Comedy unites College, town

Otter Nonsense performed their annual improv show at the Town Hall Theater on Friday, Mar. 11. The performance marked the Otters’ second community performance since their debut last year at the theater. The show was filled with hilarity and quick wit from all performers, both seasoned and new, and poked fun at aspects of both College and town life.

Doug Anderson, the theater’s executive director, was thrilled to have the Otters back on stage. He recalled that there was a good turnout for last year’s show, and this year’s performance was no different — the audience was equal parts College students and community members. Anderson also noted that many members of the community saw the Otters for the first time last year and were impressed with the quality and humor of the performance.

“It means there’s excellent word of mouth about them,” he said. “I thought it went great. [The Otters] are an exceptionally talented group of people. To perform in a nice big theater like this for a varied group of people in the audience was something they appreciated the chance to do.”

Ken Grinde ’11 has been performing with the Otters since his freshman year, but missed the Otters’ debut in town last year because he was studying abroad.

“I really didn’t know what to expect from the venue coming back for the anniversary appearance,” Grinde said. “All I knew was that we were billed as “fun for the whole family” or something like that, so we weren’t allowed to swear or act out any bizarre murders, which made me nervous.  We’re not very vulgar in our campus shows anyway, but for some reason when you’re expressly told to avoid something, you end up focusing on it way too much.”

Though the humor did not stray to vulgarities, the show was still very different from what Grinde was used to.

“Because the audience was older and younger than our usual student crowd,” he said, “we got to aim our humor in some new directions, and we ended up performing longer scenes than usual, pacing the narrative out more.  The reaction was positive, I think.  People laughed, no one threw anything at us.  A few people stopped us on the street over the weekend and said they enjoyed it.”

Otters performer Chris de la Cruz ’13 also commented that, in addition to fostering a sense of community between the College and the town through comedy, performing at the Theater was beneficial to the Otters’ creativity.

“What I love about the group is that we feel compelled to keep pushing our boundaries, whether it is an Improvised Shakespeare, a One-Act play or some new form we are creating from scratch,” de la Cruz said. Performing in front of a varied audience at the theater was somewhat of a challenge since the group could not rely on expletives which, de la Cruz explained, are sometimes used as comedic crutches for shows on campus. Despite this challenge, the Otters were able to connect with the audience through a more subdued, family-friendly comedy that related to the town and community.

“In our PTA boxing scene, we were kind of parodying some actual issues within Addison County about block scheduling that has recently been in the Op-Eds in the papers,” de la Cruz said. “I think the audience found some of the humor in that, especially the realization that students in the college knew more than they thought about things going on in town.

As executive director of the theater and after many years of hosting the College’s productions at the theater, Anderson realized the building’s power to bring together the College and its surrounding community.

“I believe in that relationship, that the theater can be a great crossover place,” he said. “I feel great about [the performance]. I want to bring more to the community and I also want to bring a varied program, everything from swing dancing to live opera to Broadway musicals.”

It was evident from the audience’s reaction that the sense of community was strong both during and after the performance, and for both the townspeople and students.

“The town and the College can feel pretty divided at times, so it was really satisfying to do something that felt like it could be understood and appreciated in both contexts, and I think the audience felt that too,” Grinde said. “From my perspective, knowing even just a couple more faces in town after the performance, I feel more connected to the community.”

Following the success of the Otters’ second show, the theater has invited them back for another performance next year. The troupe is excited for their future shows in town.

“I can’t imagine we’ll turn down a yearly tradition,” said Grinde.  “Eventually we’ll probably be sued for libel and escorted off the premises, but until then, the Otters and the Town Hall Theater will definitely keep in touch.”