The improv team will be hosting its first performance of the year tonight, with the theme Mission IMPROVsable.
This spy-themed show will be the grand debut of seven new improv performance team members, all of whom moved up from the practice team after 10 seniors graduated last year. The two captains, Eli Ander-Biegelsen (12) and Meredith Dahl (12) will also be joined by the one returning performance team member, Jordyn Nygren (11), as well as the seven new performers on stage.
Like most of their shows, the Mission IMPROVsable show is themed as a competition, with two teams of five battling against each other. For this show, it is spies versus bad guys. Ander-Biegelsen said that the two groups are decided based on the energy that team members contribute to the shows.
“If one team’s really high energy and one team is really low energy, the audience will notice that,” Ander-Biegelsen said. “High energy always gets the audience amped up, but low energy is also really funny.”
The show will consist of a series of improv games in which team members act out scenes, come up with storylines, and pretend to be characters all using suggestions from the audience. While the team practices the games beforehand, exactly how the improv scenes play out changes based on audience suggestions.
“It’s the same way you would practice for a sports game,” Ander-Biegelsen said. “You don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but you just rehearse for, in general, what you know the situation’s going to be.”
During rehearsals, the team starts with a warm-up game to get their minds in the right place for doing improvisation.
“We play word association,” Ander-Biegelsen said. “We all stand in a circle, and you say the first word that comes to your mind. Then, you throw that to the next person. That’s just to get our brains sharp because in improv, there’s no script. You have to say the first thing that comes to your mind, on stage, in front of a bunch of people.”
To decide which games will be played in each show, Ander-Biegelsen said that the team starts by practicing a bunch of different games before they decide which ones will work best for the specific show and which team members are best at those games. Ander-Biegelsen said that one in particular to look out for is called Beasty Rap.
“All the games are fun, but one that always gets everyone amped up is Beasty Rap, Ander-Biegelsen said. “It’s a rhyming game. You get a suggestion of a one-syllable name from the audience and the teams alternate making rhymes out of that name. That’s a super high-energy one, and it starts off the show.”
Ander-Biegelsen said that the departure of 10 seniors last year changed the team’s dynamic. Now, Ander-Biegelsen, along with Dahl, are in charge of the team, a role that can be daunting.
“In improv, you’re trained to have confidence,” Ander-Biegelsen said. “You’re the arbiter of what is true in an improv scene. You can just say, ‘Here, I have this giant lollipop.’ That giant lollipop is only there because you say it’s there. Even with that trained confidence, [being captain] still comes with a lot of imposter syndrome and [a feeling of] ‘Am I doing this right?’”
Ander-Biegelsen said improv shows are a fun way for the improv team members to let their true personalities shine on stage while also allowing the audience to take part in the production
“It’s a community event and you’re part of the show,” Ander-Biegelsen said. “We get suggestions from the audience to prompt scenes, so you can influence the show. As opposed to a play where you’re seeing your friend play a character, for improv shows, it’s just your friends up on stage. That’s a real connection that you don’t get as much in a play. It’s just us. There is no fourth wall in an improv show, so there’s that definite sense of connection to the audience.”
