Imagine yourself standing upon a stage, as the crowd before you shouts out random topics and features of a character that you must act out. Now, hold that scene, and add an opponent, a teacher, who will act against you with equally random ideas that are suggested from the crowd. For members of Drama Club, this is just another one of Diamond Bar High School’s Thursday Night Live improvisation comedy duels.

“Improv is basically learning how to listen to other people on stage, how to trust your own instincts, how to create story and character,” drama coach Caitlin Lopez said. “It’s not all about being quick and witty. A lot of time it’s more about finding honest characters and honest moments and the comedy will come naturally.”

Since the beginning of the year, drama club has worked on their improvisation skills every Wednesday night with coach Lopez, and eventually brought the show together, which was displayed as a comedy segment during the previous Thursday Night Live. The students in drama club come from every corner of the school, and as long as they have a sense of love toward this form of acting, they were included as part of the act.

Teachers were notified a couple weeks in advance, and had some practice on improvisation acting in order to get a feel for the art. Some of the teachers who may participate include dance teacher Kari Simonson, cheer coach Whitney Prenger, theater teach Jacob Kaitz, and math teacher Latitia Thomas. Along with the teachers are drama coach Lopez and drama director Beatrice Casagran.

“In an improv show, suggestions are taken from the audience that then form scenes or forms a character choice,” Lopez said.

The improvisation comedy duel will be presented during tomorrow’s Thursday Night Live, starting at 7 p.m. Tickets will be sold at the door, and also online at for $5 each.