Improv recap

Morgan Jackson

Monday, April 12, The Festival of Fools Troupe performed a show in partnership with Blitz Week, with all proceeds going toward this year’s cause: Legacy Parenting Center. The show was held in Potter auditorium at Raley Chapel and was, like the rest of Blitz Week this year, 80s themed.

The troupe held auditions for new members the Sunday before the show and introduced their two new members at the beginning of Monday’s show. If you are wanting to join the troupe, you haven’t missed your chance. Festival of Fools are expected to hold auditions again toward the beginning of next semester.

The show was hosted by troupe members Justin Glover and Anna Smolen. This year, group was led by co-captains Kaeley Mastin and Ethan Wood. The other members of the group are: Bayleigh Platter, Garrett Wheeler, Anna Smolen, Larashleigh Wallace, Gabriel Barnes, Justin Glover, Anna Caughlin, Zack Coak and Jacob Brown.

The show was well-attended by an eager audience. The energy was exciting in the room and escalated throughout the show. Audience members were very eager to share their scene suggestions with the hosts.

The troupe performed a combination of both short-form and long-form improv scenes at the show.

Actor’s Nightmare is a short-form game and was played by Garrett Wheeler and Kaeley Mastin. In the game, Wheeler was reading from a randomly-selected script while Mastin was creating a scene and reacting to him.

A highlight of the night was the group game called Slideshow. It involves two members looking at a slideshow of pictures and reacting to them. The other members of the troupe created the images in real time. At this show, we saw Wheeler and Mastin reacting to family Easter photos that took a particularly dark turn.

Entrances and Exits was a fun, short form game that required members to enter and exit the scene depending on a certain word selected for each actor. The scene unfolded on a farm at this show.

 Love/Hate establishes certain relationships between characters. The game featured Zach Coak, Gabe Barnes and Justin Glover.

Mr. Director is a game that focus on the production of a movie scene. The director will cut and make changes to the scene and troupe members tag in and out as the director sees fit.

Disaster Movie is a long-form game in which the troupe members have individual scenes with two different people, establishing a world that is going to be facing a natural disaster. After all of those scenes, the members mix and match to face the natural disaster and ultimately die.

A big hit of the night was a group game called Scenes You’ve Never Seen. The hosts took movie suggestions from the crowd including the classic rom-com How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days and Twilight. This show was the first and last of the semester for the Festival of Fools. Graduating seniors in the group this semester are Kaeley Mastin, Garrett Wh