Excerpt shared from immakingallthisup.com // Author: Ben Noble

No matter what’s going on in her life, Melanie Penn is always a beacon of positivity. She is a great teacher, an awesome friend, and has a few tidbits to share that may leave you inspired!

#1. Don’t beat yourself up about your choices.
You’ll continue to do bad scenes and have bad shows for the rest of your improv life. But, the more you practice and watch and practice and play and treat this thing with integrity and take your teacher or coach’s notes and try new challenges, they become fewer and farther between organically. When you do have an occasional bad scene and/or bad show, you won’t care so much because you’ll be having too much fun hanging out with your friends that you met in he process. They love you unconditionally anyway.

#2. Economy of words.
I have had a tendency to talk in paragraphs and fill in oodles of exposition, but it’s way more fun to leave room for your scene partner to build off of what you said than it is to blow through your steam off the bat.