In early November, my wife and I went to Ignatius to
watch our granddaughter perform as a part of the Improv Troop. In our biased opinion, she was the
best. OK, OK! It’s grandma and grandpa making that call,
but she must be pretty good, because she is one of the three leaders of the
group.
Improv is an interesting activity. For the uninitiated, it is one of the
performing arts, but there is no written script. The cast participates in scenes that are
called “games” in which the audience calls out certain conditions such as the
characters occupation, nationality, and even personality type. The
actors must try to perform within those parameters with the objective being humor.
Image yourself on stage in front of family, friends
and total strangers, being instructed to play, for example, a plumber with a French accent, trying to
convince an space alien that he’s on the wrong planet, and doing it with no
script. Then make it funny and
entertaining. This requires both
intelligence and courage. I can’t think of any other realm in which this
is done…except, of course, teaching math.
I got to thinking about how many
changes have occurred in the non-athletic extra-curriculars since I started at
Ignatius 50-some years ago, so I went to the 1963 and 2013 yearbooks to
compare. One obvious difference is the
number of activities. The ’63 yearbook
listed 21 activities; the 2013 yearbook listed 55. It is probably needless to say that “Improv”
was not an activity in ’63. the activities list in 1963 included Potpourri, the talent show, and the Melody Knights which was the band. Activities that were listed then-and-now were the Harlequins, Forensics and the Chess Team. Perhaps
counting the yearbook entries may not give the exact number for each year, but
I’m pretty sure that it is a good indication.
There were also some other interesting
differences. For example, in 1963 there
were no “ethic clubs”; in 2013, there were 8 listed. This is not the same as “language” clubs. In ’63 there was the French Club; in ’13,
there were French, Latin, Spanish and Chinese.
Another significant difference is the shift away from
strictly religious organizations. In
’63 there were the Mass Servers, the Apostleship of Prayer and Sodality. Since
then, activities have moved more toward “service” organizations, such as Peer
Community Tutoring, Outdoor Ecology Club, Respect-Life Club, IETA, SCSA and
SADD. This reflects the direction that
society at-large has moved. There are several
activities in which the purpose is not immediately evident, for example, Body,
Mind and Spirit and Do It
Yourself Club.
I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and that 2015 will be the best year yet…but not as good as 2016.
