Sketches go from the Web to the stage
A little more than a month ago, Jessica Dusak had never thought about writing sketch comedy. Tomorrow she will see her first sketch performed by some of Improv Asylum's best actors in front of a theater audience.
Her sketch is part of a show called "You Wrote It, LIVE," so named because all of the material is user-submitted on locally owned screenwriting site Zhura.com. Improv Asylum and Zhura launched their collaboration a month ago, soliciting scripts to be uploaded to the website. Dusak found out Monday her sketch, "Therapy Sessions With Mom," made the first cut.
"I had no idea that I was actually a finalist until today," she said Monday night. "But I've been having the best day of my life ever since."
The 28-year-old office manager's only related experience had been doing hair and makeup in community theater in her native New Jersey. She had written funny stories for her blog and originally logged onto Zhura just to see what screenwriting was like. She has never been to Improv Asylum, but when she saw the contest listed she thought she'd give it a shot.
"I thought, I could do this," she says. "I kind of like a challenge. I can submit something. I ended up writing, like, eight sketches, and this was my favorite, so I'm glad that it was chosen."
Asylum cofounder Norm Laviolette sees the show as both groundbreaking and a perfect fit for a theater built on improvisation and audience suggestion.
"Instead of just interacting and taking ideas from our audience in that 180-seat theater," he says, "we have the opportunity to take suggestions and ideas from the entire world. So it's a natural extension of what we do."
Zhura founder and CEO Eric MacDonald reports the site has membership representation from roughly 60 countries. Writers can upload their work, whether it's a short play or a feature-length film, and collaborate over a distance. MacDonald says the site has caught on with sketch comedy writers, citing a group in London whose only previous outlet had been meeting at a pub once a week. "They have no theater, they have no outlet," he says, "and they're a pretty big group."
"There's even a member from Vatican City," says Laviolette. "That is so awesome, to think that the pope might be writing sketch comedy, anonymously under some crazy name."
The show's concept seems simple - pull some sketches from Zhura and put them on at Improv Asylum. The reality is that a team of directors, writers, and actors (including Improv Asylum alum Jeremy Brothers and mainstage actor Michael Anastasia) will be working on a grueling "Saturday Night Live"-like schedule to produce a full show of roughly 12 sketches in a little under a week. And while it might be an appealing experiment, it also has to be a quality show.
"We're going to have a packed theater, and we're going to have to make it funny and make it work," says Laviolette.
That means sketches will be rewritten, blocked, and directed, and the sketch that makes it to the stage tomorrow might not look exactly as Dusak originally imagined it. "Hey, that's OK," she says. "The whole experience is amazing. I trust them completely. And if they need to revamp it, you know, I think they'll do a good job."
Laviolette says there are tentative plans to try this format again, perhaps in Los Angeles, New York City, or even London.
"I think so, unless it's literally the worst thing I've ever been a part of in my entire life," he says. "But with the people I'm working with, I don't see that happening."
Around town
"Lovers & Other Strangers: 5 Comedies About Love, Sex, & Marriage" opens at the Middleboro Town Hall Black Box Theatre tonight with comedian Stacey Yannetty in two of the five short plays. . . . Josh Blue is at the Comedy Connection tonight and tomorrow. . . . Stephen Lynch is at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts in Worcester tomorrow. . . . Chance Langton is at the Connection Sunday. 