The Mainstage Theatrics class always finds a way to end their performing season with a bang and a laugh. This year, the class took on the challenge of performing Inside the box, Outside the Lines, an improv show.
Going into the Black Box where the performance is held, I walked up toa crowd of people surrounding a table with notecards and three buckets categorized as: random lines, categories and settings. Later in the show, I found that these were used for the improv acts and games that the actors would soon play. This gave a chance for the audience to have a say in what the performance would be.
The basis of Inside the Box, Outside the Lines was very similar to the popular show Who’s Line is it Anyway where the actors perform games for points. However, in Mainstage’s show, the points do matter because it was a competition between the very rambunctious juniors and the spirit-filled seniors.
The show started off with Kim Smallwood, senior, introducing herself as the show’s referee. Throughout the rest of the show, Smallwood controlled the games and was the one who chose the setting, categories, and random lines.
One of the best games was Random Line where the actors in the scenes must use a line written on a notecard from the audience randomly in their scene. Not only do the actors have to improvise the scene, they must adapt to the lines which may not be relevant to the scene at all. Jesse McGuire and Remi Olagoke’s scene set in Umstead Park was the funniest of the 3 performed.
The final game, What Not to Say, however, was the best and a fantastic competition between the juniors and seniors. Though there was a lot of pushing and will to win from both teams, the seniors pulled off 26 points while the juniors only earned 23, giving the seniors the bragging rights of Improv Champions.
There was credible improvisation skills from both teams, especially Courtney Elyard, junior, in Word Tennis, Megan DeMarco, senior, in What Not to Say and Lizzy Gifford, junior, in Alien.
The only negative side to the show was that the individual games didn’t last long enough. I wish the comedy could have gone on for longer.
Overall, the show was a thrill. From start to finish, I enjoyed every second I spent watching Inside the Box, Outside the Lines. No doubt about it, I would pay 3 dollars to watch it again.
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