On Sept. 1, the Aragon Improv Team held their “Welcome Back” show in the Aragon theater featuring its returning members: seniors Leo Levitt and Phoenix Seevers, juniors Diego Marenco and Macen Adams and sophomores Samantha Green and Oliver Levitt.
Improv is a theatrical art form where actors play off the audience’s dynamics.
“My favorite thing about improv is the [accepting] community and just the energy everywhere,” Adams said. “The audience definitely plays a large part [too]: they give us suggestions to use to make it [an] original show.”
Despite the impromptu nature of the show, the team members meticulously hone their skills with various exercises, attending practice twice a week.
“We start the year doing character work,” Green said. “We’ve done a lot of character building exercises, ways that you can jump into a scene and support your scene partner, establish character and make a cohesive plot. Then we start being able to do longer and longer forms.”
“My favorite thing about improv is … just the energy everywhere”
These games and exercises often contribute to the structure of the show.
“There’s a game [we practiced last year] where someone says a monologue and everybody has to act it out,” Adams said. “[We used it in] my favorite storyline, the kindergarten [skit]. There was a TV and then two of the improvisers acted out the scene behind us. I’m happy we could put [the game] into a show.”
The performance included a variety of games and stories, from Four Square, a game where eight different storylines switched off in a montage style, to longer stories about a variety of interesting topics. Behind these engaging shows is a large amount of quick thinking.
“Improv is all about staying on your toes,” Marenco said. “[There was a skit] where I broke the fourth wall and saw the crowd, [and] it became more of a story rather than a joke when [my teammates] realized what I was doing and they adapted.”
The audience had positive reactions and enjoyed the show.
“The team has a very large commitment to bringing back recurring gags”
“I really enjoyed the attention to detail in the callbacks,” said sophomore Owen Day. “The team has a very large commitment to bringing back recurring gags, making [sure] the audience [has] a really great time and making [us] feel special.”
Additionally, the improv team also asked audience members to volunteer during a Mad Libs style game. The team asked the audience to fill in the blanks to direct the plot of the skit, leading to some creative pieces, like one based on cheese wheels.
“I got to be on stage–not a lot of people [can] say that,” said junior Quincy Romero. “When you get on the stage of an improv show, improv just embodies you. Nothing in my body said, I’m gonna say ‘cheese wheel’ when I got out there. It just happened. I just said it.”
“The thing about [us] being really close teammates is that they know I’m a dancer”
With audience participation, each improv show is guaranteed to be unique. Aragon’s improv team tries to also keep the shows refreshing by incorporating their own talents, such as Marenco’s dancing.
“It’s not something that I normally do,” Marenco said. “I’ve never seen it in practice before. But [my teammates gave] me the opportunity. The thing about [us] being really close teammates is that they know I’m a dancer.”
Students also felt this connection and had a great time at the show.
“The improv team this year [is] one of our best,” said junior Thomas Williams. “It was fun the entire way through, [both] consistently and in different ways.”
Looking forward to the new year, the improv team is eager to expand their team. The team held auditions on Sept. 11.
“I’m really excited to have a fresh team,” Green said. “It’s going to be interesting to see how a new team works together.”
The next improv show will take place on Oct. 27 in the Aragon theater with a full cast.
