On April 17 and 18, the Aragon Improv Team presented their annual improv show in the theater. This year, the show, “Hey Harold,” included a portion of improv games similar to the shorter, Wednesday improv shows, and then a “harold,” a compilation of longer improv scenes, which all eventually intertwined into one story.
Friday night’s show was intimate and interactive, as there was a smaller turnout, but Saturday also included audience participation. Teachers James and Victoria Daniel could be spotted in the crowd, and they were given a special treat when the team recreated the spouses’ first date onstage.
Cecily Bochannek, a junior and a regular Improv Club attendee, comments, “I like weekend shows because it’s a chance for parents to come and people who aren’t at this school. And a lot of people come from other schools because most of the schools in this district have improv teams, so there’s just a lot of general support for improv.”
Sophomore Janelle Jajeh, a first-year Improv Team member says, “For our Spring Show, the first half is just a bunch of different games, getting warmed up and everything, and then the second half is cool because we do scenes that last longer, and then we bring back characters from earlier scenes and pull it all together to finish one big performance.”
Sophomore Nicole Kramer liked how interactive the show was, saying, “It was really fun how they asked the audience for suggestions, so they weren’t just doing some random scene. They were doing something that you were interested in.”
Jajeh believes that the spontaneity is an important part of improvisation. “You don’t have a script,” she says. “When you go to rehearsal for ‘Romeo and Juliet’ or another rehearsed production, you’re practicing your lines, and you can try to develop your character differently by the way you say your lines, but it’s ultimately the same thing every time. But in improv shows, you go in with nothing prepared, so you’re really just bringing yourself, and you have to just do what feels right in the moment. You’re just making everything up on the spot.”
The team practices weekly, working on different skills and ways to improve, so by the time they get onstage, even though everything is improvised, the show still flows well. Bochannek comments, “Even though they don’t have sets or props or anything, it already seems polished. Even if the plot or the concept of the scenes is terrible, it’s just the excitement, and everyone is watching them think on their feet, and funny things start to happen, and the energy is just really nice there.”
Even if students do not have enough time for the weekly Improv Team practices, there are still plenty of opportunities to get involved with improvisation. Every Tuesday at lunch, the Improv Club holds meetings in the theater. Bochannek says, “We play a lot of improv games. There are certain things they like to teach us in Improv Club. Every week we work on something new, like space object exercises, where you have to imagine that you’re holding an object or interacting with an object.”
Freshman Madeline Loar, who is also involved with the Improv Club, was excited about the show because of the new games. She said, “After the shows, they usually try to incorporate some of the stuff the did there to the club, so if we see improv games that we like, then we start doing that in the club as well.”
Sophomore Gabe Floresca-Igtanloc, who attends Improv Club and is involved with theater, also enjoyed the show, saying, “There is no limit to what improv can do, and the team did a great job. At the end of the day, all improv is is just expressing whatever you’re feeling at the moment, and if you do that, then the audience will always respond accordingly.”
