{"id":4563,"date":"2017-01-17T09:49:15","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T14:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=4563"},"modified":"2025-08-16T17:50:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T21:50:59","slug":"an-evening-of-laughs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2017\/01\/17\/an-evening-of-laughs\/","title":{"rendered":"An Evening of Laughs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nImagine watching a play where the actors don\u2019t know their lines.\u00a0 They never practiced before the show and did not use props or build sets.\u00a0 At first, that type of show might sound like a disaster.\u00a0 But that\u2019s why actors call those shows improv.\u00a0 On Friday, Dec. 2 and Saturday, Dec. 3, UMPI students attended \u201cAn Evening of Improv\u201d at UMPI\u2019s Wieden Auditorium.\u00a0 This was the first improv show from UMPI\u2019s student drama club, the University Players.
\n<\/p>\n

Improv is very different from plays or musicals.\u00a0 There is no script or lines for the actors to perform.\u00a0 Instead, the audience members become part of the show.\u00a0 Before the UMPI performance, student actors passed out pieces of paper to audience members.\u00a0 They had to write down phrases or lines.\u00a0 Those phrases and lines became part of the games \u201cScenes from a Hat\u201d and \u201cPockets.\u201d<\/p>\n

In \u201cScenes from a Hat,\u201d the actors pulled the audience members\u2019 papers from a hat.\u00a0 Then they performed scenes based on the phrases or topics that audience members had written down.\u00a0 The scenes included \u201cPresidential Debate,\u201d \u201cAn Awkward Marriage\u201d and \u201cLocked in a Freezer.\u201d\u00a0 Other scenes were \u201cFirst Time Skydiving\u201d and \u201cWaiting in a Long Bathroom Line.\u201d\u00a0 In \u201cPockets,\u201d two actors had random lines from the audience.\u00a0 They had to have a conversation based on the lines that they had.<\/p>\n

The performance included many other games and scenes that had audience members laughing throughout.\u00a0 Michael Coons, a junior fine arts major at UMPI, attended the Friday night show.\u00a0 He most enjoyed a scene where four actors were in a car trying to find a highway gas station.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was really fun.\u00a0 They should keep doing this show every year,\u201d Coons said.<\/p>\n

Darci Faye, UMPI senior and University Players director, said that improv has always been a type of theater she has enjoyed.\u00a0 She wanted to give students and the community access to the funny, entertaining show that is improv.<\/p>\n

\u201cImprov is something that is interactive.\u00a0 The audience can influence the characters or scene,\u201d Faye said.\u00a0 \u201cYou can see 20 shows and they would all be different shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexandra Kruczek, a freshman Elementary Education major, was one of seven University Players students who performed during the improv show.\u00a0 This past October, Kruczek acted in Faye\u2019s comedic play \u201cLove for Losers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kruczek wanted to try improv because it is a unique type of theater.\u00a0 Her favorite scene to perform in was \u201cThe Dating Game.\u201d\u00a0 Audience members had to pick quirks for three \u201cbachelors.\u201d\u00a0 Her character had to guess each quirk and pick one of the \u201cbachelors\u201d to go on a \u201cdate\u201d with.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most difficult part is trying to come up with something when you have nothing,\u201d Kruczek said.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s easy when your partner has something and you can bounce something off them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joshua Williams was another one of the improv actors.\u00a0 Williams is a junior at UMPI majoring in business management and leadership.\u00a0 He liked how the improv shows brought out the \u201cgoofy\u201d side to his personality.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a show that gets good engagement with the audience.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to worry about screwing up because there are no screw-ups.\u00a0 Anything goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faye wanted audience members to walk away from both shows knowing that they had watched something great.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that they take away that theater can be fun.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t have to be a serious play,\u201d Faye said.\u00a0 \u201cI think something like improv is a great way to take an hour off and just have fun with your friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both improv performances had something great for audience members and actors.\u00a0 The actors got to try theater that was challenging, but fun.\u00a0 Students in the audience weren\u2019t just watching the show.\u00a0 They helped actors create what happened in every scene.\u00a0 The result was a show that made people laugh and forget about their end-of-the-semester work for a while.\u00a0 Everyone at the shows got to be part of a new campus event whether they were onstage or in the audience.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Imagine watching a play where the actors don\u2019t know their lines.\u00a0 They never practiced before the show and did not use props or build sets.\u00a0 At first, that type of show might sound like a disaster.\u00a0 But that\u2019s why actors call those shows improv.\u00a0 On Friday, Dec. 2 and Saturday, Dec. 3, UMPI students attended […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8917,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4563\/revisions\/8917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}