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YouTube: DDHS alums enjoy performing, teaching with improv troupe

By milwaukeecomedy

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By Lisa M. Schmelz, For Walworth County Sunday

im pro vise (verb): To invent, compose or perform with little or no preparation, using whatever materials are at hand.

DELAVAN — If laughter really is the best medicine, then Delavan-Darien High School alums Jazmin Vollmar and Evan Koepnick are a part of the cure.

Since graduating from DDHS, the duo has gotten serious about comedy — especially the improvisational kind. Recently, the two helped start Homegrown Electric Circus, a six-member Milwaukee improv group that is quickly making a name for itself.

“In the spring of 2009, we all took a ComedySportz class called theater sports 101 and when that class ended, we all wanted to still do improv,” said Koepnick, who graduated from DDHS in 2007 and is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in fine arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “So we met at Josh Barto’s house, one of the members of the group, and a lot of people from the class came and then after a while, it was just the six of us. That’s how Homegrown Electric Circus was born.”

While laughter is a natural byproduct of improv, it’s not the goal.

“Improv is not about being funny,” said Vollmar, who graduated from DDHS in 2006 and also is pursuing her BFA at UW Milwaukee and working as a professional actress. “You end up being funny because it’s truthful. Improv is about the truth.

In addition to performing for pay at some Milwaukee hot spots, always a plus for college students majoring in the arts, Homegrown Electric Circus also is bringing improv to local schools. In the fall, they did a daylong workshop at DDHS. On Jan. 27, they’ll be teaching at Phoenix Middle School in Delavan.

They hope to do even more free improv workshops at other Walworth County schools in the future.

Read the full story in the e-edition of Walworth County Sunday, PAGE 10A.

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