Friday, May 18, 2012

Reflections on our first improv night

Last night was Auntie M's first teen improv night.  I had three people who wanted to be there, but couldn't last night.  They've promised to be there next time - in two weeks.  So, we had two teens come.  Because our current location is so far out of the way and we were only meeting for an hour, the parents that brought them stayed and they also brought one sibling each along.  So, we had six people along with our big ol' family.

Lots of fun!  We played Train Station (twice), Questions Only, Party Quirks, and Two Lined Vocabulary.  The funnest part was the parents got involved and they were good!  We let the little siblings get involved at one point, but it was way too chaotic.  After about an hour and a half, we had soda and donuts and they left.

As everyone was leaving, one of the families I was expecting arrived.  They apologized for being late and commented on how far away from the main road we are.  :)  We invited them in.  This time it was an 11 year old girl (not quite a teen, but I certainly wasn't going to turn her away), her mom and her two younger sisters.  We gave them a donut and then played a couple of games, Party Quirks and Props.  It gave them a chance to see what this was all about and we had a lot of fun.

We should have the same crowd next time plus three more potentially.  Yeah! 

Some thoughts:
They are all girls.  My son might be loving that, but I think we need some more guys.  We've got to get some guys here.  I sent all the kids away with invitation to hand out to friends.  Who knows how many we could have next time. Kind of scary.  We've got to recruit some guys, though. 

There is an interest from the younger kids ages 6 - 11 for acting.  They want to participate, but they are just too young and small to do improv with the teenagers.  Perhaps I need to start a younger group as well.  Some improv, but more acting focused.

Anyway, I think it was a success.  We just need some more kids, get the kids comfortable with each other and performing in front of others, and practice, practice, practice.  Perhaps during the summer, we can have a performance for a real audience. 


We need a name for this group.... any ideas?

2 comments:

Linnea said...

That sounds fun Molly!!

Lena Baron said...

Seriously Impressed! I hope it keeps growing and that you find the guys that you need to get a better balance. BTW: Thank you so much for the sweet letters! Keep an eye out for a string a letters coming your way from our direction. It's so fun to do snail mail again. But we're definitely snails. Especially since we don't have a mailbox at our house. But the first few are on their way!:) Thanks for thinking about us!