Part of the college experience is dating. There’s nothing like the butterflies flying around in your stomach at the end of a romantic evening. However, some dates don’t end with just a goodnight kiss. Date rape is a serious issue hitting college campuses across the country.

Catharsis Productions, a seven-member acting troupe, is traveling the nation performing Sex Signals, a humorous and informative skit designed to raise awareness of sexual assault and date rape among college students. The performance comfortably portrays the severity of the subject through audience participation and improvisation from the actors. Sponsored by Campus Activities Board, the program will be showing at USF on Thursday at 9 p.m. in the Special Events Center.

CAB Special Events Director Connie Ramos, a junior majoring in psychology, is responsible for bringing Sex Signals to USF.

“CAB’s purpose is for entertainment, but whenever we can bring something educational that we feel can be entertaining too, we’ll do that,” Ramos said. “(The production has) got information about dating in college life.”

According to Catharsis Productions’ Web site, www.catharsisproductions.com/sex_signals.htm, writers/actors Christian Murphy and Gail Stern created Catharsis Productions as an effective educational performance organization that tries to reach out to college students and confront them with difficult topics in a laid-back manner.

Murphy and Stern created Sex Signals in 2000 as the company’s first program. The skit’s cast has graced the stages of more than 200 U.S. colleges, and the show was nominated for Campus Activities Magazine’s reader-chosen Speaker of the Year award.

“(The performance) looks interesting, and it’s kind of edgy and exciting,” Ramos said. “(The performers) do a lot of skits and stand-up comedy, a lot of jokes, but there is some knowledge and facts put into it as well.”

Sex Signals is only a two-person production, featuring a male and a female, and while various Catharsis Productions actors take turns acting in the skit, Murphy and Stern will be performing at USF.

The 75-minute production is free to the public, but audience seats are limited.

“We have to limit it to under 400 people so it can be an interactive experience for everybody in the audience,” Ramos said.

Ramos added that some of the health and sex experts on campus might be attending the show, so students can hear what advice they have to offer college students as well.