For Albright's Improv Groups There are no Rules

It’s an unsuspecting Saturday evening in Albright College’s Center for the Arts, except for the roar of laughter from Roop Hall. On the stage is Albright’s improvisational theater, a collective of students using the art of theater to learn and entertain. It’s the college’s 11th Improv Showcase, and in spite of the lasting impact of the Pandemic, the crowd and performers are as lively as ever.

“We need a concept,” says Paul Williams, the president of Albright’s openaccess Improv group, Less Than or Equal To.

The crowd quickly responds, shouting out ideas: “happiness,” “time” and “love!”

“Time, I like that one,” says Williams, “let’s go with a time loop, now who’s going to be stuck in this time loop?”

Excitedly, the crowd begins to call back, “Kanye West,” “Shrek” and “Matt Fotis!”

“Matt Fotis it is,” Williams says with a chuckle, “for those of you who don’t know, Matt Fotis is Improv’s Director.”

Williams trades his spot in center stage with three improv members, Michael Thomas, one of Less Than or Equal To’s members, hastily drops to the floor off stage, crossing their legs and watching as the remaining members set up. Most of the crowd waits in anticipation, but the improv members burst into laughter, perhaps recognizing Fotis in Thomas’s mannerisms. Although Fotis isn’t here tonight, it quickly becomes evident that he’s left a lasting impression on his students.

The audience’s attention swiftly turns as a playful fight breaks out between Millie Cruz, Less Than or Equal To’s secretary, Kadeem Preston, the club’s outreach coordinator, and member Tiaja Money.

Despite cheers and giggles from the crowd, Thomas stands up and folds their arms, a clear sign of disapproval. “No, no, no! It’s not right, you aren’t doing it right! Let me show you,” they say, taking Preston’s place and acting as if they are pummeling Cruz to the ground.

After each improvisational act, the crowd votes on a performer to be eliminated. Ultimately, Cruz comes out victorious, arms pumping in the air as she circles the stage. The night is followed up with similar acts, including a satirical look at the dating game and an epic journey that consists of two taxi-driving criminal squids being pursued by a duo of Coca-Cola-drinking detectives. Put simply, it’s just the kind of story you’d expect from a back-and-forth,

by Dylan Sokolovich

spontaneous act.

“So, you know, you get the stomach flu one time, and everyone on campus is like, ‘that’s the guy who beats kids,’” jokes Fotis, who has been the artistic director of the group since his arrival at Albright in 2012. It all started with adjunct professor Kristopher Updike, who held an interim class in 2005 to teach about improvisational theater. “It was a big hit,” says Fotis, “the students wanted to keep doing it, and so that led to the creation of Less Than or Equal To.”

Since then, student interest in improv has only become more widespread. Less Than or Equal To, which hosts improv every Friday in Roop Hall, is open to anyone and specializes in short-form improv. This type of improv is game-based, the kind of games played on popular shows like “Whose Line is it Anyway?” and “Wild ‘n Out.” Just a year after Less Than or Equal To was formed, Pockets with Pants was created, Albright’s long-form improv group. “The best equivalency is it’s sort of like you’re improvising a sitcom,” says Fotis, “it’s 20 to 25 minutes through a bunch of scenes, and there’s usually some through line between them.”

When Fotis explains the rules of improv, he reaches for a book by popular improviser Patti Stiles titled “Improvise Freely.” It is unsuspecting on his shelf, but in Fotis’s hand it seems to represent the essence of improv perfectly, adorned with a picture of a quirky duck and the phrase “throw away the rulebook and unleash your creativity.” The guidelines to improv are simple, “Stiles would say ‘there are no rules, all rules are out,’” says Fotis, and this freedom is what keeps this act of theater feeling so new.

Every game can be reduced down to a simple statement, ‘yes, and.’ The first guideline of improv is agreement, each player must be willing to agree to the reality that is being created. The second guideline is players must make active choices, not only agreeing to the reality that is being created, but adding something to it. The third guideline is the one that Fotis says is most important, “you have to be there to support your partners.” Fotis goes on to quote Del Close, a member of “The Second City,” a place Fotis himself considers the most influential American Theater. “The sort of saying goes, ‘if we treat each other as if we are geniuses,’” he says, “‘we have a better chance of becoming that on stage.’”

It’s this pragmatic approach that keeps improv performances appearing flawless, and also makes one’s entrance into Roop

Hall feel so welcoming. Albright’s improv groups have become best known for their spoofs of the Domino Players, the college’s theater group. After a mainstage production, Less Than or Equal To, and many members of Pockets with Pants, invite the audience to Roop Hall for more entertainment.

It’s such performances that first attracted many members to the group. “I first encountered Albright improv after going to an experience event, which was a Domino Players show,” says Williams, “And I caught the after show and I thought, ‘dude, I want to do that.’” Williams has been a member of improv since his freshman year, and now, as a graduating senior, his lasting impact is becoming ever-apparent. “Paul Williams is really amazing at sort of fostering that sense of welcoming and positivity,” says Fotis, “he’s been the perfect president to have through the Pandemic, sort of keeping everyone like, ‘hey, this is fun. What a joy that we get to do this and spend this time together.’ So, I’ll miss Paul.”

Williams represents the majority of the group, as Fotis explains, most members of improv aren’t even theatre majors. Preston, on the other hand, joined as a Domino Player, but he had no experience or any expectation to remain a part of the group. “It was the second Friday of my first semester here at Albright, and I was there for the first improv meeting. I played my first game and people told me that I did so good that I should stick with it. So, ever since then, I’ve been in improv,” says Preston. Despite being from different backgrounds, every Albright improviser’s on-stage chemistry is undeniable.

These two separate experiences also extend into what each individual gains from participating in improv. As Fotis says, “it’s a great experience for theatre majors to just get on stage, using your body, using your voice, and developing your own sort of aesthetic.” For non-theater majors, improv has proven to be equally important, “it goes back to those roots that, you know, contemporary improv was meant as communication exercises. So, it’s really a great tool for learning how to communicate with people.”

For Williams, Preston, and the members of the tight-knit Less Than or Equal To and Pockets with Pants, improv has also been about friendship. “Every new person that joins improv, I consider them a friend. I’ve gotten closer to people through improv,” says Williams. He continues, “I feel like it’s kind of a flow state when you have a really good scene when you’re just like, dude, I understand everything you want to do, and you know what I want to do, and we’re going to make this work on stage. It feels like the rest of your friendship has been set up for laughter.”

What makes improv special, above all else, is that a show can only happen once in a lifetime. Sometimes it doesn’t work, and it’s certainly not perfect, but as Fotis interprets it, the creative process never is. Preston, looking back at his experiences with Less Than or Equal To and Pockets with Pants, believes that “improv’s for anyone.”

“I feel like it’s kind of a flow state when you have a really good scene when you’re just like, dude, I understand everything you want to do, and you know what I want to do, and we’re going to make this work on stage. It feels like the rest of your friendship has been set up for laughter”

-Paul