The Daily Mining Gazette - Published: Thursday, April 12, 2007 Print Article | Close Window Troupe to perform spring improv show CAPTION: Courtesy photo The Troupe poses in their stage outfits. They’ll appear in non-pyramid form Friday and Saturday at Michigan Tech. By GARRETT NEESE, DMG Writer HOUGHTON — In the course of an hour and a half Monday, the 12 members of The Troupe put Robin Hood in Jello, Emperor Palpatine from “Star Wars” in a professor’s office and themselves in a tiny trunk. The Michigan Tech University student comedy group will re-emerge for their 16th annual spring comedy show with two performances at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the McArdle Theater. The spring show is an annual highlight for the group, which performs a mix of improvisational games and scripted material. In addition, the 12-member group also performs a family show in the fall, and casual shows in the annex of Wadsworth Hall. “The shows, they’re free, and we just announce them the week of,” said Troupe member Lindsay Williams. They have also taught comedy workshops with younger students. The group practices twice a week with advisor Sue Stephens, who is retiring at the end of the year. Williams, a third-year chemistry education student, tried out for the Troupe in her freshman year as a favor to Troupe member Matt Rossman. “He dragged me to an audition, and I somehow got in,” he said. The format is similar to that of the show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”, with a series of games sparked by suggestions from the audience. A favorite of Williams’ is “Four Styles,” where the performers act out four different radio stations — in Monday’s practice, ska, NPR, love ballads and heavy metal. Another is “Remix,” which blends “Four Styles” and several other games. “We all love Remix, because it has all the games that we love to play,” Williams said. One of those is “Easy Laugh,” where one performer’s action triggers a corresponding action by someone else. In the case of second-year civil engineering major Scott Zielinski, that meant hopping like a frog whenever the other person scratched their head. Oh, and they were also playing “Stand, Sit, Bend.” “I’m trying to hop like a frog, but I’m still sitting on the ground,” he said. Zielinski decided he wanted to be in the group after seeing them in orientation. He auditioned twice before they finally decided he “was too crazy to let go.” While he likes acting in general, he’d never had an experience like The Troupe before. “It makes me laugh,” he said of the group. While the material is usually all improvised, this year the group introduced some pre-written material, Williams said. This includes a series of sketches depicting Emperor Palpatine as a professor in a Sith-like relationship with hapless grad students, which were developed from a practice improv session. “We were just playing around one day and these things came out, and we liked them, so we decided to make them sketches in the show,” Williams said. But though they’re primarily scripted, there’s still some room at the margins to play around. “It comes out a little different every time,” Williams said. Monday, the group ran through the weekend’s format — though whether or not those will also have rabid monkeys is up to the audience. They concluded with a longform improvisation. In contrast to the earlier games, this starts with one suggestion and spirals outward as the cast explores new threads basd on ideas that crop up, linking them with monologues. Monday’s improv encompassed dorm life, apartment life, Niagara Falls and cyclone hunting. While some members felt they’d rushed the scenes, Stephens had some words of encouragement. “It was good,” she said. “It kept going.” Tickets are on sale at the Rozsa Box Office at 487-3200 or www.tickets.mtu.edu. They will also be available at the door for $5. To subscribe to the Troupe’s listserv, e-mail troupegroupies-l@mtu.edu. Garrett Neese can be reached at gneese@mininggazette.com