Seniors who participated in this year’s Theater Sports performance were, starting in front L-R: Jocelin Deneweth, Maddy Roy, Lily Gruber-Schulz, and Sam Kern. Second row L-R: Leo Johnson, Owen Anderson, Matea Acero, Erica Marxen and Bethany Derscheid. Third row L-R: Frankie Miller, Sara Carman (hidden), Rory Bakke, and Shae Morawitz
It was one show only, but what a show it was!
Ivy Church’s College in the Schools literature students participated in a wide variety of impromptu skits and bits that often left the Arrowhead Center for the Arts patrons in stitches on Thursday, March 24.
All told the fundraiser made over $1,200, money that will be used to pay for a Saturday/Sunday trip for the literature students to travel to the Twin Cities on April 16-17.
“Early Saturday afternoon we will be meeting with the improvisational group t2p2, the same people who put on the “What the Health?” event last month,” said Michael McHugh, the ingeniously enthusiastically creative emcee for the show. “They have booked rehearsal space at HUGE Improv Theater (3037 Lyndale Ave. S. Minneapolis) and we plan on working with them for about two hours.
“Afterwards, we’ll have a dinner together, and then we will attend a 7:30 showing of Harvey that same night at the Guthrie. If time allows we may even try to squeeze in a stop at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.”
Theater Sports originated with Keith Johnston of Calgary, Alberta. It is improvisational theater with a competitive sports angle. In a typical match two teams of improvisers perform scenes as judges score each performance on a scale of zero to five.
The audience also takes part, throwing out suggestions or in some cases, getting hauled onto the stage by the actors. There were plenty of both on this night; the chairs were full in the ACA.
Senior students who participated in this year’s program were Owen Anderson, Rory Bakke, Sam Kern, Matea Acero, Madison Roy, Jocelin Deneweth, and Bethany Derscheid who were on a team dubbed The City Slickers. Competing on The Red Necks were Bergen Soland, Frankie Miller, Leo Johnson, Lily Gruber- Schulz, Sara Carman, Shae Morawitz and Erica Marxen.
“I’m so proud of these kids. It’s live theater, so you really never know what to expect,” McHugh said. “But they blew me away. And our audience was wonderful. It’s an honor to work in a community that is so dedicated to supporting its students.”
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