There is a troupe of performers on campus who tell stories of ladybug strippers and teen romances turned to spy thrillers — these performers are known as Half-Masted.

On last Friday and Saturday night, Half-Masted, a group of actors who perform scenes where the situations and topics are completely made up on the spot, otherwise known as improvisation or improv, presented a type of show called “Gorilla Theater.”

For Gorilla Theater, Half-Masted split into Purple and Gold teams competing against each other for the votes from the judges to take home the prize: for their team’s captain to take home a person in a gorilla suit.

Both teams drew much laughter and applause from the audience at their 9 p.m. show last Saturday, but in the end, Team Purple won. The Purple Team captain walked out with the “gorilla” triumphantly, both flipping the bird to the rest of the troupe while traipsing out of the theater in slow motion.

Ann Krois, a freshman history education major who attended the show, said, “I loved the slo-mo at the end of the show. I think that part is just hilarious.”

Doug Shaw, a mathematics professor at the University of Northern Iowa, started Half-Masted nearly a decade ago after complaining to a friend and his wife that there was no improv group in Cedar Falls. Shaw himself had done improv in Minneapolis and wanted to see a group in the Cedar Valley.

“They got sick of hearing me complaining that there was no improv going on in Cedar Falls,” said Shaw, “so they said, instead of complaining, why not start it?”

According to Shaw, over the last eight years, 60 people have been cast in Half-Masted from every college and department, and the troupe has traveled all over Iowa.

“Alumni of Half-Masted are being ridiculously successful in the greater improv world. We have members who are the cast of the Improv Olympic in Chicago, teaching improv in New York City and are a part of the Upright Citizens’ Brigade in Los Angeles,” said Shaw.

Joe Veltri, a former UNI student who has been in the troupe for four years, loves being part of Half-Masted, stating that practices are the highlight of his week.

“It’s been a great experience,” said Veltri. “I hope to do improv possibly in Minneapolis — not necessarily as a career, but as a fun hobby.”

Veltri says the art of improv is fairly simple.

“You just get up there, stop thinking, and do what comes naturally,” said Veltri.