After a sleep-deprived weekend, Theatre Strike Force managed to earn around $6,000 for the American Cancer Society.
As a member of the club, I couldn’t be more proud of everyone who helped out. The entire Relay for Life event is such a bonding experience. You have the opportunity to learn more about your friends and develop deeper relationships.
Participating in Relay for Life hasn’t always been a TSF tradition. The club started out performing for people in jail and doing guerilla street theater. The club has a nice balance now between the underground and the charitable.
Throughout the past year, the many divisions of TSF have had to take care of the new members. Jumping into improv can be a scary process, so leaders have tried to ease the transition as much as possible.
The Sunday Group, TSF’s top long-form improv team, has always had a counterpart: the Apprentice Group. AG serves as a training ground for members who aren’t quite ready or prepared for Sunday Group.
As the club grew, so did the need for an intermediate team to fit in between AG and Sunday Group. That’s why the Delta Group was formed; it’s TSF’s intermediate long-form “Harold” team.
(“Harold” is a very specific type of long-form improv that is hard to define. There’s a certain way to perform a “Harold,” but it is a very flexible form that can change as the performers feel it should. Basically, I’ll be writing an entire post about “Harold” one day, so don’t worry about it, yet.)
Last year, TSF decided there should be a specific short-form improv team to perform shows, instead of having to choose from a list of members that decided to sign up. There are simultaneous varsity and junior-varsity teams that rehearse and perform together.
This semester, TSF Sketch decided to create a branch for its younger members. Associate Sketch was created to teach the writing and producing process to people who may not be ready for the full responsibilities of TSF Sketch yet.
So while TSF Sketch is gearing up for their show on April 12, which they will be entering into the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, TSF Associate Sketch is holding auditions Wednesday night for their very own show this semester.
I think it’s important to give our new members an introduction into the different facets of TSF. I hope that it will convince more people to stay and learn, rather than scaring away members with daunting goals.
