This is the time, don't back away. You have all the say so why not say tomorrow?

I have gotten a lot of response from my blog on being attacked in school - I'm glad it resonates and I'm happy people are sharing it as well. I hope it finds its way to someone in their dark days and actually helps to hear from someone that was just as frustrated and angry as they probably are and to hear that - not only does it get better but you are so far from alone in your experience.

It gets better. It really, really does.

Hopefully we can also make a difference in how bad the bad times get.

Wait two months, wait two months, wait two months...then it jumps ahead in one day.

The walls went up today at HUGE - and it's fucking crazy how much difference it makes from both a physical and perceptual standpoint but also in going from a dead stop to moving at a million miles per hour kind of jarring change in pace.

The framers showed up at 7am and by lunch the studs were all in place.

After lunch they came back and surfaced the studs with sheetrock and left.

Tomorrow they will fill in the foam and seal up the walls and the messy, dusty part begins.

But the amazing thing is that instead of tape lines on a floor where I can only barely imagine there being a space and how it would feel - we now have a lobby and a theater space!

It hit me harder than I thought it would, even being there every day and seeing the slow march or progress so far. Hell, even being there all day and watching them assemble it, I was still shocked when I went next door and came back to be greeted by walls instead of a wide open space of "someday" theater.

People keep asking how and when they can help - it's tough right now, I can't even do anything but hug the walls and try to stay out of the way of the Paper Street Improv Factory workers busily creating mayhem. For now.

One thing people can do to help, which isn't new in any way besides organization and scope - is give. We have a formal development structure in place and Brent is organizing a sustaining member campaign to allow people to give a monthly amount instead of us constantly harassing them for money. People are already signing up and spreading the word to their friends and we've set up a rewards tier for how much people get for what they give and for how many people they get to give as well. So there is that.

Skip a couple of lattes each month and keep this place open, thriving and CHEAP.

One of the goals we're striving for amidst all this is to keep improv an inexpensive (which is not the same as 'cheap') form of entertainment. Members will help us do this. Instead of going to see a movie that you know will suck (I'm looking at you, Josh Carson) and plunking down ten or fifteen bucks each time - become a member and support shows that don't suck and are sometimes pure genius to behold, and make great live theater a better option than "Saw 3D"

Become a member HERE

GiveMN's "Give to the Max Day" is November 16th - they will amplify any gift you give that day and last year they shattered records for one day of giving. Please help again this year and remember to give on 11/16 - to HUGE or to the cause of your choice.

I don't want this blog to turn into constant commercials for HUGE - and it isn't going to - but people do ask every single day what they can do to help and that is the best answer I have. The fact that someone asks every day makes me so happy and proud and excited and reminds me that we're doing this for the right reasons, even if we might not always be doing it with the right methods.

This Sunday we are having an IAGG show and it is being hosted by ComedySportz in Calhoun Square - another happy accident of this whole thing that feels like the right way to do things. ComedySportz has always been open to IAGG and other shows any time we have needed a space and generously trusted us to take over with very little notice one more time as we slowly move the show to its new home ... a few blocks at a time.

Anyway - I'm sure there are other things going on in the world worthy of some words, I just haven't been taking part in any of them. This is what I am eating, sleeping, doing and blogging.

And I love it. I can't wait to see how much closer we get tomorrow.

Maybe tomorrow I will install the "Stagebenders Memorial Handicapped Ramp" to the stage.