The cast and crew of WU’s Line Comedy Improv Club are preparing for their first showcase of the semester. The Feb. 17, event will also mark their first performance as an official club.

A senior psychology major, counseling minor and the Student Director for WU’s Line, Lauren Royesky, said that the upcoming performance would include raffles, two new comedy games and some “crowd favorites,” all while incorporating a unique costume theme the group has never done before.

“We’ve decided to go with the theme, ‘Comfort Characters,’” Royesky said. “Everybody on cast and crew gets to pick one of their favorite characters they go to when they’re feeling down.” There will be a variety of characters from television shows, video games and movies. 

Leela Morcom, a sophomore health and exercise science major with a psychology minor, serves as a crew member and “hat girl” for WU’s Line. Her duties include sorting through comedy prompts from the audience, which are pulled from a hat and used during the show. 

According to Morcom, the hats have regularly been used to get the audience involved, but WU’s Line is also trying new ideas, such as an audience poll, to create excitement during the show.

Royesky agreed when she said, “Sometimes, theater has the stigma where you come, you sit down and there is silence. For this show, we want you participating, and we want to hear your laughs.”

Although these plans are exciting for WU’s line, there is an even bigger change occurring this semester according to Tyler Drum, a junior electronic media major and member of the cast. “Our upcoming performance is our first show as an official club,” Drum said. “Up until this point, we were kind of just an organization, but we finally unified as a club.”

During this transition, Drum said that WU’s Line members are taking full advantage of the opportunity to bring new ideas to the group. “This show is probably the most important one for us in a long time,” Drum said. “We’ve been trying to add new games. This year is our year to really set out to make the show ours.”

Morcom added that the club’s new status will open avenues to better advertise the group and encourage students to join WU’s Line. “We’ll be able to do a lot of the events. Usually, we’ve only been able to do the ‘Welcome Week’ event, and maybe one other,” Morcom said. “I think we’ll just get more acknowledgment.” 

Morcom hopes other students will learn about the club and come to love it as much as she does. “It’s a good time to just step away from academics and the whole stress of it and just have a good laugh,” she said.

The WU’s Line performance will be held in the Goodwin Performing Arts Center on Feb. 17, at 9:30 p.m., according to Royesky. Tickets are $1 and can be purchased at the door. 

“It’s overall going to be lots of laughs and hopefully just a really fun night for everybody,” Royesky said. “Come, get out of your dorm and just have some laughs.”