By Hannah Whelan
In Motion Staff Writer
Daytona state’s improvisation acting students put on a show that could best be described as the best tear jerker around, tears of laughter that is.
“Improv Night” presented by the News-Journal Center on April 21 used audience members as the catalyst for a night filled with gut-busting laughter and dancing.
Students ranging from three year veteran actors to students who have never performed in front of a live audience all came together to put on a show that involved not only the actors, but the audience as well. The stand-up comedy event was open to spectators seven years old and above, but that didn’t prevent the students from implementing humor audience members of all ages could appreciate.
With over 60 people to fill Gillepsy Theatre, the audience reacted well to the cues given by the emcee, Professor Samantha Stern. Nouns, adjectives, different celebrities, genres of music and other bizarre ideas were called out by the audience to determine how the scene would pan out with the actors thinking quickly on their feet to adapt to the changing ideas. An energetic audience kept the night alive and the actors excited.
The volunteers from the audience ranged from volunteers as young as elementary school students, to grandparents of the actors on stage and every age in between.
Throughout the show, different games were played with the actors that caused them to act on the spot and exercised different skills learned in the classroom environment. These games also demonstrated different skills possessed by the actors, like an astonishingly accurate rendition of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” in the voice of Shakira, belted out by actress Joelle Gossman.
As a three-year acting student and original ‘improv’ club member, Gossman commented on the way the club has effected her, “you find out how to be yourself and how to be okay with yourself.”
During the spring semester, Stern teaches groups of students how to utilize different techniques in acting on the spot, literally improvising.
Gossman has been around since Stern introduced the club to Daytona State, eventually transforming it into a class at the college to take place during the spring semester of the year.
“The literal definition of improvisation is that we are making it up on the spot,” emphasized Stern.
Throughout the show, the students ran into parts of the show where one actor was lost for words, and other students coined humor to fill the void. An important skill she believes the students learn in class is to “relinquish feelings of control and trust their partners.”
Among seasoned veterans of the actors, there are students who take the class to break out of their shell and be able to be extroverted, as well as salesmen who are looking to become quicker on-their-feet thinkers.
For more information on how you could get involved in Daytona States improvisation club or the improvisation class, visit https://daytonastate.edu/thearts/index.html.