New Improv Club ready for debut public performance

Bearden is well known for its outstanding musicals and plays put on by its theater department.

This year, a group of Bearden’s student-actors wanted to add to that tradition and have restarted the Improv Club. The members, who have all previously taken Theater 1, meet every Monday and Thursday to do Improv-based games and skits that they come up with on the spot.

The first Improv show will take place on Thursday at 7 p.m. in room 301. Tickets are $5 at the door, and light refreshments will be served.

After trying out many names for the group, they finally decided on “It’s in the Jeans!” They will display their decorated pairs of jeans at their next show.

As a new club at Bearden, “It’s in the Jeans!” turns to the local Knoxville Improv Group “Full Disclosure Comedy” for guidance. Earlier in the year, they received workshops from this popular group for a month.

Now their curriculum is built on these workshops and whatever feels best for them as a group to push themselves and also to laugh.

A typical practice starts with the members sitting in a circle and playing a game of full disclosure. In this game, they go around and introduce themselves and say something that happened to them that day. They use these daily moments as material to use in the rest of their skits and games.

They play another game using props where they take random items and use them in a scene as a completely different item. Then they do Longform, which is when someone comes up with a monologue on the spot based on a single random word and the rest of the members have to do their own monologue building off of the first one.

Senior Bridget Nagdeman, a theater student and art student, is responsible for the artwork on the Improv posters around school.

“I was just messing around on custom ink when I was making the shirts and I found a picture of a guy in these jeans and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s so cool,’” Nagdeman said. “So then I took that and then I threw the letters in myself and that’s where it came from.

“If you’re interested in theater, it’s definitely something you should check out. It’s a very warm and welcoming community especially because we have to put ourselves out there to have a successful show, so seeing people take risks is something other people to relate to.”

The members are planning a workshop in the spring for students interested in participating in the club next year.