Mission Improvable: “It’s not that serious”

By Anastasia Benstead, Assistant Editor-in-Chief

At 10 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13 students gathered at the Moose to watch Aquinas’ student improv group’s, Mission Improvable, first performance of the year. This performance’s theme and title of the show was “Mission Improvable: It’s not that serious.”

The Improv team taking a group photo in celebration of the show – Photo by Anastasia Benstead

Team Captain Micheala Faith kicked off the show with a game called Quoting Around in which she asked the audience for two books and a prompt. In this game two of the three actors on stage are only allowed to read quotes they find in real time from the two novels. The prompt given was a trip to the zoo and the two texts were Noches at the Fiesta by Kristen Valdez Quade and the other was an inclusion and co-teaching textbook.

Actors performing Quoting Around – Photo by Anastasia Benstead

The second game was called Slide Show. In this game Anna O’Neill and Josiah Farrington played a couple who had recently gone on a vacation and were recounting the story through photos created by Ashlyn Armock, Delaney Pocevich, and Faith. The three girls would randomly create poses and O’Neill and Farrington made up a scenario to explain their frozen positions.

“I always enjoy the show. I knew I had to bring everyone tonight,” junior Vanessa Bailey, who brought four of her friends along, said.

The third game was called Late to Work. C.J. Guillermo was kicked out of the room so that the audience could determine three reasons why he might be late to work. The generated themes were that his friendship bracelet broke, his unicycle broke, and zoo animals escaped creating a stampede. The scenario that unfolded on stage were elves working in Santa’s toy shop miming the aforementioned reasons of tardiness behind the unknowing boss, Xavier Memije.

The event was so well attended that some members of the audience had to stand in the back to watch the show.

“Aquinas’ improv team is nothing short of the best experience I’ve had,” Augustus Smith, Aquinas student said. He is a friend of many of the actors and has been attending their shows since his freshman year.

The fourth game was called the Alphabet game. Kyle Devine and Faith were the only two on stage and their dialogue could only start with the next letter in the alphabet while simultaneously always alternating dialogue. The prompt was giraffes and the two of them played giraffes experiencing an identity crisis as they were in an enclosure with a sign saying lion cage.

The next game was a murder mystery which operated much the same as the previous game of Late to Work. Memije came marching back into the room with a British accent as the key suspect in an interrogation carried out by Devine and Guillermo. Instead of hints via silent charades, Memije received hints in the interrogation questions. He quickly guessed the beloved cartoon cat Garfield as the murder victim, guessing next that the method used was poisonous spiders. His final discovery was that the body was hidden in the chain sports goods store, Bass Pro Shops.

In the next game, New Choice, Devine and Pocevich did an entirely improved scene, however when the bell rang they were required to make a new choice by re-delivering a line in a more interesting or humorous way.

Afterwards, a fan favorite Good advice, Bad Advice, Worst Advice was performed, in which three actors are called to the stage to respond to audience questions asking for advice. The first request was made by Aquinas Alumn Drew Huegli who asked what he should do to get a cast of actors to listen to him– a question not taken lightly in a room full of cast members in the show he is currently stage managing. The second advice based question from the audience was far more morbid and asked what to do with the body of their best friend they had just killed— one piece of advice: more wine. The third question was whether or not an ex should be texted, which was responded with an unanimous “no” from all the actors on stage.

“Good advice, Bad Advice, Worst Advice was my favorite performance tonight,” Santiago Mejia, cast member from GRCC, said. “I really like getting to do all of the voices. ”

Not every actor in the group is an Aquinas student. Due to the number of Grand Rapids Community College students participating in Circle Theater productions, it was a natural transition to add them to the group.

“In one word; welcoming describes how my experience has been since joining Mission Improvable,” Farrington, another GRCC cast member, said.

The final game of the evening is called Expand, Shrink. In this game the audience prompted Devine to discuss cave diving in an extended monologue. The scene continually changed with the addition of each new cast member jumping in when they chose. This continued until each cast member froze the previous scene and began their own scenario. The game then worked in reverse order. As the cast members left the stage (in the opposite order in which they arrived on stage). When the next scene began it was expected to resume in the same place it was frozen, testing the adaptability and creativity of the actors.