Conversations with Tara Copeland

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tara Copeland.

Hi Tara, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in Arkansas, and went to Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. My freshman year, I saw an improv/sketch comedy show performed by the Bryn Mawr/Haverford comedy troupe, The Lighted Fools, and felt instantly like I was seeing myself. It was true love and I never looked back.
After my sophomore year, my friend Becky and I moved to New York for the summer, subletting a place near Union Square. I interned at an off-Broadway improv show on the Upper East Side called Chicago City Limits. I worked there and took classes all summer. I was scouring all sources for any and all improv I could find and there was a small blurb about this new group in town called the Upright Citizens Brigade, and they were doing improv at a tiny space called Solo Arts. I went to every show that summer. I was supposed to fly back home to Arkansas for a few weeks before school started back up when UCB announced that Tina Fey was going to be teaching an improv workshop for women the day my flight was scheduled. So, I changed my flight to attend the workshop. I put all my luggage in the lobby and took the workshop, leaving straight from there for the airport. From that summer on, UCB was my home and my family.
I moved to New York after graduation and took the UCB core program, eventually being added to the Harold team, Mother, and being a part of one of the first women-only improv groups in NYC, Ms Jackson. I also kept working at Chicago City Limits for a few years. The CCL show included short form musical games, but we also did a long-form musical based on the life of an audience member in every show. I toured with them for years and did the main-stage show, six shows a week. After several years of doing musical improv there, and then several musical shows at UCB and The Magnet, I wanted to try to teach it to other people. I was already teaching regular improv and felt like musical improv made all regular improv better. I created a program for The Magnet and started figuring out what the different levels would look like, alongside my musical director Frank Spitznagel, one of the greatest musical geniuses to ever exist. Towards the end of my time in New York, we had teams formed from the classes and the program was growing exponentially.
At some point, Baby Wants Candy came from Chicago to New York and they really helped explode musical improv. I played with them for awhile and still sit in on shows sometimes here in LA. They had a huge impact on my life, giving me a place to play outside of an improv theater and paying us to do shows. I also did weekly shows with The Made Up Musical and played regularly with Diamond Lion, a team created by Eliza Skinner, who is an incomparable musical improv talent. All of these teams were families and they shaped who I am today. That feeling of family and acceptance and love has been a driving force in my whole life.
When I got to LA in 2011, I kept teaching, renting space at The Clubhouse, and performing at UCB, where Diamond Lion was the weekly musical house team. After Diamond Lion disbanded in 2014, I created the musical house team Magic to Do with Jeff Hiller and we performed weekly at the Sunset Stage until Covid shut it down. Around 2014, UCB wanted a musical improv program, so I tweaked and updated my curriculum and started the Musical Improv Program there, creating beginner performance level classes, as well as teams. I also continue to do musical Bootcamps and drop-ins at The Clubhouse to give students more space and time to keep learning in a less structured environment. (email taraimprovclasses@gmail.com for more info)
I have to give a major shout out here to the Musical Directors who are absolute geniuses and make this art form possible. Big huge love to Frank Spitznagel, Scott Passarella, & Aaron Wilson; my 3 work husbands, along with so many others that it would be a whole other interview just to talk about them all.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
In some ways, it has been a smooth road, in that I knew that the love I had for this art form was something that I could make accessible to a lot of other people, and I did. Musical Improv is not just for good singers or musicians. I often say, You don’t have to be able to sing, you have to be willing to sing. So, the struggles along the way have little to do with musical improv itself. The struggles along the way have mostly been financial. Everyone loves musical improv, but as the industry in LA has been hit hard the last few years, all aspects of it have suffered, and classes don’t fill up as quickly or as easily as they used to. I have a lot of ideas, but figuring out how to turn those ideas into action isn’t always readily apparent to me. I’d love to have a full musical improv school and theater where musical improv is the bulk of the shows, not just a couple of shows a week. I want space and time for all my students to perform, with audiences of zillions of people. I want to tour musical improv shows around the world! I want a website, lol!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am known to my students as the Mama Ru of musical improv, which is just about the best compliment I could ever get. I love it as much today as I ever did. I believe every person can be a great improviser, and that teachers who really believe that can get the best out of anyone they teach. I am so proud of the community I have created, the friendships I have made, the absolute love and acceptance that our community stands for. I love creating space for my students to perform, to thrive and to love this a much as I do. The Musical Improv community is a true family and everyone is welcome, loved and accepted. Even after all of these years, I never get tired of it. I feel so whole and so myself performing, teaching and watching musical improv. It’s the best of everything. Sometimes I have an out of body experience where I can hardly believe this is real and I feel so lucky to be living this life surrounded by so many of the best humans in the world.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I loved Los Angeles the moment I visited the first time. I knew that I wanted to start a family here. I have loved raising my daughter in such a diverse and progressive place. We love LACMA summer jazz, the Hollywood Bowl, season tickets to the Pantages, driving up to Montrose. We love being a short drive from the beach or snow tubing or apple picking and camping with friends.
The thing I miss the most about New York is what an accommodating city it is for bikes and pedestrians. I miss the subway. We live in Mid-Wilshire, so we are lucky to be able to walk to a lot of places, but the car culture in LA is for sure my least favorite part.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.taracopelandactor.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taracopelandactor/

Image Credits
Kevin Porter, Lisa Flanagan, Ryan Brookshire, UCB Theatre