Senior Natalie Sherman sees improvisation as a different type of art form compared to rehearsed plays, which is why she chose to join improv group HeyWire Productions.
Sherman will participate in her final performance with HeyWire at the group’s hour-and-a-half end of year show at 7 p.m. on May 5 in Centennial Hall.
“Improv shows that you can come up with things off the top of your head,” said Sherman. “Things don’t need to be polished to be an art form.”
That being said, along with improvisation games seen at other shows throughout the year, HeyWire will display a video that introduces the group’s 11 members with TV shows, trailers and commercials that describe the actors’ personalities. They will also have loosely-scripted scenes that tell a story.
“It’ll still be partly improv, but we will still come up with a storyline and some of the main points of it and improv based off of that,” said Sherman.
HeyWire will also feature popular games the group has performed in previous shows. One is the dating game, a guessing game in which the contestant has to identitify three participants by asking them dating game questions. Out of the three contestants, one is an inanimate object, one is a person from history and one is a pop culture figure.
“I think it’s fun because a lot of people like seeing things that they’re familiar with,” said Sherman. “So, when they see Miley Cyrus answering questions, I think it’s a lot more fun then a character they’re not familiar with.”
Other members include: senior Paul Landahl, juniors Joshua Wielenga and Gary Miller, sophomores Sydney Crumbleholme, Angela Rembles, Brendan McBride and Joshua Pride and first-years Isac Zia, Camilo Duarte and Erika Smolyar.
McBride said that the reason he wanted to join HeyWire was to get back into the acting world.
“I am the world’s worst memorizer, so when it came to improv, you just had to say the first thing that came to your head,” said McBride.
He said HeyWire has taught him to not care what others think.
“When you’re on stage, you may get a laugh here and a laugh there, but if it’s not funny, we are just trying to do the best we can,” said McBride.