The Greenhill Improv Troupe performed their first show of the school year on Thursday, Oct. 12 in Rose Hall with a Halloween theme.
However, this year’s lineup and leadership differ from prior years. After auditions on Sept. 7, five freshmen and one junior were selected to join the troupe, totaling 12 members.
This sudden surge in interest in improv among Middle School students is because of Middle School and Upper School Theatre and Improv teacher Greg Mihalik’s efforts to increase student ownership. Mihalik has only recently joined the Greenhill faculty, having been appointed in 2022, but is looking to encourage student leadership in the troupe by giving them opportunities to self-advocate.
“I want them to feel like it’s their troupe and they have an investment in it. That doesn’t mean they’re making the decisions about what rehearsals look like or what the games are, but they have a voice in it,” Mihalik said.
Mihalik hopes to leave a lasting mark on the improv program.
“In the past, we would just keep doing and practicing, so most of our rehearsals we’d be running games, whereas Mr. Mihalik does a lot of teaching about concepts that we can then apply,” senior Quinn Graves said.
Mihalik also works with Middle School improv classes, allowing him to scout rising freshmen.
“My parents always thought it was a good idea to get me started in improv, so I went to this firehouse, and we learned improv and performed a show,” freshman Ayan Jain said.
Others had previous experience regarding improv in Middle or Lower School and were drawn to the troupe through that.
“Another introduction to improv was doing Destination Imagination from first grade to eighth grade,” freshman Anjali Blewett said. “It’s kind of like a mix of STEM and theatre for kids in elementary, but it goes all the way to college. For a while, my team chose the improv part of it, where you make two-minute skits about a random prompt.”
The rapid influx of new members has not only made an impact on the logistical aspects but also on its leadership format. Sophomore Ruby Garza says she looks forward to teaching the newcomers longstanding improv practices.
“I’m excited about [new additions] joining the Troupe. We’re all like a family, and there’s a lot of cool things that we do specifically for newcomers,” Garza said.
“We’re going to have a lot of new potential on the troupe,” junior Kaavya Sampath said. “I know most of them have done improv before and are very interested in it, and that’s kind of what we’re looking for. We want both interest and investment.”
When it comes to games, having more people able to participate has opened up new ways to perform.
“I think it’s going to give us a lot more variety in the troupe with different types of people, and we’ll be able to do games that require higher numbers of players,” Garza said. “There’s going to be an adjustment period. We have six newcomers so it is difficult to make sure that everybody knows the games and everybody gets a good amount of time on stage.”
One new possible game is called “Thunderdome,” a long-form game similar to the Hunger Games that pits twelve players against each other. A long-form game lasts the entire show, as opposed to ten-minute short-form games, which is another way this year’s shows will differ with higher numbers.
“They do it with individual improvers,” Garza said. “Twelve go in, and one leaves. With us having twelve, that game will be open to us.”
To freshmen, practicing and performing alongside the troupe they’ve looked up to since Middle School can be an enjoyable experience in many different ways.
“The thing I enjoy the most is probably hanging out with people on the troupe,” Blewett said. “I really like them, and their company is great.”
However, in the face of seasoned troupe members such as Graves, freshmen have expressed nervousness about their interactions.
“I’m a little intimidated by [the upperclassmen]. It’s like I want to be your friend, and I need to make a good impression,” Blewett said.
Mihalik’s intention to push the Improv Troupe in a more student-led direction may help ease freshmen’s anxieties by introducing them to the troupe as early as Middle School. Toward the end of their morning practice, the Upper School troupe performs for the Middle School improv class, allowing for a stronger sense of community and an opportunity to learn.
“Every year, we have several new students coming into the troupe, and part of leadership is the veteran improvisers creating a space for them,” Mihalik said. “The work I can help facilitate but can’t necessarily make it happen is how we fold those students into the troupe.”
Improv leans heavily on the ability of its performers to perform cooperatively and in agreement with one another, meaning the troupe’s quality of performance hinges on how well they work in tandem. For a troupe with six new members, learning how to build off each other’s ideas in the relatively short period of Sept. 7 to Oct. 12 could be a challenge.
However, Graves expressed an optimistic outlook on this.
“I think it gets better really fast because we spend a lot of time together; you have to be vulnerable to be good at improv because you have to be willing to put yourself out there,” Graves said.
Rather than intervene with student interactions within the troupe, Mihalik says he is a “custodian” figure who sets up rehearsals and opportunities for student interaction but wants the troupe to increase student leadership.
“My job is to create more opportunities for them to perform,” Mihalik said. “My job is to facilitate rehearsals and to teach them the skills that they need and help them come together as a troupe. At the same time, I leave space for them to learn to be leaders, and to learn how to support each other.”
One possible avenue for the troupe is the passing down of decades-old traditions. For example, writing a daily quote on the whiteboard before the beginning of practice.
“Mr. Mihalik is very much on the idea that knowledge trends from higher skilled people, or older people that are more well versed in it to people who are new to it. It’s like a ‘see one, do one, teach one’ learning process,” junior Ali Agha said.
Graves, as the only senior on the Improv Troupe, says he hopes not only to pass down skills as a leader but also a love for improv as an art form.
“I want to bestow that love for comedy among the newer kids because some of them joined because it seemed like a fun thing, and some of them joined because they have a passion for it,” Graves said. “I want to leave them with all of that, with loving the people on the troupe, loving the art form, and being able to step out of their comfort zone.”
