The Second Annual Improv Olympics

PlymProv after the March show.

Plymouth Players will present the Improv Olympics on April 21 at 10:00 p.m. in Hyde 220. At this annual event, two teams of actors will compete against each other, performing in new comedy-based games which will help the audience de-stress and laugh at the end of the week.

The competing teams are named Skirt Skirt and Disinfecting Wipes. They are made up of the 19 members of PlymProv, an auditioned improv troupe. The winners will receive a trophy and immense bragging rights.

The vice president of Plymouth Players, Cam Downing, said that one of the main goals of the Improv Olympics is to make PlymProv more well-known on campus and bring a new audience to live theater. Downing said that last year, competitive improv allowed people to invest in both teams. It gave the audience the feeling of being at both a performance and a sports event.

 “A lot of people don't care for live theatre, but who doesn't like to laugh?” Downing said. “We want to entertain people. We want to be an event that people can go to, leave their troubles at the door, and just laugh with us for a night.”

According to Rachel Couture, the secretary of the Plymouth Players, the teams are arranged “in a way where each actor’s strengths are utilized with the rest of their team members.”

There will be three judges evaluating the performances. One of the judges will be Edye Levin from Student Activities. The second will be PSU alum Ben Hunton. Another judge will come from the audience. At the beginning of the show, those willing to participate as a judge will write their name on a slip of paper and someone will draw a name from a hat.

“The judges will have many different categories on what to judge the teams on,” Couture said. “Everything from scene fluidity to character choices to how much they were able to make the audience laugh will be judged.”

This is PlymProv’s second annual Improv Olympics. This year the performance will be held in Hyde rather than the HUB. There is also a very different troupe this year. This will be many of the actors’ first time performing in an Improv Olympics, and there will be many new games introduced this year. One game is called Beastie Boys Rap Battle.

PlymProv performs comedy shows once a month, but they are different from the Improv Olympics. “With the Olympics, there is a lot more planning that goes into it than our regular shows,” said Couture. “We try to put on the best performance possible at all of our shows, but we try to go above and beyond for the Improv Olympics.”

The Improv Olympics is a great opportunity to hang out with friends at the end of the week and just laugh. That is what PlymProv is all about. “If we can make at least one person laugh the hardest they have all week long, then we've accomplished something special,” Couture said.

COURTESY PHOTO