Students in Iowa State’s performing arts program are given their biggest test during their final year: creating their senior seminar. Each student’s product is then judged and graded by the Jane Cox, director of the program. 

One student, Ethan Peterson, is ready for the task.

“The point is to showcase what you’ve learned. It’s an application of your skills, and it’s got to be a substantial amount of work,” Peterson said. “With my project, I’m trying something kind of different.”

He quickly assembled a cast of 12 people of varied with degrees of experience and specialties in the theater department.

“The plan is to use improv and scene study work to write it instead of sitting around a table saying, ‘What’s best here; what’s best here?’” Peterson said. “There’s no real story line. I want to find out what this collection of people thinks is a story worth telling.”

In his second semester at Iowa State, Peterson joined the improv group Grandma Mojo’s Moonshine Revival, a student-run improv troupe that performs in the Maintenance Shop. He even spent this past summer studying improv with the Improv Olympics during a five-week program in Chicago.

Improv has been a strong influence to Peterson, helping him manage his theatre and personal life. In his words, it is “the study of being present.”

“People think that with improv you have to be witty or clever, but it’s really just being there,” he said. “Which you’d be surprised with how needed it is and how not there it is at the same time.”

Because a senior seminar can be quite the undertaking, Cassilyn Ostrander, junior in psychology and performing arts is helping Peterson as an assistant director.

“This is a two-part project,” Ostrander said. “For the first part, I’m mostly helping Ethan with organization and double-checking that what we’re doing is on track with the end product we want.”

A transfer student from the University of Tulsa, Ostrander is experienced in the short-form type of improv, similar to what can be seen on “Whose Line is it Anyway?”.

“I joined Grandma Mojo’s Moonshine Revival [because] we focus on long-form improv, which is very scenic based,” Ostrander said. “It’s less about gags and jokes and more about exploring a story or scene.”

The second part of Peterson’s production will be the product of the improvisation in first part. 

Peterson’s project will be finished for the spring semester.