Improv Troupe: Rising Up and Ready to Take on the Olympics

Briana Perry
For The Clock
baperry@plymouth.edu

Two teams will compete on a stage filled with comedy-based, Olympic-style games in PSU’s first ever Improv Olympics. It will take place on Saturday, March 26 in the HUB Hage room from 8-10 p.m.

The two teams, Nosebleeds and Emergency Procedures, are comprised of twelve auditioned members from Plymouth Players, a student-run theater organization. Only one team will take home the gold.

Three volunteer staff members will judge the show. Competitors are scored on a series of seven games including movie quotes and locations and genre prompts. Audience participation is encouraged.

Plymouth Players president, David MacNeill, and treasurer, Cam Downing, will co-host the show.

“This is the first time ever we’re doing this,” said Downing. “We’re hoping that because it’s something different that not many people have heard of, that anybody who likes theater and comedy will come to see it.”

Before the days of a theater department on campus, Plymouth Players started as a student-run theater organization.

Rising from the ashes of near-extinction about 20 years ago, they have slowly transformed into a full-fledged improv/comedy group.

This troupe, along with thirty other improv members from Plymouth Players, are ready to take it to the next level this semester.

“With having so many different people in this group, it’s going to be awesome to see how well we can make the community laugh, and how well we can make our group known,” says MacNeill.

Paul Mroczka, head of the theater department and faculty advisor of Plymouth Players, came up with the idea for the show when he helped to start a “Theater Sports” production at UNH. He then brought the idea to the attention of Plymouth Players.

“When I saw that the improv group started to get so strong, it just seemed to be the logical next step,” says Mroczka.

The Imrov Olympics will take place on Saturday, March 26 in the HUB Hage room from 8-10 p.m. Admission is free.

Last year's Improv Troupe

COURTESY PHOTO/ COURTESY OF PLYMOUTH PLAYERS