Photo by Lester Smith
The Suffield Youth Theater provided a short improv theater entertainment at the Senior Center on October 8. From the left: veterinary doctor Dom Colangelo tries to perform surgery through the mouth of goldfish Liam Duffy in a story being created by Matt Wilson. Danny Richter, suppressing his laughter, awaits his turn on stage.
The Suffield Youth Theater, an entirely youth-led group that began in Suffield Middle School, is now in its fourth year of production, and its principals are now juniors in three different schools: Suffield High, Suffield Academy, and East Longmeadow High. From their record so far, it’s not surprising that their recent improv theater production, “Hard Candy,” was an entertaining success. It was a short, free, entertainment featuring four actors and one sound man, based on several parlor games requiring entirely improvised performances from defined starting points. The event, a real test of quick thinking and creative imagination, was sponsored by the Kent Memorial Library at the Suffield Senior Center on Sunday afternoon, October 8.
In the first act, a series of short scenes played with extravagant stage action and dialog, the actors froze upon a signal and another actor replaced one of the two on stage. The story then continued in a new theme, totally reinterpreting the frozen pose. This carried on through four hilarious changes, to the delight of the audience.
In another act, a novelist created and narrated his story on a title invented by the audience, which turned out to be To Kill a Deadly Goldfish, and other actors gave their interpretation of what the script described. Did you know that goldfish swim using the breast stroke? This was lots of fun.
For one of the acts, based on audience-suggested personality traits, a taxi driver encounters three successive passengers whose behaviors exhibit one or another of the traits. Demonstrating those traits and the driver’s reactions was a challenge well met, with many laughs.
Dom Colangelo, Liam Duffy, Danny Richter, and Matt Wilson, the four actors for this show, each showed tremendous talent in these demanding games. A fifth member of the troupe, Kush Shah, participated as sound man. We can look forward to some great productions in the future from these extraordinary youngsters and their associates, including the group’s upcoming “A Very Merry Christmas” show at the Second Baptist Church on December 10.