By A divorced couple falling back in love at Hooters, a southern gal looking for her “short king” on Tinder and a freshwater shark who gives dating advice.
Audience members inside the campus University Theater on Sept. 12 were greeted by these scenes and more, performed by a motley crew of students in the theatre arts department.
Was it avant-garde? A collection of single-scene plays?
No, it was improv.
“It’s the first improv show on the main season that I’ve been aware of, and I’ve been here for 18 years,” Josh Nathan, a full-time theater arts faculty member said.
The show itself is performed through the students taking the Improvisation and Comedy class Nathan teaches. Nathan is a Long Beach State graduate and was formerly a part of the Sunday Company for the famous, regional improv/sketch company The Groundlings.
He said this short-form improv is part of a “new philosophy” for the fall season which focuses on comedy.
Directing the show is fellow CSULB alumni and Groundlings member, Diego Parada.
Show director Diego Parada (right) explained the rules to the “two restaurants” improv game and pulled scenario options from the audience during the opening night improv performance. The pair of student performers (left) performed a skit where two male friends realized they are in love with each other while having dinner at Ojos Locos Cantina. Photo by Delfino Camacho
“There’s so many benefits to improv, I feel it’s the reason I’ve been able to sustain an acting career,” Parada said. “You’re not afraid of jumping into the deep end of the pool, not afraid of the curveballs, because you learn to trust your creativity.”
A Tijuana-born actor, Parada graduated from CSULB with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater and Film. His credits include shows like Modern Family and Mike Tyson Mysteries. Parada still directs and teaches for the Groundlings.
With no lines or choreography to memorize, Parada’s directing techniques involve exercises, playing games and setting scenarios with students to sharpen their minds for improvisations.
On opening night, as the Spanish lobby music ended and the theater lights dimmed, Parada, who serves as Master of Ceremonies, came on stage to greet the nearly full 365-seat theater and explained the rules.
“Nothing scripted– everything that you are about to see, it’s on the fly, made up from the top of their heads,” Parada said to the crowd. “That means you’re going to see a very unique show, this show is happening today for the first time and the last time.”
Parada said that the roughly hour-long performance would be split into different games and prompts, with varying degrees of audience participation.
Two student performers, including cinematic arts student Eliana Loza (front left), perform a skit in which they are friends celebrating national BRAT day. Loza, who is interested in screenwriting, says that one of the attractive things about improv is how it forces her to create stories on the spot. Photo by Delfino Camacho
The first game, “genre switching,” involved Parada asking the audience to give him different genres such as horror, romance or sci-fi.
Performers then acted out scenarios based on the given genres on the fly, with Parada cutting in mid-scene to switch a horror death scene into a romantic declaration of love.
While the audience was tepid and slow to speak at the start of the show, Parada’s encouragement and the performers’ enthusiasm and commitment soon had the theater erupting in laughter.
Audience members yelled over each other for a chance to see their ideas on stage.
Standout sketches included a two-restaurant scene involving a divorced couple reconciling at a Hooters while concurrently two friends realize they’re in love at Ojos Locos (a Hooters-like Mexican cantina.)
Another notable performance was a cautionary “fairy tale” game that, with audience input, was titled “The Toilet and the Magical Cheeseburger.”
The most satisfying sketches were ones that allowed a narrative to flow and end on a joke. Audiences howled as performers traded razor-sharp quips to keep a story going.
Some cast members kept characters and jokes running between skits, the surprise callbacks resulting in some of the night’s biggest laughs.
Kali Devereux, 22, a communications major and opening night performer said one of the things that draws her to improv is its emphasis on “play.”
“I always played pretend as a kid, so why stop?” Devereux said. “Why not come back and do it [with improv], and as an audience member it might spark something in you. You might say, ‘I want to try that.’”
The company has performed six shows from their opening weekend, and will perform one more on Sept. 21.
