Theater students at Westfield High are not only good at acting out lines from a script — they also take top honors when it comes to thinking on their feet.
As a result, the school's improvisational team beat out seven other schools, last Friday, March 5, to win the Fairfax County Improv Championship at Robinson Secondary School. Westfield earned the right to keep the trophy it won previously in this competition and will defend it again at Robinson's next contest in May.
MEANWHILE, the local community may see Westfield's championship team this Friday, March 12, at 7:30 p.m., when the school offers a Night of Improv. Tickets are $5 at the door, and the audience will choose the scenarios.
Members of Westfield's winning team last week were Reaves McElveen, Branson Reese, Megan Henry, Jon Lawlor, Derek Rommel and Joe Schumacher. Rommel also received the Best Actor award, and Henry was recognized for Best Improv Hair during her portrayal of Princess Leia from the movie "Star Wars."
Westfield's won the competition five out of 12 times. "It's always fun to go out there, have a good time and be rewarded with a trophy," said Henry. "And when it comes out well, it's like the icing on a cake."
The competition consisted of four challenges in which teams were given a subject or scenario and then had to act it out. Schools were eliminated after the first two challenges, and the three top-scoring teams advanced to the next round. Each team had six players, but only five could be in each challenge, so they took turns participating.
The first challenge was "Space Jump" and, according to McElveen, it was a classic improvisation. "One player makes a scene based on three variables," he explained. In this case, they were a Wookie, a place where weapons of mass destruction would be and a Poke'mon center. Then players two through five would add to the scene before leaving, one by one, until only the original player was left.
In "Space Jump," Rommel spoke in an Arabic accent. He played Saddam Hussein, taking a phone call from a friend and talking about hiding weapons of mass destruction from George Bush.
In the "Star Wars" portion of that scenario, Henry was Princess Leia, and Reese was the Wookie. "I liked playing it," said Reese. "I had to do the Wookie noise and portray a big, lanky animal." Topping it all off, Lawlor was a Poke'ball who transformed into a Poke'mon character when Rommel threw him.
In the second challenge, called "Arms," two players portrayed a character's body and two other players stood behind them and portrayed the character's arms. "I ordered food from a fast-food restaurant," said Rommel. "We tried to make it funny, getting into an argument about what to order."
Reese was the cashier taking the order. Said Reese: "He was confusing chicken strips and kitchen strips, so I had to sort it out for him."
THE THIRD challenge was "Karamazov," in which the actors had to create a scene using objects on the stage as something other than what they actually were. These items were a pair of blue jeans, a fez hat, a cane, a postcard and a girl chosen randomly from the audience.
"I played a Canadian man fighting a war against invading Mongolians," said Rommel. "I got shot by someone in a plane, and I used the girl as the doctor and had her administer medicine to me. But I ended up not surviving and, when I reached the pearly gates, I talked to Simon Peter. Then I dropped probably the worst joke of the night, asking him where Garfunkel Peter was. That joke sent me to hell, where the scene ended."
Henry was the announcer for a male fashion-show, describing the clothing worn by some of the other actors. In that role, she said, "Derek is sporting patriotic fashions and Jon is wearing the 'I-don't-care, I-still-look-hot' look.'"
In the fourth challenge, "Superhero Eulogy," the plucky Westfield actors had to recite eulogies for a deceased superhero called Hairman. "We had to incorporate a crooked politician into the scene, so I came on as a politician with curvature of the spine," said Rommel. "I recited a rhyming eulogy, making it up as I went along."
Lawlor portrayed Hairman's arch-nemesis, Capt. Balding. He cried about Hairman and how he'd have no one left to fight. Meanwhile, Joe Schumacher decided to be the Rev. Al Sharpton. The group also had to incorporate song from a fictitious musical called "Mice" into the scene so, as Sharpton, Schumacher held a political rally and sang a gospel song called, "Cheese and Men."
"Our whole team joined in the singing," said Rommel. "And the funny thing was, it actually sounded like a real song — with real harmonies — even though we made it up, right there on the spot. I really think it was that ensemble moment that won us the competition."
"IT CAME off like a barbershop tune, where three members sang the words, 'cheese and men,' while Derek listed different types of cheese — 'cheddar,' 'gouda,' 'mozzarella,'" said Schumacher. "And I ran around and inspired the crowd in true, Al Sharpton mode."
Lawlor said the hardest part of the improv competition was choosing who had to sit out of each scenario because each actor has his or her particular strengths — but they don't know, beforehand, what acting skills the challenge will call for.
"You've got to be calm, stay cool and have fun," he said. "Sometimes, you get nervous and try to make the scene more than it is. But if you have fun, you're going to create a fun scene. And when we listen to each other, we usually create something worth watching."
"I like that improv requires a trust within our group," continued Lawlor. "It's that really good feeling of camaraderie that your group is going to be behind you, and you can rely on them to help the scene along. We do best when we all work together."
Sophomore Reese enjoyed participating in improv with his teammates, all seniors, before they graduate. "Improv is my favorite form of theater because you can do anything with it," he explained. "There's no script, no pressure — just whatever pops into your head. Getting to be part of it was even better than I thought it would be."
For Schumacher, it was his third improv and second championship with the team. "I love it — it's freedom of mind and thought," he said. "You can take anything from pop culture or create scenes that are totally fantastical, or completely realistic, and find comedic moments to play off each other. It's big kids at play."
"Improv's all about spontaneity and the way the team interacts," he continued. "You can inject wild ideas at any moment, and everyone goes with them. We fire on all cylinders."