For the first time this school year, The Answer is back. The Answer is Hall High Schools select improvisation acting group that really likes to make people laugh. This past Friday, the 28th, was their premier show and they had a full house.

During the show, they played games that interact
ed with the audience with the goal of creating laughter, and improving their acting skills. The games and activities that they played required members of the audience to shout out random ideas that they have for the cast to utilize in the act. They play games like “Lazy Susan” , “Freeze”, and “The Dating Game”.

The cast of The Answer involves 10 people, grades 10 and up at the moment, but accepts all grades. The directors are seniors, Ethan Hixson and Addie Meny. The rest of the cast involves seniors, Dasheill Bennett , Miriam Holsbeke, Liam Grocki, and Connor Blodgett. Junior, Xavier Rouleau, and sophomores, Grace Gamester Megan Striff-Cave and Jack Wizalowski.

To make it into this exclusive group, hopefuls have to go to try outs, get  called back, and then succeed in the third round of auditions. The cast meets to practice every Friday  for a little bit after school. I asked Hixson how close the cast is to one another and how they bond, he replied “we horse around a lot of the time in order to build stronger bonds within the group and it ultimately helps us work better together at shows”. I also asked how they prepare for their shows since the whole idea of improv is is spur of the moment suggestions. They prepare by “ Rehearsing twice a week, Friday and Sunday. [At rehearsals] we basically just fool around and play improv games”, according to Jack Wizalowski, a first year cast member. According to Wizalowski, the hardest part of being in the Answer is not overthinking. Jack says “The hardest part about performing is just not to overthink anything and to just say whatever comes to mind. You can end up not being funny if you try to hard to be funny”. His favorite parts about being involved are “joking and vibing off of each other”.

I went and watched The Answer, Friday night and I was not disappointed. I laughed very frequently and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I did a post-show interview with some cast members, and asked how they thought their performance was. Connor Blodgett said, “ I think I did well for my first show. The group as a whole also did well, but sometimes people said ‘no’ instead of saying ‘yes and..’ so basically we need to work on building off each other more”.

The next Answer show is on Friday, December 16th, and I strongly suggest going if you want to have fun, and laugh a lot. It costs less than three dollars and it is well worth it.