Jordyn Nygren (10) crossed her fingers and opened the Westview Improv team cast list. When the spreadsheet loaded, she was shocked to discover she hadn’t just made the practice team—instead, she had been placed straight onto the performance team alongside the returning improv members.
Although she was excited to perform during her first year on the team, she said she was nervous about performing so soon.
“I didn’t have any of the experience that comes with having been on the practice team,” Nygren said.
According to Nygren, the team practiced by playing the games that would be featured in the performance and improving on techniques such as ABA, a three-line dialogue exchange between Person A and Person B that establishes a relationship, location, and action for the scene.
She focused on her rhyming skills through games like Beasty Rap, where a one syllable name is suggested and a member then makes up rhyming lines, with their team guessing the last word.
According to Nygren, rhyming helps her improve by creating connections between different concepts happening on stage.
“If I can’t think of anything, thinking of something that rhymes helps me create a connection [to the scene],” Nygren said.
Nygren said the time she has spent with her team has allowed her to form closer connections to her teammates.
“They make me feel connected to a point where I feel like I have been doing improv for a long time.” she said. “We constantly hype each other up, and I felt like I was just playing fun games with my friends.”
Nygren said the nervousness she felt faded once she ran onto the stage at the beginning of the show.
“It feels so different than just practicing once you’re in front of the audience,” Nygren said. “We did our dance and didn’t even need to get the audience ramped up, there was already such high energy.”

Nygren was selected to play one of her favorite games, DVD, in which an audience member suggests a made-up movie name and team members invent a scene from that movie.
Improv director Adam Rudder then blows a whistle and gives commands such as fast forward, change the genre, or director’s commentary to change how they act out the scene.
During the show, the audience suggestion was “Toogle.” As Rudder blew his whistle, Nygren’s scene partner, Kyle Dillon (12), sat down and began typing.
“The way we adapted was what made the scene so fun,” Nygren said. “That’s the whole thing: make sure your scene partner looks good and always help each other.”
According to Nygren, her main focus was improving on the scene.
“I kept going over in my head, ‘What do I do next, and what can I do to make the scene better?” Nygren said.
However, Nygren said this mantra made it hard to adapt on the spot.
“In DVD, it just flowed naturally,” Nygren said. “But with other games I spent a lot of time overthinking.”
Nygren said she will prepare for the next show by practicing more rhyming and practicing games that will be performed.
Nygren said she was surprised how quickly she started to feel like a member of the improv family. She said she is excited to grow alongside her team.
“I was thinking that because I already do theater, then improv will just be something on the side,” Nygren said. “Improv has become such a big part of my life that it’s definitely the top thing I look forward to.”