NHS improv team qualifies for All-State Large Group

A Newton High School improv group — consisting of junior Molly Coy and seniors Makayla Kelleher, Isaac Friedman and Delaney Nasalroad — regularly form a huddle before and after every speech performance.

This ritual is how the four-person troupe mentally prepares itself prior to competitions and reflects upon their work following the successful completion of a skit. Coy said the routine huddles were important for them as a team. When an improvised scene devolved into weird or ludicrously comical territory, team members need a minute to unwind and mellow out.

But nothing could suppress their overwhelming sense of excitement when the four students discovered their improv team qualified for All-State Large Group. Kelleher said she was “over the moon” when she heard the news of the group’s accomplishment.

Nasalroad remembers learning of the group’s qualification while in honor band with Coy, who had been sitting in the seat behind her.

“Molly! Oh my gosh!” Nasalroad exclaimed in class.

“What?” Coy asked, unsure of her peer’s sudden burst of excitement.

"What do you think I'm going to say?"

Considered “outstanding” among the other nominated groups throughout the state, the Newton team will make a non-performing appearance at Iowa High School Speech Association’s Large Group All-State Festival held Saturday at Iowa State University. According to speech coach Niki Aldrich, Newton High School has not had a state qualifier for large group since 2014.

All four students are thrilled their hard work has finally paid off, especially considering this particular improv troop was formed last year. Kelleher, Friedman and Coy had been practicing and performing with each other and some other students (who have since graduated) for two school years before Nasalroad joined the group in 2018.

Practicing twice a week, the four students have developed their improvisational skills and their chemistry with each other over time with each skit. With the right kind of plan and a few physical queues, the group can seamlessly perform a scene together with little trouble. A typical skit requires teams to act out one of three randomly picked situations.

Groups are allowed two minutes of prep time to perform a five-minute sketch. Their job is to communicate the story or a situation and take it one step further, which oftentimes leads to some hilarious interactions, though the students explained humor is not necessarily the singular goal for improv groups. Theirs? Maybe a little bit.

“You need a beginning, a middle and an end,” Coy said. “And you need distinct characters. If comedy pops up, that just makes it 10 times better.”

No one scene or situation is alike. So how do these four students prepare for something that is supposedly improvised and always changing? Sometimes they rely on specific characters or personalities to embed into a scene. Although they are not limited to those particular character tropes, Nasalroad said she and her peers become different people when they’re performing.

Each student has their own assortment of characters they specialize in and can control a scene. For instance, Kelleher is adept at playing nervous characters or someone in a position of authority; Coy is good at portraying people who are either really old or really young; Friedman is often a host or an emcee, and sometimes he brings out his “Uncle Larry” character, an SNL Matt Foley-esque personality; Nasalroad tends to be the character in a scene that will “stir the pot” or “perpetuates the conflict.”

Characters born from a years’ worth of work. When the group first formed, Kelleher said the connections were not as strong as they are today. Although they were participating in many of the same activities, they had never been placed in a team together. Each practice brought them closer together as performers and as friends.

“Not everybody has seen the side of us that I’ve got to see Delaney or Molly or Isaac,” Kelleher said. “We’ve seen different sides of everybody. That just makes it more personal.”

Although Nasalroad is the “newest” member of the group, she still felt welcomed by the her teammates. Friedman said he has been a member of three improv groups since his freshman year, but this one stands out since it “feels more like a team,” something he said was very helpful.

With three members expected to graduate in May, Coy will be the lone student remaining from this year’s All-State-qualifiers. Thankful to have spent two school years with her improv teammates, Coy said she will take what she’s learned from each person and “hopefully channel it” into what she does next year.

“They each taught me something different and something I can do to challenge myself as an (improviser) and as a person,” Coy said.

What Kelleher is going to take away from her improv experience is getting to show a side of herself “that not everyone gets to see” and enjoying the opportunity to include a part of her personality and identity into less restrained characters, the opposite of what one may find in a play or musical.

“I’m really going to miss and reflect greatly on being able to show that side of me that only these people in this room have gotten to see in-depth in practices,” Kelleher said.

Nasalroad said their lives would be a lot different if the four-person group hadn’t been formed.

“I feel like we wouldn’t have the same bond as we do, and I feel like we’d be a little different people because we’ve (been able) to grow together in this way and be able to show the whole state what we’re able to do just coming from Newton,” she said.

As someone “who didn’t really talk much” in middle school, Friedman said he will remember the skills he learned from speech and improv.

“It’s sort of like being able to find a conduit to come out of my shell and be out there — it has really helped me a lot through high school, and probably will for the rest of my life,” Friedman said.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com