Just a few days before opening night, the Act III Theatre Ensemble rehearses in a Humanities building classroom. The actors’ voices and laughter echo off the blank walls that will soon become the walls of an auditorium, when they move from the classroom to the stage in Schoenberg Hall.
With a long history of musical theater performances since its inception in 2008, Act III has decided to change things up with its first sketch comedy play, “The Complete History of America (Abridged),” to be held in the Jan Popper Theater on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Originally written and performed by a three-person troupe – Adam Long, Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor in 1993 – the play will be performed by a seven-person cast. The show is mediated by three hosts who will introduce a series of comedy sketches highlighting portions of American history from the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Lincoln assassination. The four remaining actors will rotate through playing many more historical figures who range from Thomas Jefferson to Lucille Ball.
In addition, the sketches provide opportunities for improvisation and ad-libbing, including one scene that includes an interview with the audience. The company also took the liberty to add some of its own pop culture dialogue, including references to Miley Cyrus and UCLA.
“Act III has been trying to strike into the comedic world a little bit as well as the straight play world,” said director and third-year linguistics student Landen Baldwin. “The show involves not only a few musical things … but it also involves a variety of different kinds of performance types, so it just seemed like the perfect choice to break into that path.”
Originally founded as a musical theater company, Act III is undertaking its first straight comedy since its start in 2008. Fourth-year theater student and artistic and managing co-director Megan Fitzgerald said she wanted to fill a gap in UCLA student theater with this show and create an opportunity for students to perform comedy.
“We’ve done musical comedies and we’ve done musicals, but we haven’t done a comedy,” Fitzgerald said. “There are so many funny people, so many funny actors; let’s do something totally new and different for us.”
Fitzgerald said multiple students had approached Act III wanting to be a part of student theater, but didn’t consider themselves singers or dancers.
In making the switch to comedy, Act III attracted a new variety of students to audition, and Fitzgerald said they were overwhelmed by the amount of talent that came out. About 40 students auditioned for the show.
“I think there was a flyer or something saying, ‘Hey, come audition for this crazy, awesome, fun time,’ and I said, ‘Sounds crazy, awesome and fun,’” said cast member and first-year theater student, Jill Galbraith.
For some students returning to Act III, making the switch to comedy was a completely new dynamic.
“I haven’t found myself doing a lot of comedy thus far in college … so a lot of this has been completely new to me,” said cast member and fourth-year theater student Katie Buderwitz. From playing improv games in warm-ups to improv in whole bits as characters, it’s a whole new feel.”
Buderwitz said the night will be filled with jokes and opportunities for audience participation that will directly influence the direction the show goes in each performance. Even though the group has been rehearsing since the second week of fall quarter, this aspect of the show is still something the cast and crew will have no control over.
“The way that the show was written was pretty much three guys talking to each other then writing down what they said,” Baldwin said. “Rehearsals have been very similar in the fact that there’s a lot of ad-libbing that goes on and a lot of banter. Someone will mess up and the other people on stage will be right there with a retort.”
Even though there is a script that will anchor the flow of the show, it will still be pretty lively, Galbraith said.
“Of course (all) shows are up in the air. Things change, but with this show it’s going to change a lot in front of the audience, (and) from performance to performance, it could be completely different shows,” said cast member and first-year theater student Wesley Dunlap.
In the future, Fitzgerald said Act III plans to see how well attended the show is and, from there, the ensemble may go on to perform more comedies. Mostly, however, Fitzgerald said she wants to continue gauging what plays other theater groups on campus are performing and to fill in any gaps in genre.
Act III is now close to concluding its rehearsals on its current production, and Buderwitz said there’s no way of knowing what’s going to happen.
“I just hope people leave with a smile and, even though the rest of this weekend is going to be so stressful, (it) was two hours of (their lives) where (they were) just overjoyed to be an audience member,” Fitzgerald said.