LSU football isn’t the only LSU team vying for a national championship win this year.
ImprovLSU recently won the College Improv Tournament’s Southwest Championship in Houston and is headed to the national championship in April. The club focuses on improv, a type of performance theatre. This is the club’s second official year at the University.

Improv is a type of theatre where the actors are constantly on their feet. Actors are given ideas and then thrown into a scene and expected to create a world, objective and story with no prior rehearsals for the specific scene. 

Theatre performance junior Logan Naddy serves as the co-president of ImprovLSU and has been involved with the club since his first week at the University. Naddy conducts every rehearsal, secures a rehearsal and performance space and organizes club activities. 

“You can’t explain [improv] until you either do it or see it,” Naddy said. “But it’s spontaneous performance in a way that’s structured enough to make sense.”

ImprovLSU has about 20 core members who rehearse four times a week for an hour and a half.

Rehearsals are broken into three parts: the warm up, the focus of the rehearsal and then the discussion at the end to determine what went well or could be improved, and what members learned.

“It is improv, so all we do when we rehearse is acquire more ways to tell stories,” Naddy said.

An improv club was founded unofficially at the University about five years ago, but ImprovLSU became official last year.

The club performs each Friday for about an hour in varying acting studios in the Music and Dramatic Arts Building. Given the nature of improv, each performance is different and unique.

The members decide how the performance will be set up earlier in the week before the performance. Some weeks, the club has short-form performances that feature multiple short scenes. In those performances, actors stand on the side and join the scene when they feel the energy is right. Other weeks, the performance is long-form, which features a more continuous storyline with characters coming in and out of the scenes.

“We’re completely open to going into the audience and saying ‘Hey, what do you want to see today? Because we can do anything,’” Naddy said.
Theatre performance freshman Arden Forrand will serve as vice president next year, where she will support Naddy in leading the club. Forrand has been involved with improv theatre since fourth grade and was encouraged by Naddy to join ImprovLSU.
“It’s completely on our feet,” Forrand said. “We haven’t rehearsed this before, we are given ideas– who, what, when, where, maybe not even any of that. Maybe you’re just thrown into a scene and expected to create a world and an objective.”
The club competes once a year. The College Improv Tournament, based out of Chicago, holds 10 regional tournaments every year across the nation. CIT holds an annual national championship where the regional champions compete.

Each regional competition holds three to four preliminary matches with three to four college teams competing in each. At the Southwest Regional in Houston, there were 10 competing schools besides the University, which brought two teams to the regional. 

Each team is given 20-22 minutes for an improv performance in any form they would like.

“You tell a story, or you do a really abstract dance, or you sing a song, or you just go for a run,” Forrand said. “It’s anything you want it to be.”
According to the CIT website, teams are scored on the following criteria: supporting moves, characters, clear and strong relationships, objective, environment and stage technique. The team with the highest cumulative score from the match moves onto the next round.

The winning team of each round moves on to the regional finals round. In the Southwest finals round, ImprovLSU competed against three Texas schools.

Naddy said that after a loss at regionals last year, it was a great feeling to be named Southwest Regional Champions.

“We came back, we took what was ours,” Naddy said. “It was a really good feeling. We work really hard, and it was nice to get a little recognition.” 
The College Improv National Tournament is held in April, and ImprovLSU is bringing one team of eight students to compete against nine other teams. ImprovLSU plans to continue its normal practice regimen to prepare for finals.
“I don’t think it’s feasibly possible for us to practice more than we already do,” Naddy said. “We really won’t even think about it up until probably a week or two before, because at the end of the day, you can only prepare so much for something you can’t prepare for.”

Naddy and Forrand are optimistic about the club’s first appearance at the national championship. 

Forrand said improv is a great way for students across all majors to implement a creative outlet into their daily schedules. She encourages students looking for a creative outlet to watch the club in a performance or even a rehearsal, or to join the club via TigerLink or a rehearsal.

“We are open, we’re not scary,” Forrand said. “We’re not a closed off club. We love when people who are not theatre majors come in.”