Theater Pro Helps With Teen Humor
By Julie Rasicot
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, May 10, 2007
It was just a day before the first performance of the Lee Comedy Club's annual show at Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School in Silver Spring, and things were a bit crazy.
Director Harry Bagdasian was trying to set up a scene involving dozens of the middle school cast members, Silly String, swimming goggles, foam fish heads and umbrellas. Onstage, the students milled about, nudging each other and chattering.
On the left side of the stage, several boys, antsy after a long day of classes, grew tired of listening and started stepping on each other's feet, earning rebukes from nearly everyone else.
"This is orchestrated chaos that tomorrow night will be just wonderful," predicted Principal Mary Beth Waits, watching the cast as she prepared to rehearse her part.
It's a prediction that was hard to fathom as screeching feedback from the microphones caused everyone to shudder.
But the show did go on, with evening performances April 20 and 21 of "Snicker, Cackle, Giggle, SNARF!" The show, in the school's gym, marked 12 years of comedy productions by Lee Middle School students led by Bagdasian, a professional theater director who founded and led New Playwrights' Theatre in the District for 12 years.
"Some parts they hit it and some they missed. But that's to be expected," Bagdasian said. "They got a lot of laughs and they felt good about it, and that's important."
An after-school program, the comedy club provides as many as 40 students in grades 6, 7 and 8 the opportunity to learn about the theater and work with professionals on creating and performing a revue of comedy sketch material that's often based on their ideas, according to assistant director Beck Krefting.
"What's great about the program is how much the kids are involved," she said.
For seven months, the students meet weekly to work on sketch development, improvisation and performance skills as well as to learn such technical skills as sound, lights, props, costumes and stage management.
The club, open to all Lee students, draws from the school's general population and its learning center for gifted and talented students with learning issues, physically challenged students with learning disabilities, and students with speech and learning disabilities. "So what we have is a real cross section of students," said Waits, who's had a part in the show for the four years she's run the middle school.
Though teaching the students about all aspects of a theater production is a main goal, instilling confidence and the value of teamwork is just as important, said Robbie McEwen, Bagdasian's wife and the club's director of development.
"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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