Improvising their way to the top
Next week, the IMPers, a group of talented Martha's Vineyard Regional High School students who worked their way up through the improv ranks by participating in grade school and middle school programs and attending summer improv camp, will be headed for the prestigious Chicago Improv Festival. After years of working together, and submitting an audition video, the six-member IMPer team has made it to the country's most elite improvisation event. And how do they plan to get to Chicago? By improvising, of course.
This Saturday the IMPers, along with a few of the original members of the WIMP troupe (the adult improv group originally formed in 1994), will host a fundraising performance at the Grange Hall, following an improv-themed auction and dessert reception.
The six IMPers strike a pose. From left, Sarah Swift, Mariah Mackenzie, Ray Ewing, Vivian Ewing, Ashley Girard, and Della Burke.
Photo by Ralph Stewart
Guests will have the opportunity to bid on some unique auction items, including services provided by the IMPers such as babysitting, housecleaning, and having a family portrait taken by photographer Ray Ewing. They will also auction off a formal tea party hosted by the teens dressed in formal wear. Some of the most entertaining items being auctioned are opportunities to provide suggestions that form the basis for skits, and the lines of dialogue for a game called "Add-a-line," and the chance to become the subject for "A Day in The Life." Bids will also be collected for "Promo-Coaster," in which IMPers create a commercial for the winner.
Following the reception, the performance will include both long-form and short-form games. Sophomore Vivian Ewing explains: "The main difference is that short form has much more of a structure or a gimmick. Long form is like a completely improvised one-act play." The kids will be joined by three of the founding members of WIMP.
Donna Swift, the director and founder of Troubled Shores, the non-profit theater organization that includes an educational program, as well as the IMPers and four other performance troupes, was one of the original WIMP members. She started teaching improvisation to kids, forming the foundation for the organization Troubled Shores.
Some of Ms. Swift's former students are members of the Newly Resurrected WIMP, as the graduates refer to themselves, and they often appear alongside the IMPers during their summer performances.
Ms. Swift emphasizes the concept of "the group mind." Ms. Ewing describes it as, "the connection that we all build together."
Says sophomore Sarah Swift, "You can jump out on stage and do something that you wouldn't normally do, and they'll have your back."
The five girls in the group have been working together for four years, and Ray and Vivian Ewing are brother and sister, so their familiarity with each other adds a cohesiveness that is evident when they perform. Sophomore Mariah Mackenzie and Della Burke describe the IMPers as a very strong ensemble, and, as Ms. Burke adds, "We succeed together or we fail together."
On performing with the WIMP members, who have a standing invitation to perform at the Grange Hall along with the IMPers in the summer, Mr. Ewing says, "For all improv you have to view everyone as equals."
Long-time IMPers Ashley Girard, left, and Della Burke take cues from each other to create a scene.
Photo by Ralph Stewart
Chris Brophy, who has gone on to a successful acting career and who also teaches at the IMP camp comments, "I've got to stay on my toes. These kids are fast. They're really good. They're all going a mile a minute."
Improvisation lends itself to other areas, as well as drawing inspiration from real life. Ms. Burke says, "I people-watch a lot. You can take a lot of that and put it into your improv."
Sarah Swift says, "For me it really helps with my writing. I take inspiration from a scene and turn it into a sketch."
Ms. Ewing comments on the relationship between improv and public speaking, and Ms. Mackenzie notes, "It helps you to deal with everyday life."
Adds Ms. Burke, "You expect the unexpected and you're not dazed by it."
All of the IMPers plan to go on in the theater after graduation. "Whether I'm stage managing or whatever, I'll still be doing theater," says Ms. Mackenzie.
Right now, however, the teens are focusing on the upcoming Chicago trip. Says Mr. Ewing, "We're all very excited because we've been accepted to attend the international Mecca of improv. We're one of the only teen troupes to be accepted."
Mr. Ewing, also a member of the IMPer troupe that two years ago became the first high school group to participate in the festival, notes, "We learned a lot of really indispensable knowledge that we brought back." Adds Ms. Mackenzie, who learned a lot from the kids when they returned from Chicago last time, "Others really benefitted from it. It helped us a lot."
The invitation to attend the Chicago Improv Festival is a fitting payoff for all their hard work and commitment. The teens look forward to expanding their perspective by working with a new professional coach and to witnessing the work of other performers, including some TV and stand-up performers.
Donna Swift comments on the ease with which the former members slid back into team mode. She says, "After 15 years we had really gelled as a group and we were able to pick right up where we left off."
The latest batch of future WIMP members have similarly found their "group mind" and it's impressive to watch as they riff off each other, helping each other with verbal and non-verbal cues and reacting collectively.
Ms. Swift is obviously proud of her students: "The troupe makes a commitment to work together as a team to perform professional-quality shows."
Benefit Improv, 6 pm, Saturday, April 11, Grange Hall, West Tisbury. 6 pm: dessert reception. 7:30 pm: performance with Jamie Alley, Chris Brophy, Laura Silber, and IMP. $25 reception, show, premier seating; $15 performance only. 508-939-9368.
Gwyn McAllister is a regular contributor to The Martha's Vineyard Times.
