Meet Virginia Lyon, an international relations stuides major and an Arabic minor, who is the director of American University’s improv troop Mission Improv-able! Virgina shared her thoughts with us on what it is like to be head of such an oustanding improv troop.
Her Campus American University: When and how did you become involved with Mission Improv-able?
Virgina Lyon: Freshmen year I was lost in MGC, in typical freshman fashion, and saw a sign for auditions that were happening in a couple of hours. I was part of a bizarre, social science experiment of an improv club in high school so I figured it would be fun to keep with it. I auditioned and made enough of a fool of myself to get on the troupe. I’ve been with them since.
HCAU: What are the challenge you face working with your group?
VL: Improv is all about acceptance. As a troupe member, you need to fully accept and support everything that happened in a scene. If the scene starts out and it’s about a suburban family having an awkward dinner and then one of the children morphs into a werewolf, everyone in the scene needs to hop aboard that crazy train real fast. Without the acceptance of our teammates, we can’t feel safe to take big risks in scenes that might turn into something fantastic. My biggest challenge right now as a director is being both supportive of everything my teammates do while telling them when they’ve made technical improv mistakes in scenes.
HCAU: What are is the best thing (the perks) behind being involved in your troupe, or improv as a whole?
VL: Like most seniors, I have a pretty full work load and am stressed out about 99.9999 percent of the time. Improv people make this whole mess a whole helluva lot easier. There is nothing more cathartic than shutting yourself in a room with hilarious people you love and making each other laugh for two hours.
HCAU: What can improv teach us?
VL: Improv teaches us a lot more than people might think. The obvious answer is it helps you think on your feet, which is true. However, improv is also about listening and agreeing with your scene partners. A scene can’t move forward if you’re constantly saying no to the people you’re working with. Improv made me a better listener and taught me that being more open to suggestion and collaboration means more exciting and interesting outcomes.
HCAU: In a world where men dominate the comedic industry, what is it like to the director of a comedy troop as a female?
VL: I’ll be honest, being in a comedy troupe as a female isn’t always easy. That being said, the people in Mission: Improv-able now are great and have never given me grief just for being a girl. Unfortunately this wasn’t always the case. The troupe was in a period of flux when I first joined. Back then I’d regularly hear things from certain troupe-mates as well as outsiders like “Well girls just aren’t that funny.” It was always baffling when people said this to me as if by being funny I wasn’t quite a girl and wouldn’t be offended by the slight to my gender or it was assumed I would agree with this monolithic truth. I still hear this occasionally from fans. Other than that, obvious problems arise from being in the minority in a group. Most of the comedy tends towards male-centric humor simply because we have more guys. Women have different lived experiences and are, as a result, bound to make different jokes. Not by virtue of being a woman, but simply because most women are treated differently by society and have different experiences to draw from. We currently have an almost 50/50 split in terms of gender on the troupe (5 girls and 7 guys… not exactly representative of the AU population but the best I’ve ever seen). I can already see the content of scenes change. It’s really exciting to watch. That being said, not all women have the same lived experiences and most groups are still woefully underrepresented on the troupe.
HCAU: What hopes do you have in this upcoming year, and years to follow when you graduate?
VL: By the end of the semester I hope Mission: Improv-able is able to finally conquer the illusive Inception-Prov. To find out what that is you’ll have to come to one of our shows! After I graduate, I hope Mission: Improv-able continues to grow just as it has for the past 21 years.
HCAU: Tell us about your upcoming shows.
VL: We had a Halloween show in October. Beyond that we normally have about two shows a week in Kreeger, that little known building on the edge of campus.
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