Friday, October 2, 2026
Crossroads Farm at Grossman’s closed out its summer Food Truck Rodeo series with an evening of unscripted comedy when Malverne Community Theatre brought its improv show to the farm Aug. 28.
The free performance began around 9 p.m., following an evening that started at 5 p.m. with food trucks, a brewery and live music. Actors included, Aiden Adycki, Amy Coonan, Bruce Liby and Renee Wilson.
Unlike a traditional theater production, the improv show had no script or rehearsed scenes. The performers did not know which games they would play or who would participate in each one. Instead, the audience helped shape the performance by suggesting characters, relationships, conflicts, locations and other ideas that the actors had to immediately incorporate into their scenes.
“This is unscripted, this is unrehearsed, this is unplanned. So it can really go in any direction,” David Coonan, artistic director and president of Malverne Community Theatre said.
The performance opened with an explanation of the short-form improv format before the cast launched into a series of games designed to test their creativity and ability to think quickly.
“We basically make stuff up on the spot,” Coonan said. “You can clearly see it’s not rehearsed.”
One of the first games, “Moving People,” brought audience volunteers onto the stage to act as puppeteers. The actors could speak but were unable to move unless the volunteers physically moved their arms, legs or heads. A suggestion of two plumbers working on a sewage system filled with rats and waste quickly turned into an absurd scene with frantic attempts to solve the problem.
Actors went back and forth including Liby who said, “Why did you poop in a thing full of rats?!”
Adycki responded, “We have to fix this because we got paid to do it, and it’s full of rats and it’s full of poop.”
Another game, “Pillars,” relied heavily on audience participation. Volunteers stood beside the performers and supplied random words whenever they were tapped on the shoulder. The actors then had to work those words into their scene. Suggestions such as “yearbook,” “chicken,” “fairy lights” and “EpiPen” created unexpected twists and forced the performers to constantly adapt.
The cast also faced challenges in games such as “90 Second Alphabet,” in which every line had to begin with the next letter of the alphabet, and “Half Life,” which required performers to repeat a scene in increasingly shorter periods of time.
The final “Dating Game” featured performers with unusual secret identities, including a vending machine, a person trapped in a revolving door and someone gradually transforming into a cat. The contestant had to ask questions and use the performers’ strange answers to determine their hidden quirks.
The night demonstrated what makes improv different from Malverne Community Theatre’s rehearsed productions, including Shakespeare and musicals. Here, mistakes and surprises became part of the entertainment.
The performance offered the community an informal night of food, music and laughter at Crossroads Farm.
For more information on the Malverne Community Theatre, visit MalverneTheatre.org.
