The evening of March 30, Carter Pavilion was buzzing with laughter and anticipation. After having to postpone their show for a week due to weather, the Laugh Track team was performing for the first time this semester. Entrance into the event required a ticket, but the team had given out all their tickets within 45 minutes, so a line of those who were unable to snag tickets had formed outside the pavilion. Everyone was excited and ready for a good laugh.
Laugh Track is Covenant’s improv club. It started a few years ago when a few students started to get together to play improv “games” and eventually evolved into an official club three years ago. Now, they hold auditions in the fall where people come to play games with the team while the current team decides who they think will work best to fill any empty spots they have.
Improv is a form of theater where the performance is unscripted. It’s structured by “games” which are designed to force the actors into a variety of characters in different situations.
“Using these characters and locations, we [on the improv team] come up with a relationship between the characters, a problem and a solution in the scene,” said Anna Davis ’24, one of the improv team members.
The games are the foundation from which the actors can improvise and create humorous scenes for the audience to enjoy. When performing, the team asks the audience to help create these scenes.
“We use that information to create a scene that usually ends up being funny and each game has a unique twist to keep it interesting,” said Evan Zietlow ’22.
During their last show, Meagan Shroeder ’21 and Landry Halloran ’23 played a game called “Who’s line?” where they were given a random location and three random lines written on pieces of paper that they had to incorporate at some point in the scene. This game “always ends up being funny,” Zietlow said.
Another game the team played was called “Family Dinner” where they called up an audience member to assign the team members to different people in her family. Then they acted out what family dinner might be like in her family, while she dinged a bell every time their actions were accurate to her family or honked a horn whenever they were not.
Before a show, the team practices the games they’re going to play so that they know what the flow of the show will be, but otherwise, it’s all improvised. “If we planned it out, it would defeat the purpose,” noted Abraham Fields ’24.
The Laugh Track team has a lot of fun together. They practice on Wednesday nights from 9-11 p.m., and it’s “a lot of goofing off and general chaos,” said Fields. During practice, the team warms up with some quick games, like “Zip-Zap-Zop” or “Freeze,” and then runs through some games they may play during the show, getting familiar with the structure and figuring out which team members want to play them.
“Practice is one of my favorite things in the world. Practice is a ton of fun and it always leaves us in a good mood,” said Edoardo Santi ’22.
“Practicing among ourselves is really fun because we all have the same sense of humor as well as inside jokes we can refer back to, but performing in front of a live audience is also super exciting because they will laugh at everything,” said Davis.
Though performing in front of an audience adds more pressure to the team, they seem to handle it well and have fun while doing it.
“There is definitely more pressure when there is a live audience, but I know I can count on my teammates to help me if I am struggling,” Zietlow said. It is truly a team effort as the games count on the cast being able to work well and bounce jokes off each other to make the audience laugh, but Fields thinks they are good at hyping each other up and supporting each other during the scenes.
The improv team may have a lot of fun and support each other well, but they think there is still room for the team to improve. “I think we could improve on making scenes with a clear conflict and resolution. I think a scene is much more satisfying if you see a conflict develop and see it resolved instead of two people making jokes on stage. Although jokes would definitely be a part of a strong conflict and resolution,” said Zietlow. Davis thinks they could work on using their bodies to express more emotion and Fields thought they could be louder because “that’s never bad.”
For the team, improv is a unique way to laugh, have fun and destress and they want their shows to be an outlet for the campus to do the same. “I think Laugh Track is extremely important. Stress seems to flourish on any college campus and Covenant is no exception. With so many things to take seriously, it's really great we have a club dedicated to being silly and making people laugh,” Fields said.
The team plans to host one more show this semester, on May 5, before the stress of finals sets in. It will be a “great escape from schoolwork,” said Zietlow, and a “great opportunity for students to come laugh for an hour!”