This Saturday, Goshen College students who are interested in theater gathered to play “Win, Lose, or Act,” a high-energy version of charades.

The event was hosted by GC Players, which is a student-run club that branches off from the theater department. Christina Hofer, a senior and vice president of GC Players, describes it as “a group that seeks to make theater more accessible for majors and non-majors beyond the regular main stages and one acts each semester.”

Andrew Moeggenborg, assistant professor of theater and GC Players faculty adviser, added that the club also “holds workshops and events in order to promote theater on the Goshen campus.”

Leadership for GC Players includes Hofer along with seniors Martin Flowers, president; Paul Zehr, secretary; and Lea Ramer, treasurer.

The main attraction of Saturday’s event was the “Win, Lose, or Act” tournament, led by Doug Liechty Caskey, professor of theater, and was organized in a double-elimination bracket for eight teams of three players. Two teams faced off at a time, each attempting to act out a list of 10 words faster than their opponents.

The inability to use words or sounds led to some interesting interpretations of words, Moeggenborg said. “Paul Zehr portraying a turtle was quite good.”

Although the game was all in good fun, Hofer says that some teams took it seriously. “One group had been practicing ahead of time and had prepared actions for the word ‘unicycle,’” she said. “Amazingly, ‘unicycle’ was actually one of the 10 in their round.”

Preparation and enthusiasm paid off for the top three teams in the tournament—prizes included gift cards to Honeys, Linway Cinema and Java Junction. Moeggenborg said that the winning team even had their names added to the “golden elephant trophy,” which will be used in coming years for the same event. But even if attendees didn’t win, nobody went home empty handed: GC Players provided snacks and a candy bar raffle as well.

Zehr saw the event as a successful outreach to campus. “The majority of participants were first-years and ‘non-theater’ people. This was a pleasant surprise to [us] because we are always looking for ways to get new people involved.”

GC Players does not yet have future events finalized, but they are working on several ideas including an improv night, a 24-hour play festival, the Miscast Cabaret and more.

Hofer said, “If the stars align, we might also be bringing in a guest artist—a recent college graduate who does her own one-woman show about rape. It features clowning, monologue and some heavy content, and I think Goshen College needs to see it.”

Moeggenborg added that students should keep an eye out for announcements concerning this semester’s one-act play and the fall mainstage, “Godspell.”