As the spring 2024 semester rapidly comes to a close, students of Moorpark College’s Improvisational Comedy course took the stage to showcase their learned skills at a live show hosted on Friday, April 26.
The class, held within the Theatre Arts department at Moorpark College, ran for a short 9 weeks, starting in late February and closing at the end of April. Led by professor Leslie Lank, the class aimed to provide improvisational and ensemble acting skills and foster culturally sensitive solo and group material.
The improv class held a 40-minute performance to showcase these skills. The show was split between two teams of students where all the members got to partake in off-the-cuff comedy skits known as an “Armando.” Lank further explained the layout of the improvisational style to the Studio Theater audience.
“[Armando’s are] a long-form improv format in which a member of the team will tell a monologue, a true life story, and then the team will perform some scenes based on that monologue,” Lank explained.
The first team, Crazy Eight, kicked off the show with comedy bits inspired by a pair of monologues about avalanches and snowball fights. Their scenes ranged from a character who overreacted to an avalanche, characters who did not understand the concept of snow in the slightest and a character who ravaged a local hospital in hopes of finding the perfect sled.
A member of the second team, BunnyBunnyBunnyBunny, told a monologue about a crush they had on an actor dressed as a cowboy during a play, which also inspired a handful of silly skits for the audience to enjoy. Team BunnyBunnyBunnyBunny led their part with a skit that parodied and exaggerated the original story, a gunslinging cowboy who was afraid of the dentist and a ridiculously long snake in a boot.
After the show, Zacharias Lopez, one of the Moorpark College student performers, expressed how proud he was of his fellow classmates and extended his gratitude towards Lank.
“I had a lot of fun, I think a lot of the people here improved over the course of the weeks,” Lopez said. “I think Leslie is an excellent teacher. I think improv is a hard thing to learn and I think we did a pretty good job together.”
Mae Simoneu, another Moorpark College student, shared some of the difficulties of the class and some challenges of performing the material.
“[The class is] short, it starts later in the semester. At first, it’s really daunting like, ‘Oh no, I have to come up with stuff on the spot,” Simoneu shared.
Simoneu, however, had her professor to thank for her success and her classmates for her overall enjoyment of the course.
“Leslie is wonderful, there are great warm-ups and exercises that we do in class. It’s just a lot of fun, a lot of really fun people in these classes so I recommend it, it’s great,” Simoneu added.
Moorpark College student performer Tessa Hallock shared similar sentiments about the class and her peers.
“The class has been so amazing. I loved working with all these talented people and I definitely recommend taking this class ’cause you’ll learn a lot and it’s super fun,” Hallock shared.
THA M14A – Improvisational Comedy I will be open again through the fall semester from Sept. 3 through Dec. 6, a substantially longer 14-week course, with professor Leslie Lank. To check out the full details of the class, click here.
