This week’s Pocket Playhouse production “Life and How to Live It” was titled based on an R.E.M. song from the early 1980s. But the play’s writer and director, Matt Chorpenning, said he chose to name his play after the “Fables of the Reconstruction” track for the opposite reason that the title suggests.
“It’s called ‘Life and House to Live It,’ but the lyrics make no sense,” Chorpenning said.
He said this “sketch comedy show” he wrote more than a year ago might appeal to Saturday Night Live lovers because the live scenes are both brief and funny.
“It’s different for a sketch comedy show, and it’s different for a Pocket Playhouse show,” he said. “It’s a comedic jab at life and society.”
Chorpenning, a junior majoring in theater arts, said the sarcastic play pokes fun at everything from Cosmopolitan magazine to “The 700 Club.” But the script has undergone a few rewrites, including one after Sept. 11, as Chorpenning explained, “to remind our nation that their president is still a dick weed.”
But targeting public figures such as actor Gary Coleman, President George W. Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft, pop princess Britney Spears and the starlets of Hollywood comes second nature to Chorpenning, and he said he hopes the audience enjoys the play’s messages.
“It might push their button, and it might offend them,” Chorpenning said. “But it might also make them laugh and think.”
He added that the 98 seats in Room 102 — home of the student-run Pocket Playhouse — are expected to be filled for each performance, which runs Thursday through Saturday beginning at 5 p.m. A $1 admission is the suggested donation.
The nine-member cast was chosen for their parts almost a month ago, after a rigorous auditioning process. The lineup includes: Nick Hamilton, Liz Jamieson, Ben Maughan, Maximillian McCal, Katie McClatchey, Cassie Schwanke, Joe Shirley, Tara Warner and Traci Vitale.
The group rehearsed Monday night, with high-energy and expression, tackling scenes that mocked everything from the war on terrorism, the Family Circus comic strip and “tuna-safe dolphin meat.”
After running through one of his scenes, Hamilton said he takes on multiple-roles in the play, including a guy in a flannel shirt called Bif Studley and a newscaster named Martha. He said the “fun, light-hearted play” hasn’t been as stressful as other productions, in part because the brief scenes allow the actors to learn and rehearse quickly before show time.
“Matt is a great writer. The script is hilarious,” said Hamilton, a junior architecture major. “He has a good wit, and he really knows how to make people laugh.”
Lighting designer Scott Thorson, who has been programming the lighting scheme since Sunday, added that it has been easy working with Chorpenning.
The play “is funny, and it’s pretty on cue with some political remarks,” the freshman architecture major said.
Hamilton, who has been involved in theater as a hobby since high school, was also in a previous Pocket Playhouse production this year, “The Swan.” He encouraged students, faculty and the general community to attend the production because, “It’s the best entertainment you can get for $1 — a suggested $1.”