Cursor Down For What's Coming UP!
THE COMEDY ACADEMY, Inc.
(cursor down for 3 photo albums & Comedy Club news & pix)
******
more info. at:
The Comedy Academy, Inc. is a non-profit organization that offers worhshops in comedy writing and comedy performance techniques. Currently, we are partnering with public schools and conducting after school programs for teens at middle schools and high schools in Montgomery County, Maryland.
For 14 years now, these "Comedy Clubs" annually create and perform an original comedy revue written by students or club leaders. All of the comic sketches were based on student-generated ideas. They drew from their own experiences to develop sketches about bullies, parents, teachers, fads, fashions, school dances, testing, computer games, TV shows, movies, report cards, siblings, and gossip.
*
Events Coming Soon from The Comedy Academy, Inc.
you should mark your calendars now for our next presentations
Tuesday March 20, 2012 – Randolph Road Theatre - 7:30 PM YOU THINK WE’RE KIDDING? new comedy sketches written and performed by TCA workshop students, and a few TCA vets. They’ll also perform several popular sketches from our repertory *
*--------------*---------------* Monday, April 30, 2012 – The Randolph Road Theatre – 7:30 PM WHEN CARPS ATTACK A comic adventure / political satire by Liam Brennan and Harry M. Bagdasian (okay, that’s a working title to get your attention – CARP=Comic Action Role Playing) * * HeHEE (or “what, no glee?”) We ridicule TV sitcoms – particularly one of them Dates TBD - July, 2012 The 2012 Capital Fringe Festival* *Our acceptance into the 2012 Capital Fringe Festival is pending ------------------------------------- For future programs and updates on TCA activities, go to our website www.ourlaughingmatters.com |
*
NEWS - Fall 2010 - Students Published Again!
Meriwether Publishing/Contemporary Drama Services is now promoting a new anthology of comedy material - HELL'S LIBRARY and other comic sketches written for students by students. Students from The Comedy Academy, Inc. programs at Northwood High School and Lee Middle School have created many comedy sketches over the past several years. This new anthology incudes 16 TV parody sketches by Liam Brennan, Josh Rosen, Leah Solomon, Rachel Solomon, Sara Mozersky, Jennie Bagdasian, Peter Walderhaug and John Kilmer. The previously published student-written anthology by Sara Mozersky, Leah Solomon and Rachel Solomon, AMERICA'S NEXT TOP BOY MODEL and other comedy sketches has been used by over 150 schools since publication in 2007. Both anthologies can be leased by contacting www.contemporarydrama.com
six of our eight published writers (L to R) John Kilmer, Peter Walderhaug, Sara Mozersky, Josh Rosen, Leah SOlomon and Liam Brennan
*
NEWS - July 2010
The Comedy Academy, Inc. was selected to perform in THE 2010 CAPITAL FRINGE FESTIVAL. A company of 26 TCA participants recreated several sketches from previous shows as well as permiered new material in a two hour comedy show that was performed five times at the Warehouse during the 18-day theatre fest. For details and more pictures, go to www.outlaughingmatters.com
Volcano Goddess Pele blesses Petey The Platypus, ensuring that the creature will not be thrown into the volcano - a vital story point in the comedy sketch BURN(out) NOTICE by Harry M. Bagdasian and featured in TCA's Capital Fringe Festival production
*
NEWS - April 2010
Combined Comedy Academy Programs to Premiere New Comedy Material
THREE FRIES SHORT OF A HAPPY MEAL
Featuring 16 new comedy sketches and songs “Twilight” Series lampooned with “Twilite” and “New Mooners” Fresh from their success at the Randolph Road Theatre with LAUGHING MATTERS, members of the Comedy Academy programs at Northwood High School and Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School combine once again to premiere new comedy material in THREE FRIES SHORT OF A HAPPY MEAL at Northwood High School (NHS.) Performances will begin at 7:00 PM on Thursday, April 22 and Friday April 23, 2010 in the Northwood High School Media Center / Comedy Cabaret. Tickets are $8.00 for adults and $6.00 for students and may be purchased at the door. More information about The Comedy Academy and this presentation is available at www.ourlaughingmatters.com or 240-381-3196.
