Seriously Bent Prepares for Next Year

Reflecting on his experience with Seriously Bent, Alec Lawless said if he was not swept up by the group’s cultish atmosphere he would have transferred from Suffolk University. Yet, the group is far from how most imagine cults.

“Think of it like ‘Who’s Line is it Anyway?’ but with a sharp twist,” said Lawless.

Suffolk’s Seriously Bent was formed in 2000 and since that time has entertained the campus community and beyond. Lawless, a fourth-year communications with a focus on media major and co-captain of the troupe is leaving the group due to an unfortunate case of graduation. Still, he credits Seriously Bent with helping him grow as a performer and a person.

When asked about what makes Seriously Bent unique from other college improv groups, Lawless mentioned its affiliation with Improv Asylum, a professional Boston-based theater group.

“There are six levels of the Improv Asylum and we feel by the time you graduate from Seriously Bent you probably could have gone twelve levels because of the amount of extensive work in improv that you get,” said Lawless.

Another trait that distinguishes Seriously Bent is that its improv performances are grounded in reality.

“We wouldn’t have a talking baby cow walking around just screaming things,” said Lawless. “It would be more of an actual conversation people would be having, but it’s dark. It’s twisted a little bit.”

Stepping up in place of Lawless is incoming co-captain Ethan Bukowiec, a third-year print journalism major.

Bukowiec mentioned how the group had recently developed by roughly quadrupling their number of shows last year by adding weekly dorm performances during the academic year. With more shows comes more opportunity as newer members get ample chances to perform in front of an audience.

Still, there can be a dark side to college improv. Bukowiec mentioned how competitive it can get and the importance of not getting a big head. Although Seriously Bent regularly places highly in the College Improv Tournament national competition and has earned several regional titles, Bukowiec tries to focus on more pressing matters such as getting a reaction from the audience.

“It’s more about building the scene, building the relationship between the characters and letting funny stuff happen,” Bukowiec said. “Finding the funny thing in the scene and then playing to it instead of going for a joke.”

Incoming freshman looking for a creative outlet may want to give Seriously Bent a shot even if the freshman in question is a little bashful. Andrew Cataluna, a third-year management major, who serves as the general manger of the group spoke about the variety of students who join the troupe.  

“You generally get two types of kids coming in. You get kids who did improv in high school and are really good and then you also get kids who just came in randomly and didn’t realize how good they could become and could be,” Cataluna said. “What Seriously Bent does is make the good kids better and makes the inexperienced kids experienced and brings everyone up to the same level no matter where you come from.”

In addition to Bukowiec and fellow incoming co-captain Joseph Talluto the following students currently make up next year’s performing roster: Zachary Barker, Tobias Foglia, Andrew King, Amanda Sousa and Tatjana von Rosen.