Forth Friday Improv at PVCC
Sean Gill, staff writer
Every fourth Friday from 6-8 p.m., a plethora of high spirits can be found at the Maxwell Theatre (Black Box) in the Dickinson Building at Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC). This collection of laughter and entertainment comes from the Fourth Fridays Improv series.
“Learn to think fast, improve focus and listening skills and tap into creativity to build on the many possibilities that emerge in theatrical improvisation,” the PVCC website states.
The Fourth Fridays Improv series provides interactive lessons on relaxing your nervousness, interpretation of situations, and controlling your body language. It provides useful knowledge for various forms of improv and important comprehension of interaction in everyday life.Award-winning playwright Brad Stollerleads Fourth Fridays Improv. he has taught drama for more than 20 years. Throughout the series, Stoller shares why each exercise is important and how it contributes to theatre.
On Jan. 27, the opening act was an entertaining game that consisted of playing tag and memorizing names. It was a test of remaining calm while having to think quickly. It provided a great opening to understanding how nervous everyone was and attempted to reduce the nervousness.
“Sometimes speaking is the least important part of acting,” Stoller said during another one of the exercises. This activity consisted of three volunteers sitting in chairs in the middle of the stage. The participants were asked to do a combination of either raising one of their hands, turning their head left or right, and/or crossing their legs. They would do this while staying completely silent. It exhibited a sense of working together to tell a story while using a limited number of actions.
No previous experience is required to join in on the fun during the Fourth Friday Improv series. They will keep meeting and honing their craft in hopes of staging a performance in spring 2017.
