The toast is far from burnt – Massachusetts Daily Collegian

I sit in a nondescript classroom in Herter Hall at the University of Massachusetts, surrounded by a grim fortress of concrete walls. In front of me are three metal chairs, lined up in a row at the back of the stage. On a bright blue chalkboard that matches the room’s stadium-style seating, a series of doodles depict the ten members of the long-running improv group, Toast, next to a bubble-letter message that reads “TOAST IS WRONG.” . In what seems like an instant, the room fills with people as ’90s alternative music echoes off the walls. There is palpable excitement in the air.

The clock says 8 at night. The crowd looks around frantically in anticipation. They begin to sing: “Toast! Toast! Toast!” eager to start the show. They continue shouting, until suddenly, down the larger side aisles of the room, members of the group run toward the stage, high-fiving audience members along the way. The The room erupts in cheers. At this moment, they are no longer just student comedians: they are rock stars.

Nadine Chidester, junior natural resources conservation student by day and Toast director by night, stands triumphantly at center stage with a smile from ear to ear. They look at the crowd, their brunette curls bouncing as they shout, “I need a building with a lot of rooms… Come on!” They jump off the stage, listening intently to every suggestion in the stands. Finally, Chidester is reunited with her fellow artists, now slightly out of breath. “Let’s go with… a castle!” They say affirmatively.

This particular performance follows the “Sawyer” form, a sort of improvisational “genre” in which all performers begin the show with their backs to the audience. One by one, they introduce themselves as characters, maintaining that personality until the end of the night. Without any script, entire stories and character arcs are crafted live on stage.

On a nice, warm Tuesday afternoon, I sat with Chidester outside the UMass Student Union. “In Sawyer’s case, we got the suggestion and then we fell in line,” they said, smiling, wearing a summery white dress with red flowers. “Sometimes a suggestion inspires me a lot. I think, ‘I know exactly who I want to be.’ “Sometimes I get inspired by real people I know.”

“On the Castle series, I didn’t know what character I wanted to be,” Chidester continued. “I’m at the end of the line, figuring out what relationships I can think of with these other characters that have already been created… Where can I fit into this puzzle?”

Being funny is no easy feat, but Toast has got improv down to a science. Each of the group’s essays is based on a “basic reality,” which Chidester describes as “who we are and what we are doing.” From there, if something surprising happens, like an actor revealing a strange character trait, the group expands on that strangeness. It’s the classic “yes and…” mentality. “Basically, we’re saying that if this unusual thing is true, then we need to justify the strange decisions we’re making,” Chidester said.

In many ways, Toast’s existence is completely miraculous. No one seems to know the exact date the company was founded, but Chidester jokes that it was “around the end of the 20th century.” However, Toast continues to provide an outlet for the creative and resourceful.

“It’s like playing pretend, but for adults and I love that,” Chidester said. “I actually didn’t have devices when I was younger, so I spent a lot of my time playing pretend with my brothers. It’s great to create a world with your friends that you can immerse yourself in.”

As director of Toast, Chidester is responsible for directing rehearsals, but all members work as a team to hone their comedic skills.

“We choose the way as a group by choosing a couple that we want to try out that week, trying them out, and then all the members who will be performing in that show get to vote,” said Sunny Nordberg, a junior double majoring in theater. and English and a member of Toast since fall 2022. “The director concept really only comes into play on shows to introduce Toast and get a tip, but beyond that, everyone contributes to the actual content of the show itself.” .

Teamwork and collaboration go far beyond rehearsals. The group is part of the UMass Comedy League, a registered student organization that also includes sister groups Toast, Mission Improvable and Sketch-22. While each ensemble performs their own performances, they are all one happy family and often attend each other’s shows while offering support and laughter from the stands.

“Most of Toast is very nerdy,” Chidester explains, laughing between words. “We like D&D, we have a lot of personality and we are all very strong characters. We are all friends”.

From the viewer’s perspective, it’s easy to think that each performance is equally polished thanks to the group’s quick thinking, but there are times when making the audience laugh is difficult.

“We’ve had shows where not many people can perform,” Chidester said. “We will have about three people performing and also the audience is small, so there is no energy to feed us. We once had a show where people came out. “That was really heartbreaking.”

“But,” they continued, “we support each other. They are going to support me and I am going to support them. We will get through it together and have a good time. “I just remind myself that I’m with my friends on stage and the only approval I care about is making them laugh.”

Toast performs weekly on the UMass campus. As Chidester and the ensemble’s many talented members have proven, Toast is far from exhausted.

You can contact Nathan Legare at (email protected).