Carol and I have been involved with a group called Dream Catchers in West Liberty for quite a while now. One of our early mentees is now in high school. High schoolers are quite busy folks these days and getting a chance to speak with him often involves going to see a performance or a game.

So Thursday evening we went to see him at the first ever “Improv” show at West Liberty. We had no idea what to expect. In talking with our mentee all we knew was that he was really enjoying working with the Improv group. We had no idea who, how many or what kind of stuff they were doing.

The Improv group is led by Math Teacher Slade Hovick. I was surprised to see there were only 6 members. Apparently there are 10 members but others had prior commitments. The 6 who performed pulled it off quite well.

As the title “Improv” implies the whole show was improvised on the spot. This, of course, caused some consternation as to what the actors may do or say. However, fears were not realized and the whole evening was fun and at times hilarious. For 90 minutes the audience, which was mostly classmates, was kept in anticipation and laughter as the actors moved quite fluidly from scene to scene.

Throughout the night the audience supplied such basic necessities for a scene such as place, subject, profession of the characters or theme of the story. So there was no way for the actors to have prepared anything. A quick mind and keen sense of humor were all the actors had to work with.

Some of the scenes were such things as Slideshow,” “one word story,” “changing emotions” and many others. If you watched the old Drew Carey Show “Whose Line Is It, Anyway?” you have a good idea of what went on.

There were a couple of times where the audience was roaring and one place where even the actors totally broke up (where the gorilla speaks and says “Meow”).

We are hopeful that this program will continue. We also hope that our mentee continues with the program. He has a bit of a flare for this type of thing. It is good to see that despite cutbacks and other challenges, programs like this can be offered. And a huge hat tip to Mr. Hovick. As if teaching math weren’t enough of a challenge. But to see him nearly roll on the floor in laughter, I think he is getting something out leading this group. I hope he will be able to keep it up.