TEAM CAWLEY, a.k.a. The Upside-Down Players, can be enjoyed
every Sunday at 8:30 p.m . EST at The Follies.
In December 2022, members of a ragtag ex-commando unit, court-martialed for crimes they did not commit, escaped military prison and banded together to become soldiers of fortune, while trying to clear their names and avoid re-capture.
No. Wait. That’s the premise of The A Team.
In December 2022, a ragtag crew of virtual strangers (virtual thanks to the VIF community and Zoom) banded together to become a formidable improv house team, while trying to clear their names and avoid re-capture. Armed only with their wit and a lack of decorum, these performers of an uncertain age Zoom in from across North America—yes, even Canada!—every Thursday night to hone their improv skills under the direction of renowned improv coach and Adam Levine-lookalike Andrew Cawley, whose many credits are listed below.
For reasons known only to those with a top-secret security clearance, The Upside Down Players stick not to one improv form. Oh, they’ve Armando’d and they’ve WeirDass’d, but you never know what they are up to next. One thing is guaranteed: Hilarity ensues!
You can catch The Upside Down Players in the act right-side up at The VIF Follies every Sunday at 8:30 p.m. EST.
The Coach
Adam Cawley
“If life gives you lemons, demand to speak with a supervisor and make sure you get the thing you wanted.”
Adam Cawley is an alumnus of The Second City Mainstage, The Just for Laughs Festival and a three-time Canadian Comedy Award Winner, including Best Male Improviser in Canada. TV credits include Ghosts (CBS); actor and writer on Workin’ Moms (Netflix) ; a regular on Baroness Von Sketch Show (IFC) ;and performing sketch comedy for The NFL (FOX). He co-hosts the improv tutorial podcastThe Backline—winner of the 2018 National Podcast Award for best educational series, which has allowed him to perform, coach and teach at festivals and theaters (or theatres, as they say in Canada) across the United States, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Norway, The Netherlands, Denmark and elsewhere He currently performs on a house team at Westside Comedy in Santa Monica and in multiple shows at UCB in Los Angeles.
The Cast
Jude da SIlva
“It’s never too late to be who you are.”
Jude da Silva had done some in-person musical improv and some standup comedy in the Seattle area before the pandemic but was so fortunate to find VIF, where she feels lucky to have been able to take many of their online classes with so many wonderful and amazing teachers! She is currently in two improv troupes and working on a musical improv duo and a comedy improv duo. Excited to be in the Upside-Down Improv School, Jude looks forward to continuing to explore all the things that VIF offers. Oh, yes, and she has a blueberry farm where, in addition to fruit and berries, she grows lots of slugs, bugs and varmints of all kinds.
Hilary Fabre
“I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.” —Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Hilary Fabre‘s love of theater began as a child when she played Alice in Alice in Wonderland. She has a certificate in acting from New Theater Boston, where her first exposure to Improv was during a workshop with Keith Johnstone. She participated in an intensive at Shakespeare and Company guided by Tina Packer. Hilary has performed with a variety of diverse theater companies in Boston: The African Repertory Troupe, Company One, Charlestown Working Theater, Hysterical Productions, New Theater, Roxbury Repertory Troupe. Her favorite character was Miss Maudy in To Kill a Mockingbird. Hilary rediscovered improv at Improv Boston. She performed with Elderberry Jam and is a proud member of Vintage Improv. She is currently performing with Get A Room, an all-female vintage troupe.
John Klossner
“I’m spending more time promoting myself than I am being myself.”
John Klossner is a relative newcomer to improv’s warm embrace, having participated in local jams around his southern Maine home before joining the VIF world, working/playing first under Brian Palermo and now with Adam Cawley. In his non-improv life, John is a New Yorker cartoonist, teaches at a small art school (the school is small, not the art) in New Hampshire, and works with several children’s art camps. His cartoons can be seen at his site www.jklossner.com. John lives with his talented wife and the world’s friendliest dog. (Stop by. Check him out for yourself.) Sometimes the children visit.
Joan Larason
“When in doubt—tap dance!”
Joan Larason Joined her first troupe in 2005 and two weeks later performed at Improv Boston. The troupe had a gig! A middle-school teacher at the time, Joan used improv in her lessons and gave workshops on humor and improv in the classroom to teachers. For several years, she was a member of New Tricks, Boston’s first vintage improv troupe (with 483 years of experience!). She was also performed with Elderberry Jam, another vintage troupe, and is now a member of the VIF troupe Sonic Boom Boom, the Vintage Improv community and House Team Cawley. Joan created and co-produced Project Invisible: A Power Anthem for Older Women. It’s a short comedic musical video about the invisibility of older women—and the credits are as long as the film. By the way, Joan’ll do almost anything for a pound bag of fresh peanut M&Ms.
