This is my improv team, The Baldwins. And this is our brand new team photo, by the very talented photographer and storyteller Jeremy Bales. I’m the one in the leopard outfit in the back who looks almost exactly like Laurie Metcalf’s character in Uncle Buck. The resemblance is striking.

(I’ve written before about the Baldwins here and here.)

We had a blast the night we shot this photo; Jeremy and his girlfriend Tally were crazy enough to allow us into their adorable apartment, and they were delightful hosts. Jeremy even posted a short video of the behind-the-scenes from that evening.

The Baldwins have been practicing a different kind of improv lately and it’s been giving me nightmares. You see, we’ve been excitedly preparing for a bizarre and special show we’re doing on Friday nights in June. It’s called The Strange Box of Dr. Oddbody presents Camp Baldwin: A Midsummer Night’s Scream.

The show is gonna be fantastic, and it’s a refreshing break from performing non-scary improv. But EEEeeeeeeek!!!!

I may have never mentioned before that I’m a scary movie phobic, but that’s the absolute truth. I actually want to be able to watch scary movies because so many people really enjoy them and I’m intrigued by the genre, but I’ve tried time and again. Ain’t happenin’. My close friends tease me because I have an infatuation with serial killers but I can’t watch Silence of the Lambs to save my life. It’s a paradox that would take far too long to explain so you’ll just have to trust me: I’ve read entire books about Ted Bundy; I am terrified during Law & Order. And that’s not an exaggeration.

So practicing for this horror-improv has been interesting. I’ve only been genuinely afraid during our practices on a couple of occasions, usually thanks to the realistic frights of my teammate Sarah Nowak. She loves horror movies and she’s bizarrely good at giving me the little-hairs-on-the-back-of-my-neck-stand-up sensation. I also had a horrific nightmare Monday night after rehearsal. A guy was systematically stabbing me with all kinds of different weapons and it was very real and very gruesome. It actually might have been sorta scary-movie awesome if I wasn’t choked with miserable terror the entire time. I guess that’s what nightmares do best.

ANYWAY, Enough about me! Here’s the official info:

The Strange Box of Dr. Oddbody presents Camp Baldwin

In 1908, Harry Baldwin turned a repurposed insane asylum that had originally been built on a civil war graveyard into beautiful Camp Baldwin! A place for children to get back to nature!
Join Dr. Oddbody and the PIT’s very own Baldwins on a journey through three improvised tales of horror and the supernatural. It’s going to be a real midsummer night’s SCREAM!!!!

www.thestrangebox.com

Starring Camp Counselors Brett Wean, Patrick Shepherd, Jen Curran, Meg Griffiths, Steve Soroka, Sarah Nowak, Chris Griggs, and Adam Nowak as Dr. Oddbody

The People’s Improv Theater, deep in the forests of Chelsea,154 W29th Street

Every Friday in June, at 7pm $10

Don’t go into the woods alone . . . . .