Photo courtesy of Mr. Ross Mortensen
Last Friday, before Yale’s oldest improv group, the Yale Ex!t Players, performed in a free show for the Choate community, the theatrical troupe hosted a workshop for students interested in the crazy, complex world of improv.
Director of the Arts Ms. Kalya Yannatos explained workshops with guest performers “give an opportunity for students to interact with guest artists in an experiential way,” she said.
The exceptional vitality of the six actors who took the stage in the Gelb Theater not only motivated Choate’s improv group—which practices diligently every Friday and will soon put together the annual Iwazaru show—to participate, but also the many freshmen and sophomores who attended the workshop.
Improvisation can be a difficult skill to develop. Polina Ermoshkina ’19, a sophomore in Choate’s improv group, said, “There was such great, positive energy that I had not seen come out of my cast-mates before. The Ex!t Players were a riot. They really helped us to just go for it. Hopefully we can use some of the techniques we learned from the workshop in our own show.”
The workshop, began with some basic concepts, such as never saying no during an improvised exchange — “Yes, and…” is the common refrain — recognizing the characters of all actors, and letting the scene go in the direction that actors’ imagination naturally takes it.
The sketches the Choate students learned to perform slowly rose in difficulty. One of the last exercises was difficult because it incorporated all of the techniques that the improv actors had taught. Students had to perform two-person plays in a random setting given by the audience. The lines that structured the skit were “You look…” and “I feel…”
In one hour, a group of 20 Choate students, many of whom had essentially never acted before, discovered a new, on-stage world of courage with the Ex!t Players.
