TIPtivitives

By Alaina Boyden

At Duke TIP for evening activities, which are from 7:30- 930 every night, there are many activities to choose from. You’re guaranteed to never be just sitting down somewhere bored! These activities give friends a chance to bond or for new friendships to form. Even if you don’t get the activity that you signed up for you have a chance to switch your activity to a better one by asking the RCs. No matter what, you’re going to have fun!


Sports are ALWAYS popular at TIP with football, basketball, soccer, and Frisbee as regular options. Many TIPsters are excited about this because “we sit in a classroom all day so we need to get out and have fun.”

There’s also a choice to go downtown which is pretty simple in that you go into downtown Athens and hit up the stores, ice cream shops, or the ever popular Starbucks. “I love going downtown for ice cream, yoguri is especially good,” says a TIPster. Yoguri is a frozen yogurt shop located downtown and much loved by all the TIPsters.

If you’re not feeling up to physical activities you can choose improv, unsolicited advice, or even laundry and board games. Improv is an activity where the students get together and “improv”- act out short skits without a script. They have many interesting acting games including one known as “Freeze” where during a scene that students are acting out someone yells out freeze and then they’d take the place of one of the “frozen” people and start a new scene from the previous poses.

Unsolicited advice is an activity where you ask a question anonymously and then whoever is in charge of the activity would answer the question and no one would know who asked. Yet what makes the experience genuine are the answers that the RCs come up with, which are generally very creative and very honest.

Laundry and board games are usually offered during the second week so those who didn’t get a chance to do laundry have extra time and if you don’t need to do laundry then you can play games. Chilling on the quad is also a popular choice at TIP. It’s where you go outside and simply read a book, sit and talk to friends, play Frisbee, or even take a nap.

All in all there are many things to do at TIP, so sign up and have fun!

Improv! The Final Scene

By Ella Sivertsen
Imagine the lights on you. A hundred eyes are watching. You’re expected to provide a killer skit momentarily. You’re ready. The only catch: There’s no script.
Welcome to the wonderful world of improvisation, otherwise known as acting without a script. All the content is made up on the spot. Improv!, the regular evening activity itself, serves as an outlet for TIPsters to be creative, show off their skills, gain confidence, and have fun creating and watching great theater.


On Sunday, many brave TIPsters lined up for their shot to feature their improv skills in the talent show. Although all efforts were valiant, only eight competitors could advance to the deciding round: Improv! The Final Scene. These competitors were TIPsters Kevin, Marianna, Josh, Meghan, Tori, Brian, Bree, and Madeline.

The first challenge was a seemingly simple one. Each had to introduce him-/herself in a creative way. This, however, may have been more crucial than they realized. First impressions are important, after all. improvisers were obviously hardcore; it takes guts to stand up in front of your peers and come up with creative skits to entertain them.

The actors participated in several acting challenges. RCs Megan and George gave a "game" to play and a theme to act in. More familiar games included “Change,” in which the person who said the last line had to change it (without changing the scene), “Party Quirks”, for which the host had some unusual guests and had to figure out the quirk of each, and “The Dating Game,” similar to “Party Quirks,” but with a dating show theme.
In the end, everyone had performed admirably, but there could only be four official winners. These were Meghan, Tori, Marianna, and Josh.