With the inauguration of Hood’s 11th President being on Saturday, October, 17, the campus was buzzing with excitement, and more importantly, an endless list of events.
In honor of President Chapdelaine officially becoming a part of the Hood family, on Wednesday, October 14, Joe Brady hosted an improve night with a variety of improvisation troupes and a whole lot of laughter.
“Welcome to the celebration of the inauguration of the president,” Brady said, giving a wave to President Chapdelaine and her husband in the audience.
The show kicked off with everyone up on the stage. The stage was filled from side to side with all different improve groups from all over Maryland and they broke the ice by taking turns performing with people they have never met or acted with before.
The topics were taken from the audience with no preparation from the actors on stage. The first question for the audience was, what are our favorite things about fall?
The winning topic was Pumpkin Spice, of course. A slew of one-acts ensued about Pumpkin Spice lattes in the fall and brought about the invention of the Goddess of Pumpkin Spice:
“If you say pumpkin spice three times, the goddess of pumpkin spice will come, but you really have to feel it, all the way down to your Uggs.”
After treating us to some Pumpkin Spice scenarios, the stage split up and different troupes performed one at a time, each also taking a topic from the audience.
One of the groups was our very own, HIT, the Hood College Improv Troupe. They called themselves 30% of HIT as they made up exactly 33.3% of the Hood troupe.
Jake Rogers, a member of HIT, said: “HIT’s been great; it’s a really fun culture to be a part of. All of the people are interesting and hilarious and it’s always a good time. The show last week was a little strange because there were so many people and when there are more people it is difficult to get yourself into scenes, but it was definitely a good learning experience to be around all those talented improvisers and watch them do what they do best.”
The Hood group acted out some scenes from the suggestion of the Pergola as a topic which resulted from the question: what is your favorite thing about Hood College? HIT made a fun dig about our traditions and how extreme they can get by coming up with the fake tradition, “If you throw a rock at someone in the pergola, they’ll fall in love with you.”
Other improve topics included theft from friends, hotels, receiving noodles as a birthday present and teachers. There were performances rom One-Ton Prop of Baltimore, Annie Hall of Baltimore, Matt, Geo and Joe, and then everyone up on the stage together again, but this time, with anyone from the audience who wanted join.
The night was fun-filled with endless laughter since neither the actors nor the audience ever knew what was coming. It was improve at its best.
Courtney Lapsley, a HIT member, said, “…It’s always fun to work with other troupes and creating a comedic mood together, despite being nearly strangers. [The]…greatest challenge for me as an improviser [is] not to laugh at the hilarious things my scene partners tell me. Sometimes there is disconnection, but I feel we all came together and pulled it off.”
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