CSI Troupe Travels to Houston

Cindy Colato, Staff Reporter

 

Saturday, October 21, the Clear Springs Improv Troupe was invited to provide entertainment for the Houston Art Partners. This was the first time CSI was asked to perform at one of these events.

The crowd wasn’t large, but this event could become a tradition for future improv classes.

“Houston Arts Partners is an organization that believes in art integration. I was a big factor and member of that, because I was on the original committee. Even after I came to work here, I’ve always kept my relationship with them. This was a Houston Arts Partners event and they asked me to provide amusement,” Mrs. Rozanne Curtis, improv teacher, said.

Students performed games for 20 minutes on stage.

“A little background, Arts Alive is what the event was called. H.A.P. every year has a huge conference where people from all over the nation come and speak, and it happened during Hurricane Harvey, so they had to cancel. They decided to do an Arts Alive, which is a mini-art partner. This was their first year doing it and I think it was a well-attended audience,” Curtis said.

“I think that our kids did a great job, everybody laughed and they liked it. Plus, we are an easy group to deal with, we don’t need microphones, we don’t need set pieces, we need a couple of chairs and I provide the dinger. That is always appealing to organizations that are looking for entertainment,” Curtis said.

Curtis has been the improv teacher for 3 years. The improv class is mostly student driven; the new members know how to play the games, so it makes it easier for the elected captains to take charge and lead their team towards success. Current captains are Kyle Benaquisto (12) and Will Bryne (12).

“I think that each improv class gifts something to the next generation. The first year we had improv, that class named the troupe ‘CSI League City’. The next year they developed games, which were passed down, and now we continue to hold this tradition to create new ones each year. What I really like is that former members always come back and watch the shows, and are happy to see what the class has developed into,” said Curtis.

The Arts Alive Festival provided practice for the improv troupe’s Comedy Cabaret.