IMPROVables members hold Homecoming show, encourage all students and faculty to attend a performance

(From left to right) Back row: Noah Niederklein, Jason Church, Morgan Davis. Front row: Isaac Herrington, Claire Horacek, Sarah Stepp, Marieka Kaufman.

Photo credit: Mi-Ree Zwick

By Mi-Ree Zwick

The IMPROVables kicked off Homecoming Friday with a night of games and skits that were fueled by high energy from both the audience and the cast.

The audience in Borland’s Black Box Theatre ranged from parents and professors to students and alumni. The cast consisted of junior Sarah Stepp, junior Jason Church, junior Claire Horacek, sophomore Noah Niederklein, sophomore Morgan Davis, sophomore Isaac Herrington and junior Marieka Kaufman.

Audience member sophomore Mackenzie Schepmann said that she liked the conflicts that the cast created in their improvised scenes.

“That sounds really bad, but all the conflicts were really interesting,” Schepmann said.

One game, called Layers, has the first scene start with one person, the second scene start with two people, and so on, with different scenes for each layer. Once each scene establishes a conflict that must be resolved later, the next scene starts. This continues until the scene goes from seven people back down to one, with each scene resolving its conflict in backwards order.

For example, the scene with two actors was set in an old folks’ home. The plotline was that there were two older ladies who discovered that “Charles” had been two-timing them. Eventually, the old ladies started to plot against him, citing Charles’ bad characteristics like being bad at polka dancing and cheating at Yahtzee as valid reasons to poison his drink.

Schepmann said that this particular scene in Layers was her favorite scene of the show.

Dr. Vicki Anderson said that she had been attending IMPROVables shows regularly for years. Her favorite long-form game to watch is Layers.

“I was impressed because not only did they come up with great scenes, but they were able to loop the story back,” said Anderson.

Niederklein, a member of the cast, said that Layers had a lot of different plot points that made it an overall good scene.

“We had a lot of good scenes and a very talented cast,” said Niederklein. “This was one of the most fun shows I’ve been in.”

He said that he was looking forward to future shows as either a member of the cast or as a part of the audience.

Horacek, a panel member, said there was a really good energy brought to the show.

“Everyone was on point the entire show,” said Horacek. “They were making good characters, making good choices on names and locations… and I didn’t botch my guessing game scene.”

Horacek also said that she appreciated the audience and their reactions.

“They [the audience] understood the assignment,” Horacek said. The audience offered great scene suggestions and brought high energy to the show, she said.

“The show was ten out of ten,” said audience member Mason Lockwood.

Students involved in the IMPROVables highly recommend that students come to a show or a practice at some point.

Horacek stated repeatedly that anyone who comes to a practice does not have to participate on stage.

“You are always welcome to come and watch, give scene suggestions, and clap,” said Horacek. “And if you ever feel like you want to come up and do a scene, you do not have to be ‘good’ at improv to do it.”

“I started coming last year,” said Niederklein. “I was admittedly not very good at the start, but I just kept coming, really enjoyed it, and continued to grow both as an actor and as a person in general.”

Lockwood said he found out about the Homecoming show after regularly attending the practices.

IMPROVables regularly meets in Borland’s Black Box Theatre on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 to 10 p.m.