VENTURA : Improv Troupe Takes 3rd at State Contest

An improvisational actors troupe from Ventura took third place in the second annual California TheatreSports Tournament last weekend in Palm Springs.

Teams from the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles finished ahead of the Ventura County entry.

“This is a real leap up for us,” said Tom Mueller, founding member of the Ventura Area TheatreSports. “We feel we have moved up to the next plateau.”

The Ventura man said he and three other actors participated in 20 scenes during three days of head-to-head competition. A judge would name a topic and the two competing troupes would improvise a scene.

Against the Stanford team, for instance, the Ventura group had to improvise a scene at a university. Mueller ended up playing a French professor who falls in love with one of his students.

In all, eight groups from as far away as Humboldt County participated. Next year, Mueller hopes to hold the tournament in Ventura County. But first he has to raise the $6,000 needed to stage the event.

For more information on the nonprofit Ventura Area TheatreSports group, call Mueller at 642-8041.