Bellwether 8

Emily Akers
Sep 26, 2016
2 min read

This weekend, 10 of our members traveled out to Ohio State University for the Bellwether, a two-day improv festival hosted by one of OSU's improv troupes, 8th Floor Improv. This year marked the 8th anniversary of Bellwether and we were so pleased to be able to partake in the festivities and perform alongside so many talented troupes from all over the East Coast. Other schools that participated included Harvard, Missouri State University, Missouri University, Indiana University, and Ohio University. We were also fortunate enough to see professional teams like Boyish (Chicago), members form the touring company of Second City, Brandon Gardner, Glory Days (NYC), Future Wives (NYC), and Papa Legba (Chicago).

In addition to watching all these incredible teams perform, we also had the amazing chance to work with some of the professional improvisers in workshops. We spent our Saturday working with Mike Breen from Glory Days where we practiced creating scenes from perspectives and justification. Later that day, after exploring downtown campus, we worked with Alex Manich from Papa Legba. In this workshop, we worked on establishing a point of view, emotions, locations, etc to our partner through non-verbal communication or as little as possible.

At 6:10, we went on and opened for night 2 of Bellwether. Our suggestion was "Alaska" and somehow, that was paired with another audience member's suggestion of "Tiny." So, with "Tiny Alaska" in mind, one of our members told a monologue about her musical theatre summer program at Carnegie Mellon where she met a boy from Alaska. This led to scenes about balloon pranks, black tie events, fishing expeditions, elevator incidents, and more. We had a very supportive and energized audience which made the experience of performing at OSU all the better.

Seeing the professional teams perform was a mind-blowing experience. It definitely gives our troupe something to aspire to and lots of ideas.