By: Janie Peterson The brimming activity of the Quad seemed to abruptly diminish at 6 p.m. Tuesday night when the bulk of students migrated behind Brewer Residence Hall to the Improv Theatre Games, an elective sponsored by Theatre instructor Harvey Stone. “You can improv a scene study, you can improv a reaction, you can improv within the context of theatre, but at the elective we are just playing improv games,” Stone explained. Improv theatre does not rely on a script; actors don’t know what’s coming next, and they just handle it the best they can. Stone begins the elective by giving a few basic rules, asks for volunteers, and then students act out the scene. With the amount of creative leeway improv has to offer, there are very few rules, albeit important ones. “One of the most important [rules] of improv is ‘yes and,’ which means you take everything that’s given to you affirmatively and then you add something to it, which I think is just a really great rule for life,” Stone said.
Safiyah Young, a natural science student, enjoys the creative freedom of improv at her school, in her community theatre group, and, now, here at Governor’s School East. “I like that typically there’s no rules or structure to it. You can make it what you want it to be, which is really fun. The variety of improv is my favorite,” Young said. According to Young, the ideal improv partner is someone who has an expansive mind and is very imaginative, “just because you can really bounce off each other that way.” Improv can be difficult at first, and Young says that it’s definitely something that she learned to love. “I used to hate it, because you don’t know what to expect,” she said. Sienna Piscitelli, who is attending Governor’s School for theatre, participated in the elective and agrees that a scene partner who is open to everything is a crucial part of the game. “Just really taking the moment and running with it is an essential part of improv,” Piscitelli said. With open-mindedness being one of the core values of Governor’s School, improv is a perfect elective option for the students here. Stone encourages students of all disciplines to try new things. “It is a good place to have fun in low stakes. It doesn’t matter if you mess up. I think that’s what Governor’s School is all about- it doesn’t matter if you mess up,” he said. Because it brings people together from different parts of campus, improv also demonstrates another strength of our community: working together. “Improv is a great unifier because everybody can improv,” Stone said. He loves to see unfamiliar faces on the stage and encourages all students to try it because it could lead to important personal realizations. “Some people don’t know they’re funny. I think improv is best for those people. For the people who don’t realize that comedy could be their thing, I think improv is really a gift.” The only thing Stone doesn’t enjoy about the elective is that there isn’t enough time for every single interested student to perform. “So many people want to play and it’s so hard for me to choose when all those hands go up. Trying to include as many people as possible and trying to play as many things as possible in the time that we are given.” Students aren’t the only ones that Stone would like to see-- he encourages staff members to participate in the fun as well. He says that if he could choose any of the staff members to act, it would be Phillip from Natural Science, who belongs to an improv company team in the Raleigh area and enjoys doing improv in his free time. “Phillip is great at improv, so I’d love for the students to be able to see Phillip,” Stone said. Many students who participated Tuesday had never tried improv before. Math student Adrian Archer has siblings involved in improv and theatre, but has never experimented with it himself. However, he didn’t find it difficult to go on stage because he knew that his peers wouldn’t judge him. “It’s really just the atmosphere [at Governor’s School] of having the ability to try new things. Everybody's really supportive, so even if you mess up, everyone will laugh along with you.” It can be difficult to perform in front of so many people, but taking such a daunting risk is rewarding for Archer. “When you’re in the moment, you don’t really know if you’re doing well or not, but when you say something and a group laughs, it makes you feel really good about it,” he said. Stone is planning to do at least one more session during week four, and possibly another during week five. The turnout of future elective sessions is likely to be as great as the first few, because Archer shares the same feelings as many students. When asked if he would participate again, he answered immediately. “Absolutely.” Comments are closed.
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