by Stephanie Palazzolo, assistant editor
“Has anyone seen my pet gerbil?” senior Sarah Higgins asks as she wanders across the auditorium stage. “I got into this elevator and saw a button labeled ‘Heaven’ and just clicked on it because, you know, if I were a gerbil, that’s where I’d go.” Behind her, senior Brent Price continues flapping his arms up and down and lets out a sudden “bawk!”
For outsiders, the exchange may seem odd, to say the least, but for members of the Warped Improv Troupe, or WIT, it is all just part of another rehearsal leading up to their biannual performances.
“Improv is more about creating scenes with meaning,” WIT director Roy Rodriguez said. “I make sure that they work on creating scenes that are not only funny but that also have characters with relationships, scenes that build upon themselves.”
During rehearsals and performances, members of WIT think on their feet by reacting to settings and scenarios given to them while still staying within the rules of the improv games they play. And through it all, they must still entertain their audience.
Although it may sound difficult, many WIT members agree that being good at improv is a natural talent.
“There’s not really a hard part to WIT just because it’s improv — you can either do it or you can’t,” senior Caroline Rudd said. “I wouldn’t say that the hardest part is coming up with something just because that’s literally what we’re there to do.”
However, there are several skills that one must learn to be good at improv.
“I’m not in theater at all; I’ve never been in a play or anything, so when I first joined, my voice was pretty quiet in general,” Rudd said. “They had to teach me to project my voice so people sitting in the back of the auditorium could hear me. I had to practice techniques that forced me to be loud, so now I’ve just kind of broken out of my shell.”
Another obstacle that many WIT members struggle with is overcoming their initial embarrassment and letting go of any self-conscious feelings.
“You’re always trying to be funny because you don’t want to look dumb in front of your other WIT members or the audience, so you always try to have the best jokes,” junior Savannah Barrera said. “But when you tense up and think, “I have to be funny,” is when your creativity gets blocked by all that.”
Stage fright is also another common fear.
“During my first show last semester, I was pretty nervous because improv isn’t just reading a script or doing something that you’ve blocked out,” junior Seth Feagan said. “You could be terrible, to be honest. After I did my first show, though, I realized that everyone laughs. Even if you don’t think you’re funny, you usually don’t know how good your raw talent is going to be.”
However, WIT members gain plenty of experience through their after school rehearsals. Rehearsals usually start soon after auditions, where potential WIT members play improv games to test their skills.
“In auditions, we make sure that people can work together and build a scene together,” senior Sophia Woodward said. “Yeah, you can be funny, but sometimes you can be funny on your own but not so funny in a group. You can have your own flair, but you need to also be able to be cohesive in a group.”
This unity is a key part of WIT’s success in their competition against the Faculty Improv Troupe, which they usually win every year.
FIT is the teacher version of WIT, which Rodriguez also leads. With busy schedules and hectic lives, teachers often find it difficult to rehearse, and sometimes the group does not fully meet until the day of the competition.
“The biggest problem in FIT is trying to get the teachers to come out of their shells,” Rodriguez said. “A lot of the FIT members are really scared, but you’re a teacher, you do a show everyday. And you improvise most days anyways, so I feel like this should be second nature to them.”
But even with all the obstacles and problems, WIT members can definitely see the payoff in the enjoyment of the audience during their performances.
“[Seeing the audience laugh] is so exciting because you finally know that you’ve done something that your audience actually thinks is funny,” junior Betz Mayer said. “That’s super rewarding. You really know you’ve done a good job when the audience laughs at you.”
Together, WIT creates a close-knit family, each person with different characteristics and personalities, but altogether a hilarious and enjoyable improv troupe.
“Taming [WIT] can be hard because they’re all very different people,” Rodriguez said. “People think that WIT is just a bunch of theater students, but every person on WIT is very much unique. They’re basically all weird, crazy monkeys flying around everywhere, which makes it really fun.”
Check out photos of the Warped Improv Troupe as they prepare for this weekend’s performances:
WIT has performances tonight and tomorrow night at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at the door for $7.
