The breakup
The #1 reason an improv troupe breaks up is Commitment.
This is not bad, in any way. There are many other breakup reasons which are more glamorous. Artistic differences! Infighting! Personal breakup. (Career goals? I would put this into commitment). But most often breakups root from players having different levels of commitment or dedication. It’s the tamest and most amicable way to break up. (It still hurts.)
I have had a good run with Improv Speakeasy for five years, and played with many great players. Among the OGs, only 2 out of 7 remain. It’s not a failure, I try to tell myself. It’s a fluid situation, and you improvise with the times. Yet it hurts whenever you lose a member of troupe. Helpless, if you know that nothing went wrong.
It’s statistically improbable to maintain a steady team at the same level of dedication in the duration of years. Everyone’s life is changing, new jobs, new family; priorities shift every time. It’s even harder for starter improv troupes who were put up together with no agreed commitment level. Some members will find themselves pursuing a more intense path, and some others are more casual.
It’s most important to NOT allow this to be a source of frustration. This difference in commitment is the friction that slowly builds heat in a team. When you are putting in extra hours, yet not everyone does the same, you start to feel very personal. The beauty of improv is its art of collaboration. The ugliness of improv is its art of collaboration. You NEED your teammates, and vice versa — even more so when you are in a small town with limited supply of improvisers. When one player invests less commitment than you, you unavoidably feel that they don’t need you as much as you need them. It feels personal even though it’s not.
I’ve come to conclusion, never question someone’s why. I’ve spent a lot of younger days wondering WHY wouldn’t/couldn’t my super-talented teammate commit more to the troupe? And that had eaten me up. They can have a million good reasons or bad, but that’s really none of my business. You don’t question why their commitment level cannot be more/less, nor do they have any obligation to justify. It just is.
However, be upfront about expectations. What does your team want to be, what is its goal, how hard do you want to go at it? I see for a lot of teams, this is usually pretty good when they first form. The problem is, not re-adjusting often enough. We would start off with a big goal. A lot of teams have extremely high expectations to be the greatest improviser on Earth in the beginning. But as time passes, not everyone (a) is capable to dedicate that amount of time or (b) has the same burning desire. Again, whether it is (a) or (b) is, really, none of our business. It just is.
Have a talk with the team each season. Each season is different, each person’s life is different. Re-align the team each season. Sometimes teams need to recalibrate their commitment levels. Sometimes you need players to re-commit. Sometimes — as much as it hurts — teams need a big swipe and new scene, and that’s not necessarily because it was a bad scene. We just need a fresh scene. We are improvisers. We’ll be alright.