NORMAN — The burgeoning improvisation theater scene blossoming in the city got its start in the halls at the University of Oklahoma, said Eric Webb, a producer at OKC Improv.
About 10 years ago, a group of creative students were looking for an outlet. Improvisation had started gaining popularity nation-wide, following the TV show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”
These students began trying out this scriptless comedic style that relies on audience suggestions. They soon saw the possibility of starting an improvisation scene on campus. OU Improv, a college improvisation troupe, followed, giving the students an opportunity to get an audience to interact with and perform.
Post-graduation, the students wanted to stay involved in improvisation. Several of the original members of OU Improv went on to form Red Dirt Improv. Other improvisation troupes formed as well.
Wanting to provide a regular stage for these performing groups, Webb and a couple of his friends launched OKC Improv in the fall of 2009, hosting their first show at the Ghostlight Theatre Club in the Paseo Arts District in Oklahoma City in December 2009.
OKC Improv, Webb said, isn’t really a performing group, claiming only one troupe — the OKC Improv All-Stars — as stemming from their influence. Mostly, OKC Improv exists to provide opportunities for the growing number of improvisation performers in the metro area.
While scheduling performances at the Ghostlight Theatre, Webb said, he tries to mix it up to feature a variety of the performers and allow the key players in the local scene to interact and share ideas. Through these interactions, he noted, many new performing groups have been formed as well.
Shows vary between two improvisation forms: short improv and long improv. Short improv, he said, is the most common, more along the lines of “Whose Line Is It Anyway.”
Long improv usually lasts between 30 and 40 minutes and can develop into musicals or plays. Sometimes the entire act stems from one idea. Other times, the thespians interact with the audience several times throughout the show. Performers aren’t in a rush to get to the punchline, Webb said.
Strangely, Webb said, about 75 percent of the shows performed through OKC Improv are the long form of improvisation, something generally uncommon in improvisation theater.
“It works because the improv is of high quality,” Webb said.
Webb said OKC Improv usually hosts shows in four- to six-week blocks before taking four to six weeks off to regroup and replan. Last Saturday’s show started their fourth run for 2010.
Wanting to get back to the roots of where it all began, Webb said he’s been in talks with some local venues about scheduling regular improvisation shows.
“Hopefully, there’s going to be more improv in Norman,” he said.
Meanwhile, the OU Improv club is doing its part to keep improvisation comedy theater alive in the city, said Kyle Bradford, artistic director for OU Improv.
The group, composed of about 10 members, meets every Saturday night for rehearsal. The group also hosts a free show for the public one Saturday a month, usually at 8 p.m. at the Oklahoma Memorial Union.
Bradford said an improv club also has started on campus. It meets Tuesday nights at 7 and is open to people who want to learn about improv and who enjoy this form of comedy.
With professional improvisation performing in this past, Bradford is looking forward to hitting the stage again.
“It’s my goal to do this professionally,” he said.
What he most likes about improv theater is the partnership between actors and viewers.
Raychel Winstead is a local improvisation performer involved in three different troupes, with two more launching this fall. Winstead took to the art form in 2004 as a freshman at OU.
In The Ones Your Mother Warned You About, Winstead works with another woman and two men to broach the topic of relationships. In the group Zillian, Winstead puts on a musical for the audiences. In The MiDolls, an all-girl troupe, Winstead plays up the stereotypes about women that are common in society.
This fall, she will premiere in the group Two’s Company, a show inspired by pictures brought by the audience members. In Me Talk Sexy, Winstead will pair up with her ex-boyfriend to create a full-on relationship in a half-hour.
Winstead does all this in addition to a full-time job in Oklahoma City. She’s driven to keep performing, though, because she loves the freedom and creativity that comes with improvisation.
“When you go on the stage, you create your own world,” Winstead said. “There are literally no borders.”
