Saturday was a big day for the members of ImprovLSU. For the first time ever, the club held its own College Improv Festival, creating a moment for members to learn, share and present their craft to the public.
The entire idea to host an improv festival came from the club’s recent visit to Ole Miss for the Laughin’ In The Sip improv festival. After a handful of the ImprovLSU members attended the event, they decided to hold their own.
Within two weeks, the ImprovLSU members pulled together their own festival, inviting improv troupes from across the South to participate.
The festival featured workshops taught by improv professionals and LSU alumni. Club members stay in contact with these talents who came from LSU, especially those who now live in Chicago and New Orleans.
Audrey Wofford is a senior psychology major and member of ImprovLSU. She attended the festival and performed for the ImprovLSU troupe. It wasn’t her first time performing with ImprovLSU, and won’t be her last.
Wofford has been with the club for most of her college career and has so much appreciation for what the club does.
“I feel like a better version of myself on stage,” Wofford said after the night’s performance.
During the festival, attendees learned new techniques, games, ways of connecting to scene partners and how to improve in their storytelling.
“We as a club are incredibly unique in the fact that we learn techniques that are tried and true,” said Wofford.
After the workshops, the public was welcome to come to the LSU Music & Dramatic Arts Building and watch as different improv troupes performed. Before the expected performances of the night, senior theatre performance major and president of ImprovLSU Ricardo Mendoza invited all of the club’s non-troupe members to come up and perform.
These actors performed using the Armando technique, which is where the audience offers up a word suggestion and someone has to talk about a story related to the word. Following the “Armando Monologue,” the improv players have to create different scenes using ideas from the monologue.
Different wild and funny stories were performed by the ImprovLSU members to the joy and laughter of the audience. Then it was time for members of Lab Rats Comedy to perform. Coming from Mississippi State University, these college students gave their all on the stage.
Asher Rials is a sophomore mechanical engineering major and one of the Lab Rats. He described the festival as magical and unbelievable. Like many of the students, Rials learned from other performers when it came to different styles and techniques of improv.
After the Lab Rats’ set, it was time for the official ImprovLSU troupe to perform. A week prior, all of the members came together to audition to see who would represent the club, and each performer has been a member of the club for a while. The ImprovLSU troupe works together well and has its own style and humor.
“Every improv [troupe] is different; every improv scene is different,” Rials said. “That’s what makes it cool.”
Two Friends Improv Theater is a troupe based in New Orleans, but its three members are all graduates from LSU. The group came and taught a workshop, but it was also the last performance of the night. Comprising professionals and improv veterans, Two Friends Improv Theater had the entire room fully engaged and laughing out loud.
After the show, all of the improv troupes came together for an ImprovLSU tradition. After every meeting or performance, each member sits in a circle and talks about what they learned and what they loved.
“Every time I watch improv live, it makes me want to see two more shows [because] I know it’s going to be different and I know it’s going to be wild and I know it’s going to be memorable,” Rials said. “My grand hope with doing improv personally is that I can recreate this feeling for others.”
This was ImprovLSU’s first time running a College Improv Festival, and it seems it will not be the last. The club performs multiple times a month, and meetings are from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
