FARMINGTON — Improvisers from all over Maine and as far away as Rhode Island will converge for Laughletics Improv Comedy Mud Bowl 2016 at 7 p.m. Friday, April 29, in the Bjorn Auditorium at Mt. Blue Campus.

For five years running, members of Providence Improv Guild and improv team Boom Scones have lent their comedic talents to supporting high school improvisation in western Maine. These seasoned veterans of the New England comedy scene not only entertain the crowd with their on-the-spot antics, they challenge local improvisers young and old to bring their A-games to the stage.

The Mt. Blue Curtain Raisers are relaxed and ready for an improv comedy battle of the ages at the Laughletics Improv Comedy Mud Bowl at 7 p.m. April 29 in the Mt. Blue Campus Bjorn Auditorium in Farmington. They take on Room for Improv-Ment, Nothing, Teachers Lounge Mafia, and special guests Providence Improv Guild. Suggested donation of $5 collected at the door. Ben Luchini in front. Second row, from left, are Alex Gilbert, Park Laflin, Allie Callahan, Audrey Keith and Jordan Kapiloff. Third row, from left, are Maggie Murray, Ashlynn Pease, Steven Minns, Isaac Libby, Jon Lesko, Roshan Luick, Ana Dunbar, Lia Sozashvili and Laura Ozi Furtado. Back, from left, are Tommy Eng, Zeke Robinson, Nason Ducharme and Ben Andrews.
The Mt. Blue Curtain Raisers are relaxed and ready for an improv comedy battle of the ages at the Laughletics Improv Comedy Mud Bowl at 7 p.m. April 29 in the Mt. Blue Campus Bjorn Auditorium in Farmington. They take on Room for Improv-Ment, Nothing, Teachers Lounge Mafia, and special guests Providence Improv Guild. Suggested donation of $5 collected at the door. Ben Luchini in front. Second row, from left, are Alex Gilbert, Park Laflin, Allie Callahan, Audrey Keith and Jordan Kapiloff. Third row, from left, are Maggie Murray, Ashlynn Pease, Steven Minns, Isaac Libby, Jon Lesko, Roshan Luick, Ana Dunbar, Lia Sozashvili and Laura Ozi Furtado. Back, from left, are Tommy Eng, Zeke Robinson, Nason Ducharme and Ben Andrews. Contributed photo

Battling the members of PIG will be Farmington’s Mt. Blue Curtain Raisers, a team of high school improvisers who will have home stage advantage going into the evening. Traveling over from Rumford will be last year’s Mud Bowl champion, Mt. Valley’s Room for Improv-Ment. Armed with the ability to create characters out of thin air and scenes out of nothing more than a one-word suggestion, Room for Improv-Ment plan to vanquish the Curtain Raisers, PIG, as well as Falmouth High School’s comedy crew, Nothing.

Hoping to school them all will be western Maine’s Teachers Lounge Mafia, whose recent performances at Portland’s Mayo Street Arts, Waterville’s Studio 93 and Unity College’s Center for Performing Arts have gotten them into fighting shape. They may not have youth on their side, but they intend to make up for it with chutzpah.

The show will begin with a series of showcases from each improv team, to be followed by the no-holds-barred comic lunacy of the Laughletics Mud Bowl, refereed by Providence Improv Guild’s Jimmy Sorrel. Between events, concessions will be available to support Mt. Blue Curtain Raisers.

A suggested donation of $5 a person will be collected at the door to support workshops and training for the high school teams. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

For more information, contact Curtain Raisers Artistic Director Dan Ryder, at dryder@mtbluersd.org or 778-3561.

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