When junior Emma Kwiatkowski was writing her college essay for Elon University during her senior year in high school, she wrote about improvisation.
“During high school, I was part of the improv troupe in my hometown for four years,” Kwiatkowski said. “I said that if there's not a club for me at Elon, then I'll start one."
Kwiatkowski set out to do exactly that.
In the spring of 2013, Kwiatkowski created Laughelongs, a student improv troupe that offers students of all disciplines the opportunity to learn and develop skills in performance improvisation. Although Elon’s Department of Performing Arts has hosted similar improvisation groups in the past, they were exclusive to performing arts majors and interest tended to wane as students grew busier.
“We had to pitch the idea, categorize it, make bylaws and seek out an adviser,” Kwiatkowski said. “Then there was a lot of waiting but a year later we got a letter from Leo [Lambert] that we were officially an organization.”
Laughelongs had its first official meeting in the spring.
“Because Laughelongs is accessible to all students, it should be able to sustain without the peaks and valleys in terms of interest,” said Elon theater professor and Laughelongs’ faculty adviser, Kevin Otos.
During the organization’s practices students usually play games Kwiatkowski organized based on her research and previous experience in improv. Laughelongs also performs at least once a semester, including a show this past spring during Elon’s Relay for Life event.
Student interest has grown this year, with a few dozen people attending Laughelongs’ first interest meeting of the semester. The group will continue to meet weekly on Monday evenings, from 6:30-8 p.m. in Room 200 of Gray Pavilion.
Now armed with a budget, Laughelongs will be acting in its new performance T-shirts and attending the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival in February. Even though Laughelongs members won’t be performing during this weekend of performance improvisation and sketch comedy, Kwiatkowski said she hopes Laughelongs will eventually be able to showcase their own talent at the event.
Otos said Elon students of all disciplines can benefit from this type of engagement with spontaneity.
“Improvisation asks for certain kinds of skills and develops certain kinds of skills,” Otos said. “One of which is creativity, but spontaneity and to be spontaneous when people are watching you, in games designed to create extreme situations — that develops a kind of courage and confidence in the person. So there are a lot of performance skills and interpersonal skills that are gained doing that kind of work.”