Premiering New Comedy Material
Students Peter Walderhaug, AJ Walderhaug, Leah & Rachel Solomon, Josh Rosen, Sara Mozersky, Matthias Kelderman, Liam Brennan and Connor Brennan have written 16 of the new comedy sketches that will premiere in this show. The “Twilight” saga will be lampooned with “Twilite” and “New Mooners” - two sketches by published sketch comedy writer, NHS senior, Sara Mozersky who has also contributed “Mors Mortis” a comic look at advertising disclaimers. Our other published writer, NHS senior Leah Solomon has contributed another spoof of teen communications, this time spoofing how guys speak in shorthand in “The Dude Answer to OMG” (a follow-up to the “OMG” sketch premiered previously.) Senior Josh Rosen has created four new sketches that lampoon college applications (“College Application Obstacle Course”) Deities in their off hours (“The Deity Break Room”), high school graduations (“The World’s Worst Graduation Speech,”) “senioritis” (“The Clinic,”) and a new song which skewers nefarious world leaders (“The Dictator Blues.”) Veteran Comedy Academy writer and NHS sophomore Liam Brennan, has created a new edition of “Fear News Network” as well as a biting look at corporate management entitled “John Peters, Corporate Physician.” Additional comedy sketches have been created for THREE FRIES SHORT OF A HAPPY MEAL by 8th grader Conor Brennan (“Deities, Where Are They Now?”,) 9th grader Matthias Kelderman pokes fun of games shows with “Guy Wars: Most Extreme” and the new campaign contribution law with which he envisions a corporation will buy the entire Congress (“BNN: This Just In.”) Additionally, runner Peter Walderhaug has created the humorous “Top Ten Reasons To Join The Northwood Cross Country Team,” and AJ Walderhaug has written “Present Accounted For” a comic look at what a cash-strapped brother might do to ensure he has a present for his little sister’s birthday. Working with several students at Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School, show director/writer Harry M. Bagdasian has created a new comedy sketch, “ADD Family Feud.” Developed using suggestions from GTLD students, this new sketches not only pokes fun at TV games shows, but also enables GTLD students to poke fun at one particular learning disability – attention deficit disorder.
Reprising Popular Sketches
The ensemble will reprise five sketches and two songs which proved to be very popular when performed at The Comedy Academy’s Feb. 20, 2010 production at the Randolph Road Theatre, OUR LAUGHING MATTERS. These include Leah & Rachel Solomon’s spoof of today’s teen’s shorthand communication (“OMG”), Liam Brennan’s lampoon of cable news (“Fear News Network”) which extols the supposed dangers of eating bread, Matthias’ Kelderman’s Amish Soap Opera (“Lancaster Valley”), Harry M. Bagdasian’s game show parody (“Can You Whine Like A Fifth Grader?”) and public service announcement “Morning Deficit Disorder,” and Josh Rosen’s popular song parodies, “The SAT Song” and “High School Dance” (with lyrics by Josh Rosen and Matthew Leibowitz). Performing Ensemble Combines Students from 6th to 12th Grade Performing in the cast of THREE FRIES SHORT OF A HAPPY MEAL will be middle school students Conor Brennan, Graham Dunn, Nicholas Lingenfelter, Jeanette Moser, Jonny Moser, Erica Shortall, Ian Smith, Maxwell Warsaw from Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School, high school students Mia Bullock, Liam Brennan, Anne Chernikoff, Miriam Finley, Matthias Kelderman, Kady Kilmer, Sara Mozersky, Josh Rosen, Christine Scullen, Phillip Shattan, Leah Solomon. Alexandra Turpie, AJ Walderhaug, and Peter Walderhaug, from Northwood High School, and Comedy Academy veterans Malika Cherifi, Beck Krefting and Jeffrey Rosen who join the ensemble to reprise their roles in the game show spoof, “Can You Whine Like A Fifth Grader?”
*
*
THE RANDOLPH ROAD THEATER - FEB. 20, 2010
We Had Only Eight Unsold Tickets (out of 216)!!!
