I sat down with Ryan Natcharian, an LC senior and thespian to talk about his improvisational club. 

Hello Ryan! What’s the official name of your club, and what do you plan to do with it? 

The official name is the “LC Improv Club”. Right now we don’t have a clever name, but that’s one of our goals. 

Our main goal is to get people to come and play improv games with us and learn to enjoy themselves among other people performing. 

Hopefully we can get a group of people to perform around campus. 

Like a troupe? 

Kinda, yeah. 

Where did the idea of the club come from? 

Dzhangir (the improv club’s other president) and I were both in an improv class last spring (Acting: Improv with Mr. McCamish), and at the end, we decided we wanted to continue. 

He pitched the idea to me, and I agreed. Twelfth Night (the fall-term play that both presidents were involved in) had gotten in the way, but we eventually got it started this winter. 

Have you taken improv classes at Loomis, and how did that affect how you run the Improv club here? 

That’s really where we both got our first impression of improv, where we learned the basics and a lot of the games we played are from that class. Everyone who was in that class (me, Dzhangir, and a bunch of seniors) spent time just making each other laugh. 

What was your last event like? 

That was essentially like one of our classes. We got together in the third floor of the student center and played some basic improv games with a bunch of new people (who didn’t have theater experience) and just played around. 

If someone wanted to join the improv club, who should they talk to?

New people just have to approach me or Dzhanghir and they can just be put on the email list. As the club continues we’ll try to get the word out. H

Outside of the acting class you took last spring and the club this year, have you had any other experience with improvisation?

I’ve had some improv experience at the LARP camp that I worked at last summer, where the campers play through the story and I play the monsters. We were given a scenario and an end-point, and then we make it up as we go, hoping to entertain the heroes throughout. Sort of like long-term improv. 

What are some upcoming events? 

Like I had said before, we want to eventually have our own show with an audience. The improv classes usually have an open rehearsal at night, and we’re hoping to do something similar. 

Just ask me, Dzhangir, or anyone involved in theater and we’ll add you to the list.