Theatre AACC will show four 10- to 15-minute plays in February that are written, acted and directed entirely by students, with the improv club performing during intermissions.
The student directors will hold auditions for actors on Feb. 9 for the four Black Box Series shows, which will run Feb. 23 and 24 in Humanities 112.
“They’re going to see these actors audition, and then they’re going to cast them that night,” theater professor Madeline Austin, one of the program’s advisers, said. “It’s going to be a really intense process, but exciting.”
The program gets its name from black box theater, which is usually performed in small venues with black-painted walls. Black box shows typically use fewer props and simpler sets.
The Overcast Troupers improv club will play games with the audience during the breaks between each Black Box Series show.
“There’ll be like three or four improv sessions, just to keep the audience engaged,” Austin, who also directs Theatre AACC’s mainstage production, said.
Éva Parry, the Overcast Troupers’ co-president, said it’s “a little bit scary” for improv club members to do their first-ever show, but also “really fun.”
“A lot of [members] haven’t been in improv before joining this club,” Parry, a first-year history student, said. “So for a lot of people, this will be their first-ever improv show. … I really think everyone’s going to do well. Like, I’ve seen everyone, like, getting better and learning all this stuff and really, like, getting very comfortable on stage.”
Overcast Troupers Co-President Jason Kalshoven agreed, adding: “We’ve got all sorts of games we’ve been practicing in classes. There’s some really funny ones.”
Kalshoven added: “It’s a bunch of really goofy stuff. … The idea is to do a bunch of games that don’t use a lot of props, don’t make a lot of mess, that we just, sort of, go on stage, do, get off stage.”