*
THE SHORT VERSION: LAUGHING MATTERS
February 20, 2010 - 7:30 PM (general seating begins at 7:00 pm)
An Evening of Comedy Sketches To benefit The Comedy Academy, Inc.
The Randolph Road Theatre - 4010 Randolph Rd, Silver Spring, MD 20902.
Tickets $10.00 for adults, $6.00 Students – information at 301-681-5212
*
THE LONG VERSION: LAUGHING MATTERS: a ninety-minute comedy revue written and performed by students from Comedy Academy-sponsored programs will be offered February 20th as a benefit to support TCA’s programs in the schools. The presentation begins at 7:30 PM on Saturday, February 20, 2010 at The Randolph Road Theatre (formerly The Round House Theatre) 4010 Randolph Road, Silver Spring, MD. Tickets are $10.00 for adults and $6.00 for students. Reservations are recommended. For tickets, contact TCA by phoning 301-681-5212 or emailing comedyacademy@yahoo.com.
*
The February 20th Comedy Academy production will include eighteen comedy sketches and four satirical songs including. “America’s Next To (boy) Model” and others by Leah and Rachel Solomon, as well as sketches written by Josh Rosen, Sara Mozersky, Matthias Kelderman, Liam Brennan, Conor Brennan and Harry M. Bagdasian. The writers’ sketches lampoon the media (the Brennans’ “Fear News Network”), the school environment (Mozersky’s “The School Safety Hot Line”) television (Bagdasian’s “Burn(out) Notice” and “Can You Whine Like A Fifth Grader?,”) Rosen’s “KGB Fried Chicken” and “Nancy Jew and The Hardy Goys,”and Kelderman’s “Lancaster Valley, an Amish Soap Opera”). In addition to his “Catholic School Dance” (a very popular song included in last year’s show at Northwood High School) Josh Rosen will perform three new satirical numbers including “The Swine Flu Polka,” “My Invisible Friend Isn’t Talking to Me Anymore” and “The SAT Song.”
*
Included in the cast will be at least two dozen current participants in Comedy Academy-sponsored programs at Lee Middle School and Northwood High School as well as veterans of the Comedy Club programs who now are at Montgomery College, Blair, Einstein and Springbrook High Schools. Performers include Conor Brennan, Liam Brennan, Mia Bullock, Malika Cherifi, Anne Chernikoff, Miriam Finley, Jeffrrey Hacker, Matthias Kelderman, Kady Kilmer, John Kilmer, Beck Krefting, Julie Moser, Sara Mozersky, Jeffrey Rosen, Josh Rosen, Christine Scullen, Leah Solomon, James Syverson, Karen Tobon, AJ Walderhaug, Peter Walderhaug and others.
*
The Comedy Academy’s 2009-2010 activities are supported by the Under 21 Fund of The Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services. In support of their anti-alcohol and drug abuse messageds, TCA writers have created theme-specific comi sketches that deliver anti-smoking and anti-drug use messages to teens. Two of these sketches will premiere in LAUGHING MATTERS (local laughs) on February 20th.
*
A LITTLE HISTORY
Since 1995, a group of theatre professionals have been offering after school Comedy Club programs for middle and high school students to explore comedy performance techniques and sketch comedy writing. These programs have resulted in 16 productions and “cabaret” presentations of comedy sketches written for or by the students. Over a hundred of the groups’ original comedy sketches – including material written by five students – have been published and performed in schools around the world. Last year, the Comedy Club co-founder Harry M. Bagdasian and the program’s grants administrator, Robbie McEwen, decided it was time to expand the program and they formed The Comedy Academy, Inc. (TCA). Helping in our founding activities are TCA Board of Directors members Beck Krefting (co-director of Comedy Club programs since 2004), Professor of Law Emeritus Richard L. Haight and community activist and construction executive, Mark Drury.
*
Currently, The Comedy Academy (TCA) is sponsoring after school programs at Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School and Northwood High School. Both offer students opportunities to develop comic performance techniques and to perform original comedy material written by or for the students. TCA also sponsors a comedy writers’ workshop for selected members of the current Comedy Club programs.
