If you’re looking for something to crow about, you don’t have to look far. This weekend marks the 60th annual Red Rooster Days in Dassel. The Labor Day weekend festival kicks off Friday night with an Improv Showcase at 7 p.m. featuring No Lines Improv at the Dassel History Center.
What sets this show apart from others by the local comedy troupe is that participants in the Dassel Library Improv Club will perform, too.
Heather Halstead, a member of the Dassel library staff, taught the summer classes, which were open to youth age 8 or older.
“She’s been teaching them weekly since the middle of July as part of our summer reading program,” said Beth Cronk, head librarian. “She also taught two sessions at the Litchfield library, and those kids are invited to participate in the showcase on Friday night, too.”
“This will be a great family show,” said Tom Nelson, a founding member of No Lines Improv. “Plus, it’s free. What’s not to like?”
In addition to showcasing acting skills, Friday’s show is an opportunity for No Lines Improv to broaden its fan base by taking its show on the road. This is the second show the troupe has done in Dassel. Previously the group did a fundraising event at the history center. The actors have also entertained in Cosmos and Cokato, and at private corporate events. It’s probably best known for its performances at the Hutchinson Center for the Arts.
In case you’re wondering what is improv, it’s short for improvisational live theater. The plot, characters and dialogue of a skit, or what in the improv world is called games, are made up on the spot. It’s interactive with the cast engaging the audience for suggestions or participation.
Among the most famous of the national improv groups is The Second City in Chicago. Many of its alumni including Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, John Belushi, Chris Farley, Tina Fey, John Candy and Mike Myers have gone on to comedy careers that include “Saturday Night Live.” In Minnesota, the Brave New Workshop is probably the best known improv theater. It was founded in 1958 by Dudley Riggs.
The appeal of improv for many is its immediacy. You never know what’s going to happen because it’s live theater.
Jim Fahey of Hutchinson likes spontaneous humor, so he was drawn to No Lines because he had worked with some of the actors in other productions.
Tom Wirt of Hutchinson attended his first show a couple of years ago mostly out of curiosity. Like Fahey, he wanted to support this intrepid crew of actors he had seen in other productions.
“They delivered,” he said. “It was a fun evening, so I came back. It’s fun to see them having fun. They put themselves in everyday situations we all experience, and we see that we’re all just ‘winging it.’ I’m looking now at traveling to the out-of-Hutchinson appearances. It’s always a different show and they’ll show the towns around us to be brave.”
A highlight for Wirt was being picked to be on stage.
“It was even more fun and they help you get on,” he said.
HOW IT STARTED
No Lines was launched in 2016 by Haley Jacobsen, Tom Nelson and Brian Baumann. The actors had worked together in the Hutchinson Theatre Company drama “Laura.”
“One night at rehearsal we started to talk about our love for improve,” Nelson said, “shows like ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ came up and we thought, ‘Why don’t we give this a try?’”
Nelson has stuck with it.
“It’s very freeing to be up on stage with your team and know that you can end up anywhere your imagination takes you in the difference games and scenes that we do,” he said. “We have a ton of fun with each other.”
No Lines Improv member Jody Runke credited Jacobsen for getting her involved.
“I met Haley Jacobsen during (Hutchinson Theatre Company’s production of) ‘Murder at Café Noir.’ She kept telling me I would be good at it and I should join. Over the next year I would go to the shows and have fun watching them but thought I couldn’t do that. Haley kept after me and got me to come to a rehearsal once to try it out and the rest is history.”
Runke said what she likes about improv — beyond the friendships she developed with the other cast members — is that it makes her think.
“It’s nice to have the opportunity to do and think differently than you do in your normal work day,” she said. “In one of my favorite games, ‘Celebrity Dinner,’ you have to guess who you are while giving others clues to help them figure out who they are. It’s tricky because you are focused on two separate things, but that is what makes it so fun.”
Jill Springer joined the troupe because she focuses a lot of her energy on raising her son and on her career.
“This was something fun I could do just for me,” she said. “I enjoy it because of the quick-witted, think-on-your-feet humor. That’s how my sense of humor works so it’s a good fit for me.”
Springer encourages people to attend one of their shows because they’re free and not a huge time commitment.
“People are busy and investing a lot of time and money in something you’re trying out for the first time can seem risky,” she said. “We are not risky. We are pretty funny and we have a lot of fun so come to our next show.”
