The Culver City Middle School Comedy Improv troupe will deliver four performances this weekend, on Saturday at 3 and 7. Andf Sunday, at 1 and 4, at the Willows Community School Theater, 8520 Warner Dr., Culver City. Each performance will feature a different group of students.
Forty-four innovative Middle School students comprise the Comedy Improv Troupe, directed by Jennifer Flack and Eric Price, professional actors performers with extensive experience teaching improv to students. Thanks to the GLEE grant, this set of shows will feature a 30-minute improvised musical, lead by Scott Pasarella, a professional improvisor, who will guide the students from the piano.
Similar to professional improv performances, students will accept audience suggestions for skit topics. Each skit – the characters, conversations, actions and resolution – will be entirely made up on the spot by the Middle School students from the suggested topics. This style of performing requires confidence, adaptability, creative thinking and extensive practice. Students have been honing their skills since September, building on their first set of performances in February.
“While encouraging play and discouraging hesitancy,” said Ms. Flack, “we teach them to be kind to themselves and each other, to face fear, to take pride in their ideas, to celebrate and to have confidence in themselves and each other, and to work as a team.
“These are performance skills, and they are life skills.”
The Improv Comedy troupe, one of two classes offered by Middle School Theatre Arts, was made possible in part by The Glee Give a Note Foundation, which awarded the three-year-old program a $10,000 grant.
Regular tickets are $10 for one show, $15 for a one-day pass and $20 for a weekend pass; student and School District staff ticket prices are $5 for one show, $10 for a one day pass and $15 for a weekend pass. Incoming fifth-grade students can attend as many shows as they'd like for the special price of just $5.
E-mail info@ccmstheatrearts.com.
