“Each character has to have a very distinct movement or characteristic about them so that you can tell that they’re someone else each time,” Gore said. “So they’ve been working really hard on developing those different characters and making their actions look believeable without props. It’s really tricky.”
Junior Becca Banks is in her second year on the team and said she enjoys the chance to “be someone else.”
“It’s definitely weird, because you have to imagine yourself somewhere else than you are,” Banks said. “It’s really nerve-racking, because you have to draw everything from yourself. With duo, you have someone else to depend on, but when it’s just you, you have to make sure that you have everything that you need.”
The season began in September with the first event in October. Most recently, the team collected trophies at invitationals in Lexington and Louisville in January. The improvisational-duo team of juniors Clay Harrison and Aaron Kerfoot took first place at Assumption’s Rocket Invitational for their performance after receiving a prompt about a “friend obsessed with cats.”
“Most people are obviously going to do crazy cat lady, so usually we try to think outside the box,” Harrison said. “We did World War II, and the Germans had invented a gas that turned people into cats.”
Aaron Kerfoot and his twin brother, Jacob, perform together in the duo-interpretation category. They came into the team as freshmen with Harrison two years ago and have faced the task of building the club back up.
“Freshman year, me, Clay and Jacob were all the freshman, and there were three seniors,” Aaron said. “The seniors were really good; then there was us. We were the newbs; we were still learning. The next without them, we kind of had to recruit some to get the team bigger; we got Becca the next year.”
Some members have also been involved with the school’s drama program. Aaron Kerfoot said speech allows for more personalization and individual recognition.
“Speech has a lot more meaning to it, too, because you get to put a lot of your own personality into pieces,” he said. “Most of the events are on your own, so when you do good, you feel successful because you’ve put all your work into it.”
The team of seven also includes junior Nick Noel and seniors Elizabeth Burton and Lexi Harris.
Gore said she’s been very impressed with the attitudes of the students in her first year coaching.
“They work really hard. I know it’s not a sport, but they are just very sportsmanlike; they are very kind to other competitors, and they love each other and they work well together,” she said. “They’ve been very encouraging to me, and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know them and working with them; they’re really top-notch.”
The team competes in a regional tournament Saturday at Lafayette High School in Lexington, with the final round set for 4:30 p.m. and awards at 6 p.m. The state tournament is March 23-24 in Lexington.
Aaron Kerfoot said he’s enjoying the individual and team success in his junior year but also looking ahead.
“We’ve done really good this year,” he said. “We’ll be great next year.”
