Artist Interview with Songwriter Kim Rae Andrulis by Melissa Olson Meeks

Melissa Meeks and Kim Rae are MW students who took improv 101-401 last year and Improv Singing 101 this year. Melissa wrote an article for her Substack titled Unleash Your Abundant Flow where she interviews Rae and makes connection between improv, music, and collaboration.

Here’s an excerpt:

Kim Rae asked me last August if I would take an Improv 101 class with her at Merlin Works and since then we’ve worked in countless scenes together—one where she shot my arm off with a 4th of July firework, and another where we sang a rousing musical number about her kids getting sick from too much Halloween candy. The chorus: the MOOOOON’s out tonight—like the snickers from my kid’s stomach. To be honest I thought that first improv class would be a one-off, but we had so much fun that we keep going back.

Kim Rae tells me that she looked into Merlin Works classes after reflecting on childhood memories of making up and performing plays with her younger sister. This comes up right away when we sit down to talk about the origins of Kim Rae’s creative life over lunch.