By: Isaac Reynoso
Tonight, Redwood’s drama department will be hosting their annual improv show.
During this event, experienced actors at Redwood as well as beginners all have the opportunity to put on a fun show and have fun while doing it.
Jadzia Stiff, ’23 is an experienced actress at Redwood and the Vice President of the drama club. She has participated in many musicals and plays with and apart from Redwood.
When asked what exactly the show is, Stiff says, “The improv show is a performance being put on by the drama club.”
She says that “they( drama department) wanted to give the kids in the drama club a chance to perform since not everyone has a chance to get into drama class”.
Stiff says, “I want everyone who is participating to have fun, I want us all to get closer and I want to be able to put on a fun show for the group and maybe kick-start the improv show happening next year with all four high schools.”
Stiff hopes that many will come to see the show and enjoy the fun that all the drama club students are having.
Brooklyn Burch ’23, another experienced actress at Redwood and President of the drama club, gives more of an insight to what the content of the improv show will be like. She says, “ The Improv show is basically a performance where these students don’t have a script in their hand; it is usually a comedic show in which they have lines off the top of their head.”
Burch says that she and Mrs. Galvan came up with the idea to hold an improv show a couple months ago and have been practicing for it in drama club since.
When asked what she wants to get out of the show, Burch says, “A fun time. I enjoy performing and I enjoy having fun with these people, they’re very creative…”
Nathan Perez 23’ is a drama club member who is relatively new to acting and performing. He performed in Redwood’s Footloose back in February, which was his first time performing in anything theater related.
When asked about how it felt to be performing in the upcoming improv show Perez says, “It feels great to be performing in Redwood’s reintroduction of live improv”.
Perez says that his goal for this show is to raise more interest in improv and get more people participating in it next year.
While he is excited for the event Perez still expresses some worries, he says, “I am a little worried about this show because none of us have ever participated in an improv show, or even had the option to participate in the past.”
Despite his worries, Perez says, “I am still hopeful though that the creativity of our club presidents and advisor will have the show back to normal within a night.”
Stacy Galvan, the theater director at Redwood is really excited to have the opportunity to hold events such as the improv show again since they have not been able to due to Covid.
Galvan says, “It is one more step to getting the activities back from pre-Covid, we usually do an improv show in September with the four traditional high schools.”
Galvan says that due to complications with the other schools and Covid, there has not been an improv show held in Visalia since 2018 so “just getting on stage will be a success.”
According to Galvan, the improv show originated from an event called “comedy sports” that they created in order to raise funds for the drama department.
Galvan says, “The very first year that we did it the other school backed out and we had this whole thing planned as a fundraiser so it was the drama department versus the Gigantea.”
Galvan goes on to explain that overtime, the other schools began to join in and the event lost its competitive aspect and became an event purely meant for entertainment.
When asked what people planning on attending can expect from the show, Galvan says, “We have thirteen students who are involved and so they know exactly what games they are playing but they won’t know what the topic is.”
If you are planning on attending you can expect a very interactive and fun experience. Galvan says “There should be laughter the whole time, if it’s not laughter the whole time we’ve done something terribly wrong.”
The improv show will be held in the LJ Williams theater this Friday, April 1st, the doors will open at 6:30 and admission is free.
Tags: arts and entertainment, drama, drama show, improv, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, rhs drama, visalia ca