With skits
that ranged from dancing to interacting with the audience, the Aragon Improv Team (AIT) and Hillsdale Improv Team (HIT Squad) displayed their improvisation skills at the 2016 Improv Olympics on Friday night, Jan. 5, and Saturday night, Jan. 6. The completely extemporized event spanned two days, allowing a home advantage for each school: Friday’s show was in the Aragon theater, while Saturday’s the Hillsdale little theater. The result was a tie, as it has been for years: AIT won Friday’s show in a score of 16-12, while the HIT Squad won Saturday’s, 22-14.
Senior Jared Mayerson attended both of the shows as part of the audience. He says, “I think one of my favorite part was deciding which team went first after intermission at Hillsdale. One senior from each team had to dance. The first person to laugh went second.”
Mayerson continues, “Another great part of the show is that they always played a game involving a member or two of the audience. A little sister of a member of an improv team had to have the members of the other improv team guess her family, and she’d ring a bell if they were correct or hit the buzzer if they were incorrect.”
The several people in the judging panel of the shows consisted of improv experts and enthusiasts, including Hillsdale drama teacher Allison Gamlen, Aragon alumni, English teacher James Daniel, and others. Aragon drama teacher Shane Smuin, who has previously judged at the Improv Olympics, was not in this year’s judging panel due to sickness.
The AIT and HIT Squad have tied in the Improv Olympics for years. Senior Parisa Kabiri, an AIT member, says, “I think they definitely don’t want one team to feel superior to the other. They want it to be equally balanced and make sure that the competition doesn’t get to our heads.”
Kabiri continues, “The Aragon and Hillsdale coaches both tell us several times that it’s not about the competition and that we teams are always working together no matter what. The competition is just more for the audience’s sake. We’re always supporting each other and working each other. We try not to focus too much on Aragon against Hillsdale or something like that. It’s actually more of a collaborative effort, so it’s obviously a slightly different style than other sporting competitions.”
Kabiri says that AIT and the HIT Squad have met around three to four times this past semester.
AIT coach and Aragon alum Jessia Hoffman comments, “The judges are being truthful … The tie demonstrates that the teams are really well balanced. The performances from both teams were really awesome.”
Mayerson says, “I think the teams work very well together. I think they’re not there to win but to put on the best shows possible. At both shows, I think it’s a good way to bring those really talented teams together.”
After each segment of the show, judges would hold up signs indicating whether they believed AIT’s performance was better or the HIT Squad’s was.
Aragon alum Alice Bebbington was part of this year’s judging panel. She comments, “The Improv Olympics creates a rivalry between the two improv teams that is similar to the sports rivalry between Aragon and Hillsdale. This rivalry is making the two teams’ improv more successful.”
Describing her judging process, Bebbington says, “I look for a successful scene, maybe better acting, and improvisers agreeing with each other. There is a difference between the improviser and the character they are portraying.”
With regard to AIT’s preparation for the Improv Olympics, Kabiri says, “We have practices from six o’clock to eight o’clock every Monday and Thursday in the green room in the theater. For each practice, we kind of hone in on certain skills like establishing what we call normalcy in a scene before there’s a tilt or conflict that arises in a scene. Another day might be creating different characters that we could potentially portray.”
Hoffman comments, “I think the general preparation was practice. We call it practice rather than rehearsal. We’re just practicing the art of improv. A lot of it is just making sure that everyone on the team is being supported by everyone else.”
Regarding HIT’s preparation for the Improv Olympics, HIT member Emma Worthge says, “We have practices Monday and Wednesday. We play games and learn skills. We have a lot of fun joking around.”
If there is room for improvement, HIT member Margaret Carroll suggests, “Maybe a place for improvement could be more connections, but I still felt that it has been very good overall.”
Mayerson concludes, “I really enjoyed Improv Olympics … Every single show is hilarious and really fun to watch.”
