MFL MarMac group improv team earns coveted all-state speech nomination

By Audrey Posten, Times-Register

The MFL MarMac group improv team of Nick Stavroplus, Jaxton Schroeder, Jonah Wille and Will Koether has been nominated for all-state speech, making them one of just a few groups in Iowa who were named outstanding performers for 2021.

This marks the second all-state group speech nomination for Stavroplus, a senior, and Schroeder, a junior. The two were also nominated in the group improv category last year along with 2020 graduate Max Koeller. They added sophomores Wille and Koether to the fold this year at the suggestion of speech coach Angie Killian.

Stavroplus admitted he was nervous about upping the group from three members to four.

“It’s not typical to have this many. Four is a very different style of improv we had to learn and new characters we had to develop,” he said. “Jaxton and I had our own we’ve had over the years, so we had to find what [Wille and Koether] enjoyed and what topics do well for us and what plot lines we can do.”

“We had to think, ‘Where can we put the most characters into this,’” added Schroeder. “Not so much the dialogue but where we can get the most action so no one is standing around.”

Wille and Koether were no strangers to group improvisation, having performed together in 2020. It helped that the four group members were also pretty familiar with one another. They’re friends and are involved in many of the same school activities.

According to Stavroplus, that is the most important factor in group improv.

“It’s more important to have chemistry than experience. If you have someone you really don’t like, it’s going to be harder to connect with them,” he said. “It takes a lot of getting to know the person and learning what their boundaries are. After a few practices, we found each others’ grooves.”

One of the more popular group speech categories, improv differs from others in that the skit is not pre-recorded or repeatedly practiced and performed at each level of competition. Rather, the story line differs each time—forcing participants to spontaneously craft a unique tale for the judges and audience after just two minutes of preparation. The team received straight ones at state in early February, and a subsequent all-state nomination from the judges, after selecting “Remedial Polka Class” out of three potential topics.

“Nick and I, when we did it last year, every single topic we got had to do with dancing. We went into state and said, ‘What’s the chances we get a dancing topic?’ Sure enough, we draw ‘Remedial Polka Class.’ So we had to do that one,” Schroeder said.

Although the team didn’t know the specific topic going into state competition, the members had practiced similar scenarios.

“Going in, we knew we were really good at teaching, dancing and selling,” said Wille.

They’d also learned which roles and character types fit each person well. One individual is typically the leader, who drives the plot and directs the other characters. In this case, it was Schroeder. Stavroplus was the “setup guy,” introducing the setting and people. Wille and Koether were “responders.”

“Jonah did a great job as a responder with action,” Schroeder explained. “Will did a great job adding dialogue when we needed it and facial expressions that set the mood of the scene.”

In “Remedial Polka Class,” Schroeder played husband Daryl and Koether played his wife Ethel.

“I enjoyed polka dancing,” Koether said, “but he was the one who was really into it.”

Hoping to continue the family’s polka legacy, the older couple brought their grandson Josh, played by Wille, to a class taught by Russian instructor and polka master Stavroplus.

“Our constant struggle was getting Josh to learn the polka. He said, ‘No, I’m going to do what TikTok says,’ throwing modern-day quotes and dances in,” Stavroplus shared.

Since it was labeled “remedial polka,” none of the group members actually performed a polka dance. In fact, most of the teens didn’t even know what a polka was.

“Nick wanted me to demonstrate for our grandson Josh, but I had no idea,” Schroeder said. “I just did this weird squatting, lunging type of deal. So we called it the Russian polka, which was its own special variety.”

“When I started, I was hopping like a frog and doing a bunch of spins,” added Wille.

Afterward, joked Koether, “My grandma was like, ‘That’s nowhere near the polka.’”

If that wasn’t humorous enough, add in the flirty dynamic between the instructor and the wife, Ethel. At one point, Stavroplus grabbed Koether’s hips and pulled him close.

Koether said that’s where chemistry and familiarity with fellow group members is important.

“It’s a very Nick character, but it’s still surprising when you’re thinking about the next thing to do and all of a sudden his hands are on your hips,” he stated. “It’s a good thing I knew Nick beforehand.”

The improv ended with a twist. Josh had finally developed interest in the polka, and was showing off the new-found skills to his grandparents.

“By the end, I was really into it. The judges and audience were loving all the moves,” Wille said. “Then, I was so intense that the grandpa had a heart attack and died.”

Schroeder said the twist was one of the aspects the judges liked best about the team’s improv.

“The judges have seen a lot of things, so you really have to introduce your own plot line, even if the topic seems really linear,” he noted. “You want to put your own creativity into it.”

The group also excelled at inserting clever one-liners and taglines.

“Improv can really be any type of performance you want, but we tend to do more happy and funny ones,” Schroeder said. “There are improvs that are really good that are more serious, but that’s not our style.”

The team’s style includes a lot of action, as well. No one just stands around. That, in turn, fuels dialogue.

“We always had something to do. No one was left alone,” Stavroplus said. “With some other groups, they depended on their prop of a chair and just had people standing there, while only one person was talking or driving the plot.”

This team, meanwhile, relied on the chairs—the only props available in improv—sparingly. When the chairs were utilized, it was often for unusual purposes.

“They’re like a dancing partner or training dummy or a briefcase,” Schroeder quipped.

The ability to fill the space with action was especially important as the team performed in larger areas than normal due to COVID-19 distancing protocols.

For example, at districts, “we ended up having to perform in the auditorium,” said Wille. “We wanted to make sure we had something with a higher intensity so we could fill that space, not just with voices but with actions too.”

The team members appreciated that space at the state competition in Postville because it allowed for an audience filled with family members and other participants. In improv, the group relies on energy from the crowd.

“Then it doesn’t feel like an event anymore,” Koether stated. “It’s just hanging out and being funny, especially when the crowd gets involved. When they laugh, you’re like, ‘Oh, they like this.’”

Improv performances can last up to five minutes. Going over that allotted amount, even to finish the story, results in disqualification.

Schroeder serves as the team’s time watcher, keeping an eye on a flip book in the crowd. The goal is to hit the story’s climax around the 45-second mark, then take 15 to 30 seconds to react and end the skit.

“He saw we hit 30 seconds, and I noticed he started driving the ‘Oh, my god, I’m having a heart attack’ plot because we were almost out of time,” Stavroplus said.

The team finished with around 10 seconds to spare. 

The improv didn’t feel like five minutes, Wille said.

“If you’re doing a skit where you’re very invested, high action, it goes super quick,” he remarked.

“You get lost in the improv, and you feel like you’re that character,” agreed Stavroplus.

Although an all-state nomination typically means a trip to the Iowa High School Speech Association All-State Festival, where team’s can watch the state’s best perform—and even perform themselves—there is no physical event this year due to the pandemic. That doesn’t dim the achievement, though.

“I’m bummed that we don’t get to go, but I’m very proud of the group, that we got picked,” said Stavroplus. “This was my last time, and I genuinely enjoyed it.”

The three returners are already hoping to build on the success next year.

“I’ve got chemistry with these two,” Schroeder said. “Next year, hopefully we can come back as good as ever.”