A Day Without Laughter Is A Day Wasted

Laughter abounds in rehearsals for Saline Area Players’ upcoming production of The Carol Burnett Show: Your Favorite Sketches to be performed March 8-11 at . As a child, it seemed odd to me that in the TV show the actors got close to cracking up and breaking character. Now that I’m in rehearsals in which we’re performing these sketches, I totally understand why.  They are hilarious! The writing is superb. And there are so many absurdities, that you can’t help but laugh. We are cracking each other up.

Some of the lines are funny, but only in context. Like when the nurse asks “so which one of you has the problem?” as she is observing someone with a gun to their head. One actor’s favorite line from a skit is when Zelda says “I don’t want to wait 2 weeks." To find out why that is funny, you’ll have to see the show.

But sometimes even funnier than the lines are the accidental things that happen during rehearsals. Like the “doctor” whose stethoscope was evidently left in the sun and sticks straight out. Or when I try to say the line about lacking in “female hormones” that comes out lacking in “female hormizomes." Or trying to keep a straight face when your co-actor comes out in an absurd wig.

One actor says that she repeatedly forgets her line after her stage kiss – whew! I love watching that part… they get redder by the minute as they “flail” around.   One actor’s favorite moment in rehearsal was when the end of the cap accidentally fell off Starlet’s curtain rod. Another actor says “I love that I will be giving birth to a total of three illegitimate children throughout the course of the show.”  I find it humorous that Rat Butler is shorter than Starlet and has to stand on a step for their embrace. Another says she has trouble staying focused while watching a “sexual transformation” happen before her eyes. One gets lifted up by her male counterpart and worries he will drop her, but says “it’s a good thing he lifts weights!”

I don’t want to give anything away here. Suffice it to say that this show is funny and the laughter is infectious. As Charlie Chaplin said, A day without laughter is a day wasted.  Tickets are on sale now for The Carol Burnett Show: Your Favorite Sketches. More on my blog at www.onandoffthestage.blogspot.com about behind-the-scenes theater in the community.