These students are Making a Scene -- in a good (& funny) way

Never ask a comedian to be funny. On the one hand, doubting their comedic genius is rude, and voicing the doubt is ruder. On the other hand, they will try their best.

    Hannah: “Ponies? I don’t know, it’s just the first thing that popped into my brain.”
    Zach: “Abraham Lincoln in a Bedazzled Hat. And Platform crocs.”
    Lizzie: – A blank stare of fear – 
    Natalie: “Dr. Who versus Dr. Seuss”
    Ben: “Good call back, good call back!”
    Em: “Very funny guys, great work.”    

Never ask a comedian to be funny. But, definitely, attend an open rehearsal, and be sure to catch their shows. They’re much funnier when they’re really performing!

Who Makes the Scenes?

Make-a-Scene is Heidelberg University’s improv troupe. The group is open to anyone but is primarily made up of theater majors. Every semester, right before final exams, the club puts on a late-night performance for stressed students to freely enjoy. Their rehearsals are also open for students to watch if interested, and take place Thursdays at 4 p.m. in Gundlach Theatre or the Performing Arts Classroom in Founders Hall. 

Being a performance-centered club, Make-a-Scene’s executive board looks slightly different than other special-interest clubs. While there are officers – a president, vice president and treasurer (Ben Pollizi, Zach Abraham and Kam Mohney) – the group also has a game master and an assistant game master (Jasmine Ridler and Nick Talion). The game masters’ roles are to facilitate practices and pick and cast games for their performances.

What does practice look like? 

The most important part of planning an improvisational comedy show is to make sure that the forms of the games played are understood by everyone. Your average practice for Make-a-Scene starts with announcements, but then the players quickly get to work learning and mastering three to four games per rehearsal. 

The group specializes in short-form improvisational comedy, but recently has begun delving into long-form comedy. While short-form comedy relies on a quick uptake of funny scenarios, like impressions or odd props, long-form comedy is a continuous piece inspired by a smaller starting suggestion. So amidst the guessing games like “Everything” and “Dating Game,” the club is now experimenting with longer stories in games like “Meanwhile,” where the focus on the starting suggestion is abandoned in order to follow the next joke.

The majority of players say their favorite game is called “Whose Line?” This game is inspired by the late ’90s Comedy show “Whose Line is the Anyway?” It is a shorter long-form game, where players are given audience suggestions for random phrases, and must incorporate them into their scene. Half-formed thoughts like “you’re not my dad” or “is your refrigerator running” keep the players on their toes, and the audience in stitches. 

Another favorite is “Scenes from a Hat,” in which random scenarios are suggested, and every member has a chance to do a very short response to the prompt. If our players were given the prompt “Rejected Marvel superheroes,” they might respond with characters such as “Cat in the Hat” or pun around with the idea of “Gnat Man,” before stepping back for a teammate to throw their idea in the ring.

To see these fun games and more, be sure you don’t miss Make a Scene’s Spring 2022 Show on April 29 at 9 p.m. in Gundlach Theatre.

—    by Emma Swain, ’22