The MSU improvisational comedy team Runnin’ With Scissors will perform a benefit for Hurricane Katrina’s victims tonight at 7:30. The performance will take place in the McComas Hall Theatre, a change from their usual stage in McComas’s lab theater.
“We wanted to host the show on the main stage instead of the lab theater,” said theater professor Wayne Durst.
Durst said that the new location would ensure a better turnout and that the team will raise more money than before. “The lab theater only seats 90,” he said.
For $5 anyone can support the hurricane relief funds. “Donations are accepted but not required,” said director Andrew Anderson. If someone wants to donate but cannot come to the show, Anderson said he encouraged friends and family to come and bring the donations instead.
The Mississippi Red Cross’ hurricane relief will receive the money collected. The Runnin’ with Scissors team will not make profit from admission or donation.
Three years ago the group began performing in coffee shops and bars. The founders called it “Ironman.” They started performing regularly, with Alston Avritt directing it, giving to it the present name.
“Our styles of improvisational comedy are very similar to those of ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?'” Anderson said. The troupe of 16 chooses a game and receives the audience’s suggestions.
“We just go from there,” he said. The actors perform without a script. “Everything is made up on the spot,” he added.
Founding member Brandon Morris said of improvisation, “It is seeing the entire acting process before your eyes.” He said that the group was too sympathetic to the hurricane victims not to do something for them.
“We’re all from Mississippi,” he said. “Some of us are even from the Coast, and we know some of the people affected by Katrina.”
Member Will Cooper has performed with the team for four semesters. He said that he and the group wanted to give people a chance to enjoy themselves and to help others.
“This has affected our entire country and everyone should do what they can to pitch in,” he said.