This past Tuesday, April 23, Professor Patrick Block, and his Intro to Theatre Performance (PAR 205) class put on a production for anyone to come see. The performance took place in the Loo Theatre at 11:30 a.m. All of the students participated by either doing improv, acting out a scene from a play, or controlling a puppet. In total, the class put on a total of 9 different scenes or participated in improv games.
The students spent their whole semester working on their acting skills, and learning how life is like within the theater. The production included various scenes from different plays, movies, improv games, and a puppet show.
“I took this class mainly to improve on my acting abilities,” said Calista Ancog, a freshman student double majoring in Environmental Science and Environmental Studies. “I definitely plan on incorporating the exercises from the class in my life.”
The puppet show was one of the scenes that caused the biggest reaction from the audience. There were two puppets and one of them was looking for love, and found another puppet. There was dramatic music in the background, and there was a heart-wrenching moment when one of the puppets had to save the other from falling off of a building. The ending of the puppet skit involved one of the puppets pushing the other puppet off the building. The audience was incredibly shocked at such a quick ending to the love story.
“My favorite part was the people,” Ancog said. “We all brought different backgrounds to the table, and it made it interesting for the improv scenes.”
Then for one of the scenes they did was an improv game of playing “Let’s Ride the Bus”, which involves every student. The students set the scene by setting up two chairs, and took turns rotating out of the chairs. They had to act out like their character that they played in other scenes during this specific improv game. Seeing all of the different characters mixed together created funny conversations. One of the students had an accent and made it seem like she was from Long Island or Jersey while the person next to her was a shy individual.
Morgan Escobedo and Kylie Squier performed a scene from “White Chicks”, a popular film. They performed the popular scene dinner scene, when one of the undercover FBI agents was bought at an auction, and has to go on a date with a famous basketball player. The undercover agent does everything in his power to come off disgusting, but the basketball player is still intrigued. This was another scene that the audience reacted well too, since majority of people are familiar with the “White Chicks” movie.
Yuito Asai, a freshman majoring in Sports and Event Management, is one of the students who acted in the performance. He performed the scene of “The Clay” playing the character of Aaron. In the scene he is accused of following a girl, Sophie, and they end up bonding a bit.
“My favorite thing about this class was the improv games,” Asai said. “It helped me learn how to think quick on my feet, and it was fun getting to act as someone else.”