*
THE COMEDY ACADEMY, INC.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Comedy Academy strives to help young, budding comedy writers and performers use comedy to explore contemporary issues relevant to their lives. Through writing and performance workshops, teens are encouraged to think outside their own perceptions and viewpoints and are given a constructive outlet to express their joys, fears and frustrations through comedy material inspired and written by them.
During the past 14 years, our “comedy club” programs have involved more than 500 middle and high school students in the downcounty area of Montgomery County, Maryland. Our mission is threefold: to enhance young people’s creativity, to enrich their academics, and to teach critical values and skills. The Comedy Academy advances educational goals in the areas of creative writing and self-expression, literacy, communication, and public speaking. And through both the individual accomplishment and the teamwork that this program encourages, its young participants expand their core values, life skills, positive self-concept, healthy decision-making skills, respect for diversity, and sense of community thus helping prepare these teenagers to become contributing members in society.
The most unique aspect of the Comedy Academy is the worldwide accessibility of our comedy scripts. They have been published and distributed by Contemporary Drama Services (a division of Meriwether Publishing Ltd.) thus making this original comedy material available to schools and youth groups around the world. Since the first publication in 1996, more than 42,500 books have been sold. To date, CDS has leased the rights to Comedy Academy material to over 3,500 schools and youth groups in every state in the U.S., throughout Canada, and in such distant places as Australia, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. That these humorous sketches and short plays, written by local teens about contemporary issues in their lives, can translate across cultural boundaries and national borders speaks to the universality of the coming-of-age years in many regions and countries.
Beginning in 2010, The Comedy Academy will host a variety of public performances by an acting company made up of current and veteran members of its school comedy club programs. These productions will include comedy sketches and short plays written by and for these students.
*
PICTURES FROM NORTHWOOD HIGH SCHOOL
*
PICTURES FROM LEE MIDDLE SCHOOL
*
for alot more information please go to:
*
NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS
AMERICA’S NEXT TOP (BOY) MODEL NOW IN PRINT
Students’ Original Comic Material Published
A collection of 22 TV parody and comedy sketches by Lee Middle School Comedy Club & The Comedy Club at Northwood High School alumni Rachel Solomon, Leah Solomon and Sara Mozersky are now available to schools and youth groups around the world. Meriwether Publishing Ltd. Contemporary Drama Service, renowned publisher of plays and musicals for school and youth group productions has just published their collected work under the title “America’s Next Top (boy) Model and Other Comic Sketches.” This is the first collection published that is written entirely by students according to Ted Zapel, Vice President of the publishing company.
Comedy sketches included in the collection are "America's Next Top (boy) Model", "Comedy Club Idol", "Why Can't You Be More Like Your Sister?", "LOST", "Battle of the Blondes", "Rude Cell Phone Guy - At The Movies", "Model Mania", “Ambush Makeover", and more. These twenty-two sketches were written for and first performed by the Lee Comedy Club, the popular after school program at Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School in Wheaton, Maryland. All of this material was written while Rachel, Leah and Sara were students at Lee and members of the Lee Comedy Club, or later when the girls were in high school and were volunteer assistants with the program.
Rachel is now a freshman at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Leah Solomon and Sara Mozersky are both attending Northwood High School. Both Leah and Sara continue to work as assistants to the directors at the Lee Comedy Club and will be participating in the Comedy Club at Northwood – the new extension of the Comedy Club program lead by co-founder Harry M. Bagdasian.
Scripts generated by members and leaders of the Lee Comedy Club are replicated around the world when published by Meriwether Publishing Ltd. Contemporary Drama Services – a unique occurrence considering this is a middle school performance group. Twelve collections of comic material are currently in print and have been leased from the publisher over 3,000 times by schools and youth groups in every state of the US, throughout Canada and in Germany, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.
More information about the Lee Comedy Club can be found at www.ourlaughingmatters.com or by contacting Club Co-Founder and Director Harry M. Bagdasian at hbagdasian@aol.com. To purchase copies or inquire about performance rights, contact Meriwether Publishing Ltd. Contemporary Drama Service at www.contemporarydrama.com.
Watch This Space for
News of The Comedy Club At Northwood
better still ... go to
See A Preview of Our New Web Comedy at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkSd1JvWhLQ
****