Iowa City's new professional improv team provides members with lessons on and off the stage

In an instant, without any props, costumes or set pieces, Willow Creek Theatre Company’s stage became a zoo one October evening.

Not just any zoo.

A corrupt zoo selling burgers made from the Pandas raised there.

The increasingly ridiculous story interwove multiple characters, including a married pair of protesters ready to leave their life’s work, a young man with an unrequited crush ready to take down the zoo, and the corrupt zoo owner behind it all named Tad Ferguson.

The half-hour tale was the shared brainchild of five improvisers who all spun a story on the fly with just a single suggestion from peers who sat scattered about the darkened theater.

The performers were practicing a montage, or a series of scenes, and used techniques to tap people out or change a scene through hand movements and other physical cues.

They were part of the theater’s professional improv house team called Lady Franklyn. They were having their Wednesday evening practice.

The group of 15 members was born out of the theater’s ongoing improv classes, Dan Junis, team captain, told the Press-Citizen.

It's part of a larger effort to build a community of improvisers in Iowa City, Junis said.

Local improv groups in Iowa include Great White Narcs, formed in 2013 by University of Iowa students, and the all-female team Janice and Paperback Rhino, which formed in 2003.

Junis, who has lived in Iowa City for more than 20 years, has found if you aren’t enrolled in the university, there’s not much of an improv scene locally.

“The good thing about Lady Franklyn and Willow Creek Theatre is that, not only are we providing people a way to watch improv, just the general community, but it’s an open door for people to get involved with the art form,” he said. “So you can either watch it or you can hop on stage and give it a shot yourself. It's pretty low stakes for both positions.”

The improv team performs at Willow Creek Theatre, growing the local scene with consistent shows as members get to flex their comedic talents, which in some ways, translates into other parts of their lives.

What to consider when doing or watching improv

Improvisation is about acting without having a script or a plan.

Though it’s spontaneous, it isn’t “just playtime,” Garrett House said.

House is a member of Lady Franklyn who has done comedic acting since he was in middle school.

People sometimes approach improv thinking they can "goof around" and make up some wacky characters, but there’s structure and theory to the art form, he said.

At that October practice, House and a different set of team members also practiced a montage. House transformed into the role of a young man who is forced to infiltrate a university after he gets involved with a particularly dangerous research group.

Though the set-up sounds like a high-stakes, action thriller, House played his character entirely unfazed, receiving guidance from his peers and their wit as the story moved along.

Rebecca Krause-Galoni is an assistant professor of marketing at UI. Certain aspects of her job mimic improv, like being in front of people, presenting research and getting asked unanticipated questions.

Krause-Galoni was introduced to improv when she began doing theater when she was about 12.

Theater, she said, was more of a regular time commitment. It was less so with improv.

After a few years without doing improv, Krause-Galoni is “enthusiastic” to be back.

The challenge with improv and its unplanned nature, in her experience, is that, especially for folks newer to the art, it can be easy to use material that is controversial or inappropriate.

It’s low-hanging fruit to get people to laugh at something uncomfortable, she said.

While improvisers may want to steer away from such topics, Krause-Galoni said you also don’t want to dismiss someone’s ideas and contributions.

It’s something a group discusses over time, she said, while also becoming familiar with the types of things your team members will say — at least to some extent.

“People I performed with always continued to surprise me. … But at least you get on the same wavelength as time goes on,” she said.

‘We all deserve a little moment of laughter’: Improv teaches one Lady Franklyn member a life lesson

About two years ago, Junis had enrolled in an improv class at Willow Creek Theatre. He’d already been doing improv for a few years.

He and director Luke Brooks — who is trained in improv and performed in Chicago — discussed starting a team. As time went on, the theater would have two teams. One fizzled out, and Lady Franklyn remained, Junis said.

Lady Franklyn — named after a previous founding member discovered their pet parrot Franklin was female and changed her name to Franklyn — held auditions in September to add team members.

Now, the team is comprised of both folks experienced and new to improv.

The latter is impressive to Junis, who said the bravest thing people can do is to hop on stage and give it a go.

“I feel like if I were to encourage people to go outside their comfort zone, I think improv is a great way to see that and get that immediate reward as soon as you hop off stage,” he said.

Newcomer Jackie Ford, who works at UI in registration and billing, is well aware that some of her teammates have more experience with improv.

She was having a conversation with her ex-husband and brought up how someone had told her how funny she was.

He told her he didn’t recall her being funny in their 24 years of marriage.

Ford, who’d just happened to see a notice about auditions for Lady Franklyn later that evening, thought she’d go for it, for her own interest and to prove to her former spouse just how funny she really was.

“It was something truly in my heart that I've always had an interest in doing," Ford said. "I've always seen myself as being humorous, as being funny, having this sense of just perfect comedic timing with stuff. And I'm sitting there going, ‘I can't believe he said that.’”

When Ford received an email notifying her she’d made the team, she shrieked.

She got her humor from her mom, did speech and debate in college and was a strong public speaker. But she hadn’t taken any formal classes.

The perfectionist in her tells her to step up her game now that she’s part of the team and working with folks who have more experience.

There’s another part of her, though, one that’s learning to accept improv isn’t meant to be “a perfect comedy.”

For example: It is OK if a partner messes up something you had worked out in your mind and can no longer tell the joke you had planned.

“For me, that was great because I can see how it can play into other areas of my life to help me give myself more grace and be more forgiving,” Ford said.

“I think as we perform, then we can show that through some of our characters and things that we do just to say we all deserve a little moment of laughter, a little time of relief, and the world's not going to die in this hour that we're sitting here having a good laugh.”

Lady Franklyn performs Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. at Willow Creek Theatre Co., 327 S. Gilbert St. in Iowa City. There is no show Nov. 5.

Follow the improv group on Instagram at @ladyfranklynimprov or visit Willow Creek's Facebook page to see updates about Lady Franklyn shows.

Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Reach her at PBarraza@press-citizen.com or (319) 519-9731. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa City improv scene grows with Willow Creek Theatre Company's team