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“Broadway’s Next H!t Musical”: A PALS Performance to RememberBy Spencer Martin ’13, Squad Reporter |
PALS, or the Performing Arts and Lecture Series, is a chance to enjoy an excellent performance without the added stress of graded assignments the next day. The latest of these PALS events, a performance by “Broadway’s Next H!t Musical,” was a riotous success. An improvisation group from New York, they have been together for more than 10 years and have perfected the ability to perform without practice. While they may rehearse improvisation techniques, nothing is scripted or memorized, and the ideas for each song performed come from audience members.
The spontaneity and cleverness of these on-the-spot performances awed the audience. The process of this improvisation was fairly simple; the “actors” poll the students (in our case, those students involved in the fall play), gathered information about the School, and made the rest up on the spot. An interactive experience, it ensured the audience was never bored. At the beginning of the play, a panel of students sat in the entrance and requested people invent song titles as they entered. These titles were then randomly selected to become songs during the imaginary “H!t Musical.” The audience voted on which of the four songs they enjoyed the most, and the performers then created a real play based on the results. Students particularly loved the group’s performance of the song, “I Like Pi,” which developed into a play titled 3.14Love about a fictional math teacher at Kent who has some difficulties finding romance.
After the performance, Mr. Stewart let the performers know he was “Glad they were here,” and that it was “right up his alley.” The full house was as enthusiastic as could be; “It was really exciting!” said Kat Andrews ’11. Students were still talking about the hilarious performances for days following the event, demonstrating the success of our latest PALS event.
