY CAN USE TO COLLABORATE AND BUILD INCREDIBLE THINGS TOGETHER.”
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