Aragon Improv Team members dance in a kick line.
Aragon Improv Team’s (AIT) annual spring show took place on April 19 and 20, and the team ventured into new territory, performing spontaneous Broadway for their long form. Audience members wrote suggestions of song titles that had never been written before; improvisers took these suggestions and brought the songs to life during the show. A thundering rock song titled “Plaid Shirts and Hipster Glasses” and a comedic number about one’s given religion, “I wish I were Jewish,” were a few of the evening’s hits.
Reality in the show was suspended when audience members were addressed as “wealthy investors.” The first act consisted of improvisers performing new songs from unproduced musicals. At the end of the first act, the “wealthy investors” chose their favorite song they wanted to see included in a “fully produced musical” in the second act. After intermission the full length version of the musical was performed.
Although none of the show’s actual details were discussed among actors during intermission, Coach Lisa Rowland joked with the audience, “You’ll go away for six months, though it will feel like fifteen minutes, while we work on producing the full length show.”
“They’re doing a daring, daring thing,” says Rowland. “The team is ready to tackle this. It’s a challenging format, because it both takes musical prowess and long form prowess, which is telling one consistent story over the course of an evening to sustain a narrative; it’s a little bit more of a mental exercise than short form improv.”
Added AIT’s other coach Andy Sarouhan, “This show is fun because there’s a huge audience element in that they get to actually pick the story they see in the second half. The thing that’s nice about that is the audience … is most likely going to pick a story that is winning and one that excites them.”
The second half of Friday night’s show was titled “Crushed by Corporate” and explored the relationship between office workers and their cruel boss as they tried to win back their casual Fridays and ability to wear sandals, while Saturday night had a musical titled “When Plans Change” that featured a couple as they dealt with jealous exes who try to kidnap everyone in sight.
This marked the first year that Rowland, who has been the only coach for six years, and Sarouhan, who coached Aragon’s team in previous years but took a hiatus to attend graduate school, both worked to instruct the team. “I never wanted to leave,” remarks Sarouhan. “When I was in my twenties, teaching this team and the H.I.T. Squad (Hillsdale Improv Team) over at Hillsdale was the most rewarding thing I was doing. So when I came back, I was just teaching the team at San Mateo while Lisa was doing this, and the opportunity came up, and I was absolutely ready to come back.”
Coaching the team together, Sarouhan and Rowland each have certain talents and specializations in coaching. Says Sarouhan, “Lisa has a lot of strength in teaching status, like just the different statuses that characters can have on stage. I think she knows how to put people at ease when they are improvising so that they can take chances. For myself, I like to do a lot of drilling. . . That’s what I specialize in—trying to get them to do an exercise 10 times so it starts to become a muscle memory for them.”
Preparing for an improv show involves a significant amount of practice and coaching. “What we [worked] on most [was] singing improvised songs,” says junior Jenise Williams. “We have a mimp which is basically a person who improvises with instruments, whether it be a keyboard or guitar. We sing with the music to create improvised songs.”
Although the new theater is a large performing space, improv is typically performed in a smaller venue. Rowland noted, “Improv tends to be more of an intimate experience; it’s better served when it is because it’s a contract between the audience and the actors in a more intense way than scripted theater. . . The increased intensity comes from the fact that the actors are discovering the show right in front of you. The audience has a big part in that, so it’s exciting to be up close to see that stuff happen. It’s also nice not to have to mic improv because you never know who’s going to be talking when.” However, Rowland also added, “I’m really excited to play in the theater because the stage is beautiful. It’s just a nicer theater-going experience.”
Sophomore Jazelle Jajeh reacted to the show saying, “It was hilarious! I liked it a lot, the way they came up with the songs on the spot and were doing background music and storylines.”
