Charcoal Pony brings improvisation to HPU
By Chelsie Gastright
When people think of improvisation, a show called “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” may come to mind. This show was never dull and kept the crowd laughing for the entire 30 minutes it was on the air. While the show is no longer in production, a group of High Point University students has been bringing that same unique improvisation experience to the campus of HPU since 2010.
At the beginning of the 2010 fall semester, Maggie Jo Saylor, a senior, held auditions for The Charcoal Pony, the only improvisation group on campus. From then on out, Saylor and her fellow Ponies have been bringing improvisation to the student body three times a semester.
While only two years old, The Charcoal Pony has had many memorable shows. With 12 shows throughout the four semesters, one show stood out to both Saylor and a fellow Pony, Brandon Browning.
“We had one show in the black box theater this year and it was probably our most successful,” said Browning, a junior. “We ran out of space. We had to pull chairs in from outside of the Slane Student Center.”
Browning also mentioned that what he loves the most is that people come up to the members after their shows and ask when the next one is. Not only does this mean the word will get out, but he feels that is what makes this such a great experience.
As the Charcoal Pony has grown and evolved through popularity, so have the members within it. On May 5, several members, including Saylor, will be graduating. This means that new spots will be open for hopeful Ponies to audition.
One thing that both Saylor and Browning stressed is that regardless of major or experience in improvisation, you can be still be a part of the Charcoal Pony. Currently, the group has members whose majors range from game design to interior design, with a little bit of everything in between.
“It’s not about being funny, but starting something then continuing with it,” said Browning.
Doug Payne, a freshman at HPU, is a great example of being new to improvisation. While he had been a part of many theater productions, he had never experienced improvisation, but has loved being a part of The Charcoal Pony.
“Charcoal Pony is the first improv group I have been a part of … I love the fast-paced games and everyone in the troupe is absolutely fantastic,” said Payne.
Payne also mentioned that being a part of improvisation did not require formal training and that The Charcoal Pony was “a lot of fun with a great group of people.”
For many who are not sure about what improvisation has to offer other than comedy for those in the audience, it can come as a surprise that there is more to improvisation than purely comedy.
“I think improv is such a useful skill to experience,” said Saylor. “The art of improv is based in agreement and collaboration. Those are things that can be applied in any part of your life.”
Throughout its time as a group, The Charcoal Pony has been growing and evolving into a diverse organization that lets the students of HPU know it is okay to be a little different. Both Saylor and Browning have been more than impressed with the support the troup has received this year and hope that it will only continue to grow in years to come.