Comedy is in a strange place right now. More and more comedians are having seriuous conversations about the importance of comedy, but also about whether or not lines should be drawn in terms of content. While producing this show, I had many opportunities to discuss the current state of comedy with our Advanced Theatre students, cast and crew members. We discussed various styles and subcategories of the genre, they learened about commedia dell arte, masks and physical comedy, and viewed various examples of farce in television and movies. There were fascinating discussions in class about the power of comedy as social commentary (when one is mocking "up," as it were) and the place that farce continues to play in our comic traditions. While we certainly did not come up with any answers about the future of comedy, I think we can all agree that comedy is very much tied to the time in which it is created.
With this in mind, we set this particular play in the 1970s to offer context for some of the jokes and situations (and for our rockstar Costume Designer to have some fun with polyester pants and butterfly collars). Noises Off is a fun and absurd example of farce with improbable situations, buffoon characters, slamming doors, mistaken identies and items, and mass confusion. The structure allowed our students to practice the skills of comedic timing, the rule of threes, and intense physical comedy. My hope is that you can sit back, relax, and have a good laugh at the ridiculousness on the stage, and forgive us for some of the crude humor and innuendos that are such an integral part of a farcical play. When making the decision for this year's show, my production team and I weighed the costs and benefits of such a production and decided that our students had so much to gain from this exciting piece of theatre in terms of physical comedy training, as well as set building.
Speaking of the set, I am exceptionally proud of our team of theatre technicians who worked tirelessly to build our rotating platform and the house structure on top of it. I'd like to give a huge shout out to my Tech Director/Husband/Creative Partner who designed and helped our students to bring this beast of a structure to life.
As a final note, Noises Off is close to my heart as it was the first play I ever worked on. As a freshman in high school, I was on the props crew, gluing and regluing sardines onto plates. It was during that production that I fell in love with the theatre. I'd like to dedicate this production to my very first theatre teacher, Patty Gassman from Piedmont Hills High School in San Jose, CA.
Thank you so much for coming tonight. As always, thank you for supporting arts in education, and enjoy the show!
Karen Nylund-Lieb
Director and Educator, Wolf Pack Theatre
