An empty stage, a few chairs and nine actors, seven dressed completely in black, sit before a mixed audience of students and adults. They have no rehearsed lines and no props, but the audience is attentive and roars with laughter at the performance that is being put on in front of them.

This past weekend No Refund Theatre began its fall season with An Evening of Improvisational Comedy, a show modeled after the television show "Whose Line is it Anyway?"

Prior to the show, audience members had the opportunity to submit a random sentence and a random situation into different boxes that were set outside the door.

The actors participated in twelve types of improvisational games, opening the evening with 'The Dating Game.' This game called for five actors, one host, three bachelorettes and one guest. The guest left the room while the audience shouted out different personas of the three bachelorettes: a mad scientist, a Russian, and a hypochondriac.

Having no idea who these ladies were supposed to be, the guest had to try to guess who they were.

"If I were a sundae, what kind of topping would I put on you?" the guest asked.

"Vodka," replied the Russian.

Laughter bounced off the walls of the Forum Building.

Another favorite of the crowd was a game called 'Questions.' In this game a random situation was drawn from one of the boxes and the actors had to talk by asking questions. If they couldn't come up with a question they went to the back of the line.

The crowd laughed more when an actor couldn't think of anything to say and bowed their heads in shame and ran to the back of the line.

"I have to admire them because it is something I could never do," said Hillary Cook (freshman-division of undergraduate studies).

The actors displayed their versatility when difficult situations were drawn from the suggestion box, like "inside my left fallopian tube."

"A lot of us started out being really uncomfortable, but we walked away with a good sense of technique," Farnoosh Torabi (junior-finance and international business) said. In addition to participating in the games, Torabi also played the role of host.

According to Torabi, the actors rehearsed the different games over and over again about three times a week for a month.

"Improv helps you understand comic timing, and timing in general. It also helps you think on your feet, and think quickly if you forget your lines," said Mike McBurney (senior-comparative literature), who was one of the nine actors.

The show ended with the traditional hoe down, complete with a pianist as seen on television. Although the show had ended, the audience wasn't ready to call it a night. A series of encore performances of "Sentence in a Pocket" ensued. At this point audience members were picked from the crowd to participate in this game of Mad Libs, inserting the random sentences from the suggestion boxes at various points in the scenes.

"We had a fairly big audience and that's definitely a big help. It gets the energy up," Mcburney said.

According to Torabi, No Refund Theatre performed their first improv show last spring.

"It's become a nice tradition especially the first weekend because often times we have complex sets and since improv requires none, it takes the pressure off," Torabi said.