Senior Aurora Michalakos transformed into a fish who avoided getting eaten by sharks. Given her limit by the audience, she anxiously counted to 25 words each time she spoke; no more, no less. The audience filled with laughter while she attempted to keep the plot of the story intriguing while counting.
On Friday, Dec. 5, the Westlake Improv Troupe (WIT) hosted their second show of the school year in the Black Box Theatre. Students, family and staff gathered to watch a fun-filled night of unpredicted acting based off of prompts they received during the show.
WIT students get called up to participate in the selected game, and they improvise their lines, sticking to the prompt, through their actions and words.
“My favorite game is called Harold,” sophomore Lily Wright said. “Basically you get partners and split into three groups who each perform different scenes based on an umbrella category, and the goal is to merge all three scenes to work into one mega scene, which is super fun and cool to play. I also really like Greek Forest, the one I think I’m best at. You sing every time the bell dings, and you make up the song in order to move the game forward.”
While it may look and sound straightforward, there are multiple factors students have to think about in order to put on a good show.
“When I do improv, I just think about advancing the plot more than actually being funny. I think that’s the biggest part about it,” junior Charlie Denbar said. “When you’re not trying to be funny, you end up actually being funny rather than trying too hard and ending up with no laughs. So the main thing is, how can I get the clock further?”
The troupe practices every week to prepare for their shows. There are a total of four shows throughout the year, with each show taking place every quarter.
“We do rehearsals every Monday and Friday from 4:25 to 5:05, and on the week of a WIT show, we have rehearsal every day at the same time,” Denbar said.
For many team members, the skills that students gain from improv increases their confidence and enjoyment of learning new ways to interact with others.
“Just being silly and doing storytelling in a weird way brings you a big rush of energy and creativity,” senior Blaise Barber said. “Surprisingly, every time I open my mouth I feel like I don’t have anything to say ever.”
Some students feel nervous on stage, with the fear of running out of things to say, or amusing the crowd remaining a concern.
“Improv is very intimidating because I feel like everyone else is funnier than me, and it’s kind of scary to try and come up with things on the spot,” Wright said.
Improv involves unprompted performances. The troupe’s process often appears less structured than what the audience sees.
“I think that if people were able to see through the improv troupe’s heads, I think they would realize that we have a lot less of an idea of what we’re gonna do than it looks,” Barber said. The funny parts don’t come from trying to be funny, it just happens naturally and that’s the really cool part about improv.”