Judy McDowell
“Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light.” ―Groucho Marx
Judy McDowell hails from Atlanta, where she first tapped her way onto the stage as a snaggle-toothed clown in Miss Peck’s School of Dance. Later, in her adult career, she produced plays for the Academy Theatre for Youth and then hit the mainstage in several plays, including the annual production of A Christmas Carol. Improv was always part of her theater experience, but most recently it was a godsend that kept her sane (seriously) during the pandemic. When she’s not playing with the great folks of Vintage Improv, she’s pursuing film and TV roles and volunteers her Reiki services at Trinity Center for Spiritual Living.
Jaclyn Randel
“Go towards your passion!”
Jaclyn Randel started officially acting shortly after being cast in a friend’s movie as an extra in 2016. But as a physician, Jackie was teaching medical students and residents how to take patients’ histories using improv long before she knew about applied improvisation. Her first improv performance occurred after someone asked her to perform at a fundraiser when they needed another member for the team, even though she still had not taken any improv classes. Since then, she has studied at Go Comedy Improv Theater in Ferndale, Michigan; Pointless Theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Camp Improv Utopia East and Ireland, and, since the pandemic, through Vintage online classes with legendary instructors.
Lauren Ray
“What you do matters.”
An environmental scientist by day, Lauren Ray began improv in 2020; she thought it might make her less nerdy. She studies long-form improv at Stomping Ground Comedy in Dallas; she also performs at Zingerz Comedy Club, Arlington, Texas, in a short-form family-friendly improv troupe. She studied improv online with coaches Brian Palermo, Adam Cawley, and Jay Sukow, and Spolin Theater Games with Aretha Sills. She also volunteers as a Docent Educator at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, giving tours and talks to student and adult groups.
Cheryl Solimini
“We do not stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” —George Bernard Shaw (as incorrectly quoted by Hoagie in the movie Tag)
A Jersey Girl exiled to Milford, Pennsylvania, Cheryl Solimini had her first experience as a performer of any kind at Camp Improv Utopia East in 2015, where she was presented with the “Best First-Time Improviser” award. (That Cheryl was the only first-time improviser out of the 100 camp attendees did not diminish her joy or the honor.) Since then, she has returned to CIUEast nearly every year; workshopped with renowned instructors through festivals such as VIF and Zoom classes; and performed at the Scranton Fringe Festival; at Woodloch Resort (a paying gig! at the No. 1 family resort in the U.S., per USA Today); at every Vintage Improv Festival, IRL and virtual; with Messing Around, the virtual VIF House Team coached by Susan Messing; and now with House Team Cawley. Cheryl’s article “Make a Scene,’” introducing kids ages 6 to 12 to improv, appeared in Highlights magazine in May 2020 and is on the Highlights website. A magazine writer and editor by trade, she is also the author of the humor book The Not-So-Silent Passage: How to Manage your Man’s Menopause (Without Committing Manslaughter).
Holly Stevenson
“I can’t think of any pithy quotes at the moment.”
Holly Stevenson’s first 25 years of Improvisation included growing up in Toronto, traveling to Europe and graduating with a BFA in Theatre (where she received raves for her improvisation as a rasher of bacon). In Atlanta, she began her onstage life as an apprentice with the Academy Theatre, delving into gibberish, improvisation and creating human and nonhuman characters, which morphed into a career of theater, including murder mysteries and several one-woman shows for kids. Not content with her usual 15 jobs, she became an agent and performer for an entertainment agency, honing her interactive and clowning skills with characters ranging from Princess Jasmine to Queen Elizabeth 2. Fast forward and Covid-influenced, she joined a weekly improv group with Hal Peller and now her improv world is Upside Down!
Judy Weatherbee
“Love when you can / Cry when you have to / Be who you must / That’s a part of the plan.” —Dan Fogelberg
Physical therapist in the real world (Bangor, Maine, that is), Judy Weatherbee pretends to be a photographer and improvisor every chance she gets. She’s real good at pretending, especially after studying with the best in the pretending biz, including Dave Asher, Joe Bill, Deana Criess, Michael Gellman, Betse Green, Rick and Laura Hall, Shaun Landry, Jeff Michalski, Brian Palermo, Jonathan Pitts, David Razowsky, Jay Sukow, etc., etc. and again etc.