Yale-NUS students and alumni perform at Singapore Improv Festival 2022

Yale-NUS Improv troupe, ‘7 Star Cendol’ at Singapore Improv Festival. From left:  Vanessa Thian, Reni Chng, Kyle Foo, Ryan Yeo, Siddharth Chatterjee, and Thomas Bean. Image provided by Ashley Yong for Yale-NUS College.  

A  group of students and alumni from Yale-NUS College performed at the Singapore Improv Festival. The Yale-NUS group named ‘7 Star Cendol’ comprised Reni Chng, Siddharth Chatterjee (Class of 2021), Vanessa Thian, Kyle Foo (Class of 2022), Thomas Bean and Ryan Yeo (Class of 2024). Their sell-out show was on the 26th September, where they performed to an enthusiastic audience.  

‘Improv’ is short for improvisational theatre. It is a form of live theatre where the performers create scenes, characters and dialogues spontaneously, without any prior preparation or rehearsals by  listening, collaborating, and being present with their fellow performers. Other than being a highly dynamic and creative art form, it is also a whole lot of fun! 

The Singapore Improv Festival is a celebration of improvisational theatre. Launched by The Improv Company in 2016, it has since become a biennial affair. The Improve Company takes turns with the Manila improv community to host international improv events in Southeast Asia. Other than staging shows by local and international groups, the festival also organises workshops and events that showcase the art of improvisation.  

The Yale-NUS Improv community is no stranger to the festival. In 2018, there were two groups of Yale-NUS students and alumni participating. This year, the Yale-NUS Improv troupe based their performance around three short-form games, which are short scenes with a fun twist to them.  

The first game was ‘Snark Tank’. Based on the television show Shark Tank, a pitcher has to pitch a unique product to convince three snarks to buy a stake in their company. The product and the snarks’ characters were all decided by the audience. For example, the pitcher had to pitch a sinking rubber duck to an insecure life coach, a chef, and a koala who transformed into a snake. The catch is that the pitcher does not know who these characters are, and had to guess who each of them are as the game went on. 

Vanessa on-stage performing her act of transforming from a koala into a snake. Image provided by Ashley Yong for Yale-NUS College.  

The second game was titled ‘Acronyms’. The troupe asked the audience to shout out two letters and used these as acronyms to pitch movie trailers. The audience also had an opportunity to vote for their favourite pitch. 

The final game was ‘Blind Lines’, where they performed a scene based on a movie trailer picked by the audience. Six random lines written by the audience were also scattered around the stage, and the performers had to pick up the lines at various points throughout the scene and find creative ways to incorporate them into their main scene. 

The audience responded enthusiastically to the set. Not only did they clap and cheer throughout, they were also quick to shout out prompts and participate actively in the improvisation. Ryan was grateful for the “incredibly electrifying energy” of the audience, and Thomas, who is a first-time performer at the festival also remarked that “performing on stage in front of such an enthusiastic audience felt amazing”. 

Within the audience were many members of the Yale-NUS community, which Vanessa was heartened by. She expressed her gratitude at being able to receive their support, especially from the different batches of Yale-NUS Improv students and alumni who showed up in support.  

Said Kyle, “A big thank you to everyone from Yale-NUS community who came down; your support was incredible and energising. I loved seeing all the alumni faces I had not seen in a while – both from Yale-NUS and from the Improv troupe!”  

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Yale-NUS Improv has been around since 2013, and throughout the years have performed at many other local events such as the Singapore Fringe Festival and the Singapore Comedy Fringe Festival. They have also been invited to perform at international festivals such as the Bangkok Improv Festival (Thailand), the Vancouver International Improv Festival (Canada), and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (Australia).