“Give me Number Four, Number Eight, Number Five and Number One!” cries a voice beside the stage. The audience’s eyes widen as they lean forward, speculating which contestants will strut through the center of the curtains. The first game in Micetro has begun.
This game, called the Dating Game, involves three people assuming the roles of famous individuals, per audience suggestion, and a fourth person getting to know each of them — basically speed-dating, hence the name. After its culmination, the audience rates the improvised performance on a scale from one to five, one being the worst and five being the best. Then, new actors are called on and the cycle of different games continues.
Essentially, Micetro is a show composed of improvisational (improv) games where participants are rotated based on their numbers being drawn at random. Jill Turner, the voice next to the stage and Micetro director, draws these numbers. Being a Redwood drama Alumna, Turner is excited to be back and involved with the show.
“I gained a lot from doing Micetro when I went to school here. It completely changed my life and now I teach improv to adults and teenagers,” Turner said. “But honestly, the number one reason [I enjoy teaching here] is that the kids are super good. They are way better than adults … but really the [best work] happens when I teach teenagers because they’re way more in touch with their inner creativity. They are phenomenal.”
For the past few weeks, the Micetro cast has been working closely with one another under Turner’s lead to best prepare for this week of shows. Right off the bat, she emphasized connecting as a group.
“What I focused on the most was building the ensemble, [because] it’s easy to learn the basics of a scene and how the games work, but what’s really important is trusting the other people … When you know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and what you each think is funny, then everything can really pop,” Turner said.
Micetro is not only fun for audience members; the cast is always thrilled when the show comes around each year. Freshman Charlie Pickart, the cast member pictured to the right, looks forward to the rest of the shows as his favorite game was not played on opening night.
“I’m a big fan of ‘Good, Bad, Ugly’ which basically is this game where three people give advice. One person gives good advice, one person gives bad advice and one person gives really ugly advice,” Charlie said.
The mentioned games only account for a fraction of the improv activities prepared by the Micetro cast.
“We’ve been doing this show for over 20 years, and there’s a reason that people come back and see every show every night. It’s because it’s always totally different. We have all genres, you can play any part, we have elements of narrative and musical and you just get it all,” Turner said.
Her favorite game is “Growing and Shrinking Machine,” which she got to play on Tuesday. This game starts with one actor, which in this case was Delia, who begins in one scene. That actor is then joined by a second actor who creates an entirely new scene, the same happens with a third actor, and then a fourth, until the reverse happens and the “Machine” shrinks back to just the original actor. This game was a crowd-pleaser on opening night, as scenes switched from laboratories to therapy and more.
Members of the drama department are excited to see Redwood students’ love for supporting fellow Giants turnout in Micetro just as it does in sports. Joshua Raoul Brody, a staff member for Micetro, suggests a reason why the community may love the improv show so much.
“[At Micetro], everybody in the audience is going ‘I could do that.’ There’s a catharsis of seeing these people doing something you might want to do, [and] in an improv show, anything can happen,” Brody said.
To engage in this annual event, the community can attend any of the upcoming Micetro shows: 7 p.m. every day through Oct. 22 and at 9 p.m. on Oct. 21 and 22. All show tickets are $5 in cash for students and $10 for adults.
People can also buy tickets ahead of time through this link.
