Background
The essential question we were trying to answer during this project was "How can we use comedy to entertain and inform?" Our goal was to create sketches that were both funny and could teach the audience about the news as well. Our inspiration throughout this project was Saturday Night Live, as they effectively and consistently are producing hilarious sketches that also inform us about all kinds of things, from serious, hard to talk about issues, to weekly news.
Process
1. IMPROVISING
We first learned about improv, the foundation to our project. We learned all kinds of improv games, and read "Yes, And", where we learned how to apply the improv mentalities into our every day life and how that can lead to success. During this 'Intro' phase, we also learned about how comedy has changed throughout the years in America, and the power it has. What a society finds funny, is very important. News Cafe slide by me, Ysa
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2.NEWS CAFE Now it was time for us to become aware of the news around us. Every week, everybody picked something recent from the news to create a slide of. In this slide, we had to be ready to present it to the rest of the class, and give them enough information about the event so that we could discuss it and two though-provoking questions to discuss as well. Then we got into a circle, picked at random a slide, received a presentation about that news topic, then we facilitated a Socratic seminar based on the controversy or themes seen in that news event, and answered the questions provided by the presenter. On the left is an example of a slide from News cafe. Then after the Socratic seminar, we looked a story and looked at how we could make a sketch out of it. In groups, we brainstormed possible sketch ideas revolving that news story. We also made sure not to make fun of any victims, and we learned boundaries, of what lines not to cross and how to make comedy of serious issues. |
3. SNL
Throughout these few weeks, we were constantly watching and analyzing Saturday Night Live sketches. We asked ourselves what they did well, what worked out, and what didn't. What we wanted to take away and apply to our sketches, and what we could improve of do differently. After this project, I became addicted to SNL, I was always watching sketches on youtube, and began tuning in every Saturday night to watch it live. This was definitely a huge source of inspiration for us. |
5. Producing
Once we picked sketches to further develop, we assigned roles. We memorized lines, we choreographed and practiced our sketches. I was an actor in two sketches. And produces "Boys Will be Boys". It went through several revisions and was completely rewritten three times. It was an issue I felt passionate about, which made the hard work easier to bear through. |
4. Writing
Now that we have had all this knowledge, its time to write our own sketches! We are encouraged to draw from our own experiences, from the news and from our imaginations. We go through several rounds, where we write sketches, we do table reads of our sketches and then vote on which one' we love and want to further develop and possibly produce. |
SKETCH BLURB
SKETCH DRAFT #1FINAL DRAFT |
SKETCH DRAFT #2 |
Honors
Honors this year was a really positive experience. I felt I grew as a written and critical thinker. The Socratic seminars continued to challenge my thinking, and helped me express my opinions more fluently and back it up with text and evidence. I will continue to challenge myself and take humanities honors next year as well! Below is an honors assignment, which was writing a paper analyzing a play you've watched this semester.