By Kat Karpoff
@katkarpoff       

Every Wednesday evening in November and part of December, Girl Jam, an all-female improv series, got wild at Granville Island’s Improv Centre. Comprised of some of the best female improvisers in the city, the show is the brainchild of the Vancouver Theatresports League’s artistic director Denise Jones and Margret Nyfors, Director of VTSL’s educational division, the Improv Comedy Institute.

The cast includes Elizabeth Bowen, Rae Lynn Carson, Sarah Dawn Pledge, Janet Davidson, Jennifer Perrin, and Jennifer Pielak with host Margret Nyfors.

On the evening Loose Lips Mag was in attendance, the cast played a number of different improvised games. One in particular was called “The Musical Armando” in which the actors improvised a song and then threw themselves into scenes inspired by said composition.  

Comedy superstar Ken Lawson played the guitar and, in some audience members’ opinion (ours included), they should have found a female guitarist to do that part. The show is, after all, called Girl Jam and they are trying to promote women in the arts. Our only critique of an otherwise fantastic show.  

Each of the actors perform regularly on the mainstage at Vancouver Theatresports League.  Star Sarah Dawn Pledge can be found all around town with her group “The Fictionals” as well as onstage with “Improv Against Humanity.”

The audience roared with laughter at the characters that came to life in front of them. Improvised characters included anyone from an elderly old man trying to break through the wall of his care home to an alcoholic assistant who falls in love with her boss after he fires her.

Each Girl Jam at Off Leash show ran for 60 minutes starting at 9:15 p.m. on Wednesdays. The last show was on Dec. 16.

Kat Karpoff is a modern hippie, actress, writer, and lover of all things creative.