Hairy Details, Dreyfoos’ improv comedy troupe, had their first show of the school year, Oct. 15, during lunch in the Black Box. Hairy Details’ shows rely heavily on audience participation. They seek out words from the audience, and then improvise scenes based off of the chosen words.

To start the show, the troupe asked for random occupations from the audience, and then troupe members imitated the “world’s worst” of the selected occupation in multiple scenes. Shortly after, random words selected by the audience dictated how groups of troupe members would act to perform scenes. For example, theatre senior Hannah Cairo and communications senior Bennett Morgan had to instantly make up a scene based off of only one word, “regret.”

Then three of the troupe members – theatre freshman Kate Moriarty, sophomore Lexi McCain, and senior Matthew Paszkiet – performed a scene based off of the word “homework.” But there was a catch. One person had to be sitting, one person had to be kneeling, and the last person had to be standing at all times. If one person switched positions, one of the others would have to adapt to a new position immediately.

The last game the troupe conducted involved storytelling. Theatre senior Megan Rosenblum started it with a narrative monologue on the subject of the word “chicken,” provided by the audience. The subsequent scenes performed by other troupe members had to also relate to this word and in the end, there was a thorough connection between all of the scenes that tied them together as a complete story.

“I thought our performance was overall well-rounded and that we are at a very good place for the beginning of the year,” Paszkiet, who is the Hairy Details troupe leader, said. “I felt that the audience response was positive because we got a lot of laughs. We’re hoping to get more people to come, so we are going to start advertising more in hopes to fill the Black Box. But my goal is to eventually move [Hairy Details shows] to Meyer Hall so we can have a larger audience.”

Hairy Details’ next performance is expected to take place toward the end of next month in the Black Box during lunch.