Photo by Grace Hogan (‘28)
By Haley Zeller, A&E Section Editor
Halloween is right around the corner, and so is SU’s Improv Comedy Club, ready to bring you bone-clacking laughs and skits to fill your candy buckets. On Oct. 25 at 7:00 p.m. in Isaac’s Auditorium, Improv Comedy and Studio SU are hosting a Halloween-themed show titled “Scared Scriptless.” The show will feature forty-five minutes of short-form improv with audience suggestions, as well as the premiere of the short film “Girl in the Graveyard” written by Brandon Snare (‘27).
SU Improv’s president, Bronwyn Lucyszyn (‘28), says, “This is my first time doing a themed improv show, but we’ve prepped a lot and we know each other well.” Bronwyn and the vice president, Paxton Furr (‘28), both expressed how excited they are.
Five of the regular twenty club members will be participating in the show, including Bronwyn, Paxton, Lily Warshaw (‘28), Brandon Snare and Francis Rogai (‘27). “We’ve got a mix from unhinged to witty humor. It’ll be a lot of fun,” Bronwyn says.
The show will open with a game called Change, where Brandon and Francis will act out roles in a very-likely haunted location of the audience’s choice. They might act as executioners, crazed strangers, or whatever spooky comes to mind. As they interact, Paxton will have the opportunity to call “change!” in which the actors have to immediately discard their previous sentence and come up with a new one.
Then, Paxton will introduce Letters, where two teams of two will write letters to each other, one word at a time. In this case, they will write a letter of complaint about a Halloween costume chosen by the audience.
Lily will then lead Genre, which requires Francis and Bronwyn to act out a relationship in different genres of film, television, and theater. The switches in genre will happen when Lily calls for the audience to name a random genre.
The following game, Whose Line, will feature Brandon and Paxton, who are given three lines of dialogue, which they’ve never seen before. They then have to integrate these lines into their improvised skit based on a relationship assigned by the audience. These lines can read anything from “that’s why you should never trust people who wear glasses,” to, “I’m too pretty to do math,” performed with a dentist/patient relationship. As you can imagine, a lot of random quotes can emerge from this game!
The next skit is called the Irish Drinking Song, where the audience will suggest a random Halloween topic. Then, each of the four actors will create a song on the spot, bouncing off each others’ lines and having to rhyme every other line. The game can be incredibly difficult, but the payoff is great, especially with the wacky synergy this group has.
After the showing of “Girl in the Graveyard,” Brandon will bring the group back into the swing of things with Party Quirks. Lily will leave the room while Francis, Paxton, and Bronwyn take on the roles of a Halloween character, concept, and historical figure chosen by the audience. Then, Lily has to return and guess who/what each of their roles are based on improvised hints, such as the concept of “candy,” Jack Skellington, or Aaron Burr. Lily’s energetic determination is contagious and will have you shouting and laughing out loud.
The final act of the show is Beastie Boys, where all the actors and Studio SU execs will join together and make rhymes based on a one-syllable name. Beastie Boys is a wonderful way to get used to on-the-spot acting.
The Improv Comedy club is abundantly excited to show off their hard work and creativity. “If you’re looking for a great way to laugh this homecoming weekend, this is the best opportunity!” Lily Warshaw says. She encourages students to bring their family and friends along for a ghostly, spine-chilling laugh. Join these two clubs in welcoming the products of their lively attitudes and hard work this Saturday at 7:00 p.m. It will be a frightfully fun evening!