(Above: Involvement in “improv” is where many successful actors and comedians get their start; Lane Community College shows off the art on Nov. 18-19, 2022.)
By Randi Bjornstad
Although “improv” — short for improvisation — has become a regular part of the performance lexicon, it had its origins in something quite a bit more academic.
Brian Haimbach, head of the theater program at Lane Community College, credits a woman named Viola Spolin, known as the “mother of improv,” for creating the art form as part of a therapy program for troubled adolescents.
Later, her son, Paul Sills, saw an opportunity to bring the concept into the mainstream and started Second City in Chicago, “which really put Chicago on the map,” Haimbach said.
“He took the idea and made it into today’s improv — it’s amazing how many successful actors and comedians have gotten their start there,” he said. “It has become such a popular form, partly because you don’t have to learn lines. It’s much more collaborative, because it’s created on the spot.”
The concept will be on stage on Nov. 18-19 when the Student Production Association (SPA) at LCC presents The Show Don’t Tell Improv Show in the Blue Door Theater on the main LCC campus.
Improv often has a theme, and this time around it’s about people’s heretofore untold secrets:
We all have secrets that we keep safe in our vault of secrets. However, there comes a time in every secret’s life when it becomes clear that the vault of secrets must be opened and the secret must be told. Reveal your best secret to LCC’s skillful crew of improvisers, and watch them weave together a delightful and liberating performance out of your anonymously shared secrets.
Members of the audience will be asked to write down their particular secrets, which will be drawn at random and turned over to the cast to become part of an instant skit.
Erika Towe, a local improv workshop leader, will be in charge.
“She will draw a ‘secret’ and will give the cast the basic information and maybe say how many people are needed,” Haimbach said. “She might say something like, ‘We need three people, the location is in a Starbucks, and you just broke up.’ And then the actors who would like to be in that skit will stand up.”
If too many stand up, it’s up to the actors themselves to decide who will take part, “because even that is improv,” he said. “It’s something that you actually work on in improv class, how to give and take with other people. You have to be able to give and take — there’s no room for selfishness in improv. It’s everybody’s role to help make everyone look good.”
Lane Community College’s The Show Don’t Tell Improv Show
When: 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 18, and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19
Where: Blue Door Theater, Building 6, Lane Community College main campus, 4000 E. 30th Ave., Eugene
Admission: Free, but donations by cash or credit card are welcome to help fund LCC theater program; no reservations necessary, but please try to arrive by 15 minutes before show times
Information: www.facebook.com/lanecommunitycollege
