The Theatre department held an Improv Show on Thursday, Dec. 2 in the auditorium. The show consisted of many new and old games that involved the audience to be highly engaged in.

The show was casted the week before Thanksgiving Break. The practices were fast paced for the cast, with only about two weeks to get ready. Practices for improv look a little different than many other theater performances. Improv rehearsals are running through what a show night would look like and playing improv games. The goal of practice is for the crew to get more comfortable with each other and act together. 

“My favorite moments are when you look at your cast mate and the comedy just clicks,” sophomore Sydney Hendricksen said. “You both know what is good and you get each other when up there. If you don’t have a solid understanding of what the other actor is getting at, it can be a little more stressful. To me improv is like playing make believe when you are like a little kid. It’s nice to go back to fun childhood games and fun. I really enjoy it.”

Involvement is a huge part of the show; the more involvement the better. For this show, the crew asked the audience many questions so that they could feel like a part of the show. During the performance, the crew mates asked an audience member to pick a location, genre and emotion. This year, the audience was interested in locations related to Harry Potter.

“The students in the show worked very well with connecting the audience to each game they played,” junior Genevieve Carter said. “They asked multiple questions to keep the audience engaged and I think that really made the show more enjoyable to watch. The improv was super creative and it was really funny to see them act spontaneously while keeping the show entertaining. My favorite part of the show was the ‘Scenes from a Bench.’The cast did really well with keeping the ideas going throughout the whole scene.”

Picking the different games to play at the show was a group effort. The crew played around with ideas at rehearsals and ended up having a lot of inside jokes with each other from past performances. This year there was a quote book of all the silly things people have said in the plays and musicals throughout the year. The quotes drew some inspiration to the students allowing them to come up with the different games. 

“This year the students worked on developing relationships right off the bat,” drama director Brooke Phillips said. “This brought the cast together and it really showed on stage this year. One of my favorite parts was when Sydney Hendricksen put herself out there by running all goofy in the pan left scene. This group made the show so enjoyable to watch not just for me, but for the audience as well.”

This improv show was a fun and fast-paced part of the theatre year. The theater department will be holding another improv show at the end of the school year with even more involvement from the audience and silly games.