Made Up On the Spot
“Zip” “Zap” “Zop” “Zap” “Oh no! I have failed,” there is applause coming from the other members of the AUBG Improv Theatre Club. There’s a good atmosphere in one of the classrooms they have re-fitted into their training stage. Seven people are standing in a circle, pointing at each other, making weird noises and laughing. There’s a lot of laughing. Every Tuesday, students from the American University in Bulgaria meet to do improv theatre.
Everything the audience sees on stage is made up on the spot. Professor Ronald Harvey, the club’s trainer, explains that Improv theatre is a terrifying artform “because you don’t know what the game is going to be or what the premise is going to be, or who the characters is going to be. You really have to react in the moment.”
The club is mostly made up by women. Which is unusual, “because in USA, where arguably improv theatre was born, it’s primarily a male dominant thing,” he says. But Harvey is satisfied with having so many female students in the club.
“You can be anything, you can take the shape of anything, you can become anything, you can say almost anything,” says Gabriella Groitsova, the president of the AUBG Improv Theatre Club, “It gives you the chance to free yourself and be whoever you want to be, and that’s beautiful.”
Gabriella started with improv the same time the club was established, in Spring 2019. As with most members she had stage fright in the beginning. But after experiencing the thrill and excitement it gives you, she now faces the unknown head on.
“It’s like facing one of your fears. If you learn to face one fear, you become much more confident to face all your other fears,” she says.
Training students in the art is rewarding for Harvey. In the club, all real-life expectations about correct answers, being on top and always being serious is put aside. “We celebrate failure, being spontaneous, being ‘wrong’,” he says. Harvey sees this in his trainees whenever they go up on the stage.
Three of the members gather up on the stage and joining arms, they have now become “Dr. Know It All”. A being who knows everything, but since they have three heads they can only speak one word at a time. A question is asked from the audience.
“What do you say if your best friend’s pet just died?”
“You. Say. To. Your. Friend. That. You. Are. Hungry…” and it goes on, until they feel satisfied with the answer and takes a bow. Applause and laughter often follow.
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Jonas Løken Estenstad is an Erasmus exchange student who studies journalism at AUBG. This is Jonas’ first meeting with improv theatre.
