Swipe Right for Real Talk - TYDE x DMR’s Improv Show

By Lilah, teen author

TYDE (Thriving Youth in a Digital Environment) and DMR Adventures (Dreams Made Real) partnered together with local teens to bring an improv show called “Swipe Right for Real Talk” to the Tom Tom Festival 2026. The improv show’s purpose was to help parents (and teens) have honest and meaningful conversations about the possible dangers and responsible usage of social media. Kaylee, Cooper, and Lilah (me) worked on this show along with several wonderful “parent” actors Otter, La’vonne, and Adrienne to bring a few different scenarios to life on stage in an improv concept.

We were told from the beginning that we were kind of “guinea pigs” because this was something new that TYDE was trying for the first time. Overall, I think the experience was super fun and was a great way for me to get back into improv which is something I hadn’t done for a while. My mom attended the show and said that she found the scenes helpful and that they answered some questions she’d been having about how to talk to me about my unfortunate addiction to scrolling.

I think that this idea in general was really cool because it’s something that even though we had a set plan of what we needed to cover, and we knew that since this was serious subject matter we had more guidelines than we may have in usual improv, we still got to take something that may seem daunting or scary and make it fun and informative. Cooper, one of my fellow teen actors said, “It was fun to use improv to address more serious subject matter and to work with actors who were new to me.”

We decided to incorporate audience participation which I also thought was great because it allowed teens and adults to answer some questions in real time and benefit the parents and teens who were there. We also did a video recording so that it could help people in the future when needed.

Doing improv with a serious purpose and working with all these amazing people was truly such a wonderful experience. I hadn’t been doing DMR for a little bit because I had been so busy with school, and I did the TYDE Hackathon this year which was introduced to me through my school. There, I heard about this opportunity and I also connected the dots with a post I had seen on DMR’s Band page and I volunteered to be a part of it. Everyone was super nice and we also understood that we may be talking about some sensitive subject matter such as mental health issues and negative social comparison. Everyone being honest about their boundaries and bringing their knowledge combined with love of acting to this production truly made it special. I really hope our performance can continue to help our community and that I will be able to do something like this in the future.

Lilah is a rising high school junior from Charlottesville, Virginia with many diverse passions. She chose to participate in this improv show with DMR and TYDE after participating in the TYDE Hackathon 2026 because she felt she wanted to offer more to her local community. She loves volunteering and helping her school and local community, as well as working with youth since she wants to be a teacher. This year, she is so happy to join TYDE’s Youth Advisory Board and contribute her ideas while working with a team of like-minded, emotionally intelligent individuals. Lilah hopes that this blog post, as well as the recording of the performance, can help teens and parents navigate difficult conversations and serve as a community resource for many years. She is so grateful to have been part of something that combines her passions of acting and advocating for mental health, as well as serving as an example for strong, healthy parent-teen relationships. She can’t wait to work more with TYDE in the future and is so excited to share this experience.