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Club Gets a Laugh Out of Hard Work
Seventh-graders Carlos Castro, left, and Brian Soukup practice the opening scene from "No Child Left . . . Where?"
(Courtesy Of Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School)
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"Because they're middle school kids, most of them have never performed. Maybe in the band, but this is entirely different," she said. "This is a lot of memorization. For them to do this is a huge challenge."
Some students enjoy the experience so much that they volunteer to help out after they've graduated. Zachary Baer, a freshman at Kennedy High School, returned this year to run the controls for the sound equipment, as he had done as an eighth-grader.
"I just love doing it. It's a great group of people," he said. "I like working on the soundboard. It's fun."
The sketches, which are mostly written by Bagdasian and Lisa Levin Itte, are often drawn from the students' experiences. Many of the scripts have been published and have been leased by schools and theater groups around the world, according to Bagdasian.
The show costs about $10,000 to produce, not including Bagdasian's salary, and involves lots of sophisticated sound equipment. Most of the funding comes from grants, often secured by McEwen, who is the club's grant writer.
The first act of this year's production included 11 new and old sketches lampooning television shows. The second act marked the first year that the club had done a musical; it spoofed the No Child Left Behind Act through a plot about a school run by aliens who teach the students only one thing -- how to be consumers.
"The whole premise of this is they've got something to say," Waits said. "Some skits are positively hilarious. Some are so middle school."
Stepping up for this year's show was no problem for eighth-grader Jeffrey Hacker, who had several roles and wrote two skits for last year's show.
"It relieves stress. I can get away from what I actually have to do -- homework," he said, adding that his three years with the comedy club have taught him how to project his voice and "learn to laugh at stuff. I used to not laugh at jokes. I didn't have a sense of humor."
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