Laughing Class: Artist in residence teaches comedy improv, builds self-confidence

WASILLA — You might not know it to look at them, but there are a whole lot of really talented improvisational actors at Cottonwood Creek Elementary.

Friday, those kids showed off what they learned about improv during two weeks of lessons from artist-in-residence Roblin Davis.

“Our actors will be making their script up on the spot,” Davis said. “You really need a good imagination to do that.”

Kids were paired up and given 15 seconds each to construct a scene. Davis stood at one end of the stage, fielding requests shouted from the audience for what the children should pantomime doing and in what imaginary location.

The result was almost like a hybrid of Mad Libs and theater, producing the following scenarios:

• Snorkeling in the woods, which involved a hilarious argument about who was supposed to bring the masks.

• Sword fighting in school, which the kids — rather ingeniously — interpreted to mean hacking away at each other with swords while solving math problems.

• Being eaten by a hot dog at the zoo — the hot dog never actually got the kids, but, judging by their reactions, it was apparently a terrifying beast of a hot dog.

• Being chased by My Little Ponies on top of the governor’s mansion — which, perhaps because the actors were both boys, involved quite a bit of stomping on the apparently vicious toy horses.

Principal Lisa Vrvilo, who closed the show pretending to dance with Davis inside a giant lollipop, said that the residency was the sixth the school has had in six years. They school has had a mural painter spend time there, a dancing instructor and a ceramics teacher.

She said the program that provides the funding — the Alaska State Council on the Arts — allows the school to request what kind of artist it would like to have in the school. So she and the staff kind of informally decide on what to request each year.

The idea is that the residency will leave a lasting impression on the school. In this case, Vrvilo said, Davis did a workshop with teachers to show them ways of incorporating theatrical elements into the curriculum.

“The students could use theater as another form of demonstrating what they’re learning,” Vrvilo said.

Lysi Bushey is Cottonwood’s coordinator for the artist in residency grants. She said that a children’s book illustrator who did a residency there spurred the school to participate more in a conference for young writers. A digital photography residency spawned a Photoshop club, which is on hiatus this year, but which will come back soon. Before the ceramics residency the school’s kiln was not operational.

They fixed it up and it’s been running ever since.

“We’re hoping to come up with a theater club,” Bushey said of this year’s residency.

Vrvilo said that the school makes room in its schedule for the artist. All grade levels participate and get to two or three sessions with him during his two-week stay. This year the fifth-grade class didn’t do any acting, but they did get to interview Davis for a TV news show the school does.

Vrvilo said she was impressed by how completely enthusiastically the kids threw themselves into the performances and how the classes were able to give them the confidence to be on stage.

“They’re not inhibited at all,” she said. “It’s such a skill to be able to perform in front of an audience.”

Davis, who came to the Valley from Juneau, but is originally from Anchorage, said he’s been doing residencies for 12 years. These days he does about three to five each year.

“I have kids, too, so it’s hard to get out of town,” he said.

He thinks the residencies have a positive impact on students.

“It definitely helps academic achievement,” he said. “It creates a safe learning environment.”

Friday’s performances were actually the second ones he’d staged. Earlier in the week younger kids performed “reader theater” standing on stage reading from scripts. Davis said those were short pieces based on folk tales or adapted from picture books.

He said he has enjoyed his time at Cottonwood and found the school receptive to what he was doing.

“It’s really a good vibe here. It’s very positive,” Davis said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.