Back to School with Giant Worm
On September 28, 2024, Giant Worm, Reed’s one and only improv troupe, assembled for their first show of the year. Students squished into Winch, sitting precariously on chairs atop tables and spilling out into the outer room, in anticipation of the show about to unfold.
As the audience entered Winch that evening, they were transported into a second-grade classroom. In keeping with the evening’s Back to School theme, Ian Zotter-Barlow ‘27 kicked things off by going over class rules to a room of precocious and frankly concerning students. Events soon escalated into death and tragedy for Zotter-Barlow’s character, and all too soon the show proper had begun.
Frequent connoisseurs of Giant Worm were sure to notice some familiar faces onstage, as this year the group is made up entirely of returning members. As a whole, the performers delivered a thoroughly entertaining show, with each member’s standout talents put on display across a series of long- and short-form improv games.
Before the show, audience members had a chance to make themselves heard by leaving messages on scraps of paper collected in a bucket onstage. These were put to use in the first game of the night, in which the performers played through a scene while intermittently drawing on the messages for their next words. For all the many strengths of the performers, the results were hit-or-miss depending on the material they were given, with some real knee-slappers interspersed amid a convoluted plot.
The twisted minds of Giant Worm unlocked buried trauma with a game of “Family Dinner,” with characters modeled on audience members’ relatives. This game gave the performers a chance to shine in their own characters, including Katie Evans ‘27 as the child of Disney adults and Max Opitz ‘25 as the abrasive Mormon grandma. The next game was based around rolling for D&D attributes, an ambitious premise that ended up falling by the wayside in favor of a scenario about an Antarctic research lab that could have flowed well enough on its own without the framing device involved.
The final long-form game returned to the school setting for an emotionally fraught tale of goat dissection. Schwa Yeleti ‘27 stood out as the star performer in a double role as the would-be doomed goat Alfred III and the doting husband of a teacher at the school. The Worms closed out the evening with a game of “60 Second Expert,” marked by fast-paced debate between the performers. In a standout moment, the bold assertion that STEM majors don’t read books was met with resounding applause from the audience. On that high note, Giant Worm took their bows until next time.
For some audience members, this show marked their first glimpse into what Giant Worm is all about, while for others it offered a taste of what to expect from this year’s future shows, full of the wit and energy that have helped the troupe worm their way into Reed’s heart.