UNCA improv group presents “The Royal Shakespeare Unemployment Office”

If the state of the world is getting to be too much to bear, come visit the Royal Shakespeare Unemployment Office and forget about it all. 

Oct. 17-18. UNCA’s Comedy Improv Troupe will host their first show of the academic year titled “The Royal Shakespeare Unemployment Office” in Belk Theater. The Comedy Improv Troupe is a club and credited class where students learn the basics of comedic improv and use those skills to put on improv shows. 

Junior Elsa Graf says the unique name comes from a mix of stand out lines from the troupe’s improv rehearsals, but likely won’t influence the show’s themes directly.

“The title of the show usually doesn’t play into our skits,” Graff said. “But it could inspire people to give suggestions.”

The troupe consisting of seven members will play various improv games on stage where the audience gets to suggest prompts for each skit. One of the games is called onion, or five in five out.

“Onion begins with one person doing a scene, then another person comes in and starts a new scene, then a third person, then a fourth, then a fifth,” said Graff. “Then the fifth person leaves and it goes back to the four person scene, and so on.”

Onion, like most improv games, falls under the category of short form improv. Short form is where the actors perform quick skits and scenarios without much of a plotline. While short form will make up most of the show, there will also be long form improv, where the actors will create a more expansive skit based on a suggestion from the audience.

“We’re going to do a mix of short form and then long form at the end,” said UNCA Comedy Improv Troupe instructor Marlene Thompson. “We focused our show last term on a Whose Line Is It Anyway type of style, because when you say short form, that’s what people mostly think of, it’s improv games. We’re going to be adding more long form in this term. Long form is really you just take a suggestion and create a world based on that one or two word suggestion.”

The troupe’s last show was in the 2025 spring semester. This was their first performance after doing virtual classes because of Hurricane Helene. Thompson said that show turned out to be a huge success.

“We had really great attendance, and the house was pretty packed each night,” Thompson said. “We had a big cast too. I think it was about 10 people. It was a really good turnout, and I was really proud of them all.”

Junior Archer Kaufman joined the troupe this semester. This will be his first show with the group and he is looking forward to it, as well as the shows that follow.

“I love performing on a stage and making people smile,” Kaufman said. “Improv seemed like the best course of action at this school. It’s really helped me feel like I’ve regained that artistic avenue of my life.”

There’s hope that past members of the group may be able to return for the show. But even if not, Thompson and the troupe are confident that the audience will leave thoroughly entertained.

“Hopefully some past members can come back and join us in the long form portion,” Thompson said. “But it’s going to be a really fun experience for folks to come and see, especially watching your fellow students perform, I think is going to be a real riot.”