Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State will be the site Sept. 29 and 30 for the first Southeastern Comedy Arts Festival.
An open competition for improvisational troupes from around the region, the event will feature three shows in the university's McComas Hall main theater. In addition to nightly performances, a special afternoon matinee "face-off" is scheduled on the 30th.
General admission tickets are $5 per show; $12 for a special weekend package.
MSU's Lab Rats Comedy Improv Troupe is host for the festival, an official event of the Southeastern Comedy Arts Alliance. The student group is part of the communication department's Theatre MSU program.
Awards will be presented at the final program's conclusion. David Patton of the Second City touring company and Greg Childers of the Memphis (Tenn.) Improvisational Theatre will serve as judges.
The festival schedule includes:
Sept. 29
--7:30 p.m., "Southeastern Idol," long-form sketch comedy.
Sept. 30
--3:30 p.m., "Egg Bowl of Comedy," featuring MSU Lab Rats versus Oxford's Laff Co.
--7:30 p.m., "Improv Cagematch," short-form/"Whose Line is it Anyway?" style.
In addition to Lab Rats and Laff Co., other participating troupes will include "JaCKPie Theatre Workshop," Atlanta, Ga.; "Mission Improvable," Columbus; "Off Kilter," Jackson;
"The Wiseguys," Memphis; and "Go Go Bananas," Tuscaloosa, Ala.
For additional information, contact director@labratscomedy.com or chairman@secaa.org.
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For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.