By Matt Goodman, staff writer
Junior Stefan Chapman walked up to freshman Dakota Elkin at lunch and asked him what he was doing.
Dakota told him he was cleaning his legs with dental floss, even though their wasn’t a single strand of floss in sight.
Anyone watching may have thought he was crazy, but there’s nothing wrong with Dakota.
In fact, he was behaving quite normally for a member of the Cal High Improv team.
Being an active member of Cal High’s award winning Improv team is no simple task. It takes quick thinking and wit to stand out.
But it’s this type of fun and creativity that members of the Improv team enjoy.
“I really love pretending to be someone who I’m not,” said Brittni Howard.
Improv is a performance that does not involve a script and is generally comical when performed well.
This year’s team consists of senior Aron Garst, juniors Jacob Hirsohn, Stefan Chapman, Cameron Speltz, Brittni and Dakota.
Drama teacher Laura Woods is their supervisor, but it is the team’s captain, Stefan, who runs the practices.
This is Stefan’s third year on the team, while Aron and Brittni joined last year. Cameron, Jacob and Dakota are all newcomers to the team.
The team meets every Wednesday and Friday in Wood’s room to play Improv games.
“I get to come twice a week and just laugh and have fun,” said Dakota.
The Improv team demonstrated its talents last month during a lunchtime performance in the theater room.
Many students showed up to watch them perform, and the audience laughed constantly.
During the show, Stefan would select a few or all members of the team to perform a skit or a game.
In order to get a topic for their skit or game, they would ask the audience a silly question such as, “What is something you always bring with you on vacation?”
Then, they perform their skit or game based off of the answer. The dental floss between Dakota’s legs was Woods’s answer to what she would bring with her on vacation.
The team has another performance coming up in March that will be in the Cal High theater.
In the meantime, the team has been preparing for its only competition of the year tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Firehouse Arts Center in Pleasanton.
The team is looking forward to this competition against the Pleasanton Improv team, Creatures of Impulse, because it’s fun to have an audience, said Brittni.
“It’s not very competitive,” said Woods. “It’s more about just having fun.”
The winner is determined by what’s called a prize carousel.
After each round of an Improv performance, an audience member selects a prize from the team they thought did the best.
At the end of the show, whoever gives away the most prizes wins. The audiences win prizes while also enjoying the performance.
Three years ago, the team competed against other teams from Logan High, and last year they competed against teams from San Ramon, Monte Vista, Dublin high schools, and Creatures of Impulse.
“Ever since the team began practicing together more often, there have been obvious improvements,” said Aron.
Lately, the members have developed really good chemistry, and play off each other well.
The team provides a refreshing mix of intelligent humor and plain silliness.
“We just springboard off of each other and scream a little bit,” said Cameron.
A great time is guaranteed to anyone who decides to see their show tonight.
The Firehouse Arts Center is located at 4444 Railroad Avenue in downtown Pleasanton.
Tickets cost $5 students, and $10 for adults.
