Shots in the Dark Holds First 24-Hour Improv Event

Posted By Gettysburgian Staff on Feb 1, 2023 | 1 comment

By Angelina Stambouli, Staff Writer

24 Hours of Improv Poster (Photo provided).

On Friday at 8 p.m., Shots in the Dark began their 24-hour live improvisation at Stevens Theatre. Shots in the Dark President Roisin Daly ’23 organized the event. 

Six members took the stage for the introduction hour, accepting topics from the audience to inspire their first acts. Those in attendance came up with topics and scenarios for members to act upon ranging from escargot snails, an antique shop, spork river, and a Dog Man among others.

Members improvised as fictional characters and personas based on the responses from the audience.

The six improvisers rotated by sweep editing on stage, with two to four members usually improvising at a time.

An intermission followed the one-hour performance, with snacks and drinks available for both the performers and the audience.

Shots in the Dark Treasurer and Troop Member Katie Poliero ’25 was one of the performing improvisers of the event.

“24-hour improv has been an idea that Shots [in the Dark] has been toying with forever. I think our original idea was doing one hundred hours of improv, so we’re trying to slowly work up to that,” said Poliero. “But earlier this year, we did an hour-long form event to prepare for this, so this has been in the works for the past couple of years, but our president Roisin was finally able to organize it.”

Poliero explained that this is the first year that Shots in the Dark performed a full 24 hours of improv. Although this is the first year, Poliero noted that it is unlikely to be the last.

Poliero said they believe the club as a whole would enjoy making the event a yearly tradition “definitely not multiple times a year, but as a once-a-year event I think that we would all love to see it happen every year.”

The 24-hour improv event concluded on Saturday night at 8 p.m.