Club 88 is roaring with laughter. The audience is watching Amleigh Hoffine ’16 practically drag herself onstage.
“I have c-c-cold!” She yells. As her husband played by Ben Thompson ’14, turns to her.
Meanwhile, Sam Woehl ’15 mimics ice skating across the stage and leaps over Hoffine.
Offstage, the host calls out, “Reverse!” Woehl skates backwards onto the stage. She kicks her leg back to leap over Hoffine in reverse, Thompson turns around.
“I have c-c-cold!” Hoffine repeats before wildly crawling backwards into the wings.
The hilarity ensues. The members of the WTF (Whittier Tells Funnies) Improv troop might make their skits seem effortless, but in truth this comedy requires practice and dedication.
“There are no rules for improv, but there are tools to use to make a good scene,” says WTF coach Matthew Aranda ’16 who has been training these talented students since the beginning of the year.
Aranda spends practices guiding fellow students through games designed to improve skills like space work, character building, and plot development. He reminds the club that the first three things you have to establish in a scene are setting, relationship between characters, and conflict.
One recent scene involved two brothers, acted by Joe Evans ’15 and Joe Tortolani ’15, who were on a hunting trip. The conflict builds as Evans keeps coming up with bad inventions to impress his brother.
“Look, I cut up our tents and made them into little flags to mark our campsite!” cries Evans. “And, check this out; I converted our sleeping bags into a bug habitation sanctuary.”
Tortolani, who is taking the “sleeping bags” out of the scene work duffel bag, shrieks and leaps back.
“One bit me!” he screams.
WTF members represent a wide range of academic disciplines from biology to philosophy. “We have a lot of students who are not theater majors,” explains club treasurer Katryna Dillard ’15. “We really enjoy bringing new people into the club.’’
For these Poets, new opportunities await them outside of the College, as they develop transferable skills that are useful beyond improvisation or stand-up comedy.
“My experience in improv really helped me while I was studying abroad,” adds Woehl. “I was able to make so many friends because I knew how to be bold and I was comfortable with not being in control of a situation. It gave me the confidence to stroll up to all those strangers at orientation and say, ‘Hi! I’m Sam. What’s your name?’”
Some WTF members have taken their act to L.A.’s comedy circuit. Midnight Improv, composed of WTF improvers Alex Peterson ’15, April Lotshaw ’15, Laura Freeze ’16, Joe Tortolani ’15, and Hope Gabrielle ’15, have been performing at venues such as Flappers Comedy Club and The Improv Scene.
The reason these sleep-deprived students have dubbed themselves Midnight Improv is because midnight is the only time they could meet given their busy schedules.
“I really feel like being pushed onto the professional circuit has accelerated our development,” said Lotshaw. “We work in a small group and a lot of our efforts are focused on figuring out how to better work as a team. We've got a lot to work on, but getting shows is definitely pushing us all to use our free time to try and improve.”
— Samantha Woehl ’15
