The ACA was a madcap place on Monday, May 13 as the high school Theater Sports program took the stage and produced a wonderful array of improvisational skits. Above, L-R: Olivia Nesgoda, Kestrel Pollock are dejected as Ian Kurschner asks them about their strange behavior. Staff photo/Brian Larsen
The news spoken to the crowd was quite grim. Clifford, the big red dog, had died. He perished on the moon after eating some bad cheese. The news, however, didn’t bring tears. Well, maybe tears of laughter, uproarious laughter even.
Huh?
Welcome to the zany world of Theater Sports.
Imagine trying to tell someone— without talking—that Clifford, the famous big red dog in children’s books, that this splendid big red furry mutt had met his grim end on the moon after eating some lousy cheese. So sad! And what a difficult message to convey to someone else without the use of words.
But that was just one of the dozens of small improvisational parodies acted out during the Monday, May 13 Theater Sports performance held at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts.
Michael McHugh’s theater class outdid themselves as they participated in a wide variety of impromptu skits and bits that often left the Arrowhead Center for the Arts patrons in fits of laughter.
As always, Mr. McHugh kept the impromptu skits moving at a fast, frantic, fun pace. No one gets bored watching—or performing—at a McHugh led theater sports show!
Theater Sports originated with Keith Johnston of Calgary, Alberta. It is an 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.
“This year’s (our 14th) Theater Sports Event was part of my Theater Arts Elective Course,” said Mr. McHugh. “This class consisted of a variety of ninth-, 10th-, 11th-, and 12th-grade students. We studied script analysis, character development, staging and movement, and acting methods throughout third quarter. Starting after Spring Break, we began working with improvisational games.
“I was so pleased with these kids. Theater is so hard—the amount of concentration and listening required is unbelievable. I could tell when students were mentally exhausted after a rehearsal. They worked hard and were kind and decent to each other, qualities that are required for improvisational theater.
“We had discussed raising money for a theater trip to Duluth, but scheduling issues forced us to have to change plans. Our generous audience donated $95 towards our efforts. We’ll use this money to celebrate our efforts with some delicious Sven and Ole’s pizza, and then the rest of it will be deposited into the school’s drama account for future needs.”
This year’s performers were Katrina Burkett (ninth grade), Merlin Higgins (ninth), Adrian Howard- Larsen (10th), Ian Kurschner (11th), Hattie Meyer (10th), Olivia Nesgoda (ninth), Jared Paro (10th), Kestrel Pollock (11th) and Bennett Trepanier (12th).
On a final note, Michael said, “We’d like to thank everyone who came to see the show. As always, there were magical moments that were as fun as they were surprising. The kids were really excited afterwards, and they couldn’t believe the show went for an hour and twenty minutes.
“It felt like we were up there only a half an hour!”
And, a special note to our readers, take a deep breath and relax, Clifford the big red dog, he didn’t really die on the moon. He’s alive and well in books and cartoons. The thought otherwise would be too hard to bear!
Leave a Reply