On Aug. 26, the Aragon Improv Team held its “Back to School” show in the Aragon theater, the first improv show of the school year.
A “Back to School” show was not held last year, but similar shows have been held in prior years to excite people about improv and publicize the team.
“[The show] is [mostly] to get the attention of Aragon students,” said junior Leo Levitt. “Auditions are pretty quick after the first performance, so [the show allows] people to have fun and hopefully encourage [them] to audition.”
The team has practice twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays, which consists of a variety of games to work on different aspects of CROWE: character, relationship, objectives, where and emotion.
“[The games are] generally what you [see] us on stage,” said senior Nick Schick. “Eavan, our coach, will introduce [a game] like ‘Freeze,’ where two people go up on the stage and someone shouts freeze, and then they get paused. That’s what we call a game, or a format, [which is] essentially what we do in practice, just with different suggestions.”
Throughout the show, the improvisers often take various ideas from the audience to add to their performance on stage, which serves to set it apart from most other performances in the theater that don’t have much, if any, audience participation. This can lead to odd yet entertaining situations.
“Those crazy scenarios can happen in improv, where things you wouldn’t expect to happen in reality happen in our scenes because they’re just made up”
“My favorite part from the show today was when I was revived as a baby,” Levitt said. “Those crazy scenarios can happen in improv, where things you wouldn’t expect to happen in reality happen in our scenes because they’re just made up.”
The performers are improvising the show’s content as they go, while also taking input on what they should do from the audience. In light of this format, they need to be adept at thinking on their feet.
“[There] was a scene where we invented a new technique on how to make a burrito, which was the goo method,” said junior Phoenix Seevers. “That’s one of my favorite things in improv, where [the ‘goo method’] just popped into your head … and you have to be ‘well, what is the goo method,’ and figure it out as you go along. It ended up being smearing [the burrito] with avocado.”
However, despite all of the scenarios being improvised, there are some essentials the members enjoy including within the show or practices.
“We’re hoping to do more shows with the San Mateo improv team and the Burlingame improv team, [but that is] to be seen”
“There’s a common theme in every practice when we play the last game, which is called ‘Town Hall,’ and it’s [when] we sometimes end it with burning the witch, where we accuse someone, say ‘burn the witch’ and chase them out of the theater,” said senior Kamaile Zimmerman. “I wanted to throw that in [this show] since I’ve never actually done it for a show, and it fit really well.”
The improv teams in the District sometimes do collaborative events, especially between the Hillsdale Improv Theater Squad (HIT Squad) and Aragon. One such event is the Improv Olympics which is held as an annual competition between the AIT and HIT Squad.
“In former years, we’ve done something together with all four high schools, but that hasn’t been done since COVID-19,” Schick said. “We may bring that back. We’re hoping to do more shows with the San Mateo improv team and the Burlingame improv team, [but that is] to be seen.”
AIT is holding auditions for new members on Sept. 19, which many of the returning members are looking forward to.
“Improv is a really welcoming space, [which makes] auditions super fun,” Levitt said. “People get immersed in this new environment where they can just say whatever, go with the flow and have fun together.”
