NITWITS Play Newnan Community Theatre Company, 9/9

The NITWITS (Newnan Improv Troupe with Intelligent Talented Stooges) are staging a comedy show featuring new players, new games, new challenges, and fresh entertainment for loyal NITWITS fans. This show will have several "firsts" for the NITWITS. It will be their first performance on a Friday night rather than a Saturday and their first show in the Black Box theatre. It will also be a first performance for new NITWIT Melanie Carrin.

In June, Bert Lyons conducted a training class for fifteen "HALF-WITS" selected for their potential improv abilities. Out of that class, five were accepted as part of the improv team: Mary Caroline Moore (who was in "Rumors"), Lenton and Andy Lees, Jim Rew, and Melanie Carrin. All but Carrin have already made their debut. These now-full-fledged NITWITS will be performing in the Friday night show.

Also participating are old favorites Beth Lyons, Sarah Jordan, Jeff Allen, Drew Turner, Daniel Lees, and Spencer Jordan.

The new performance will feature "Theatre Sports," where the NITWITS are divided into two opposing teams. Bert Lyons will act as Master of Ceremonies. The audience will vote on the winners.

"When we first started out we used the Theatre Sports format, but then changed to a panel style," said Spencer Jordan. "We've been using that style for the last two and a half years. But to keep ourselves and our audience challenged, we're switching back to the original format and trying out some new games that Bert Lyons has arranged."

In a game called "LCD" (Location, Career, and Death), the audience supplies a physical place, an occupation and an object. Then a pair of actors, one from each team, has to communicate that information in gibberish - no comprehensible language allowed. When one actor feels he or she knows all three items, he will clap and then "kill" the other actor with the object, whatever it is -- not necessarily a weapon.

In "Talk and Touch," two people carry on a conversation, but the only time they can talk is when they are touching each other with some part of the body.

In "Beatnik Poet," two players from each team create a poem from a topic supplied by the audience. Then the audience decides which pair has created the best poem.
As Master of Ceremonies, Bert Lyons will ask the audience to vote after each team has presented a game. The audience will either vote by applause or raised hands, and Bert will determine the winner from that.