{"id":7704,"date":"2015-02-26T17:28:36","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T23:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=7704"},"modified":"2015-03-01T20:10:12","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T02:10:12","slug":"first-laughs-second-time-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/first-laughs-second-time-around\/","title":{"rendered":"First Laughs, Second Time Around"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jessica Gable<\/p>\n

When Greg Luick submitted his one-act play, Work in Progress<\/em>, to Piccolo Theatre\u2019s First Laugh One-Act Festival last February, he wasn\u2019t expecting to win. In fact, he hadn\u2019t even expected to finish the play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was originally a revue sketch that didn\u2019t really seem to have an ending,\u201d Luick said. \u201cI wrote most of it 15-20 years ago and it was just sort of filed away. Then when I read the criteria for the First Laugh Festival, I was just sort of thinking about it and the ending just sort of popped into my brain. So, I just added that ending onto it and made it a one-act play. And that was what won the festival.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Located inside the Main Metra station in Evanston, Piccolo Theatre is the only playhouse devoted to scripted comedy in the Chicago area. Specializing in comic pieces from commedia dell\u2019arte<\/em> to modern comedy, the company\u2019s mission is simply to make people laugh.<\/p>\n

Now in its second year, the First Laughs Festival invites writers to submit a one-act play based loosely on their memory of their first laugh. The audience votes, and the winner receives $250, an invitation to expand the one-act into a play that will be performed at the next year\u2019s festival, and a bottle of Few bourbon.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery much like Hemingway,\u201d festival founder Tony Lawry joked, \u201cto encourage the writers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work in Progress<\/em> follows the Writer, played by Herb Metzler, as he struggles to finish first a stage play and then a screenplay as his various characters, played by Morgan Lynn Sutter, Brittany Vogel and Ross Compton, fight for a say in the storyline in his head. At various points in the play, the characters\u2019 identities change based on their own whim, the inclinations of the Writer and later a Hollywood producer, played by Jim Phelan, who decides to co-write the piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a nuclear physicist, a school teacher and a Stepford housewife all in the span of 20 minutes,\u201d Sutter said, grinning, \u201cwhich is fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tight-knit cast has been attached to the project for a year, working with Luick and Lawry to make Work in Progress<\/em> a workable full-length play. After Luick won the competition, he set about writing a second act. One darker draft appeared leading to what Luick referred to as the \u201cill-fated reading\u201d in May. Around the same time, Lawry signed on as director.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Remember, Piccolo\u2019s a comedy<\/em> theatre\u2019,\u201d Luick said. \u201cSo, I went back and spent the summer working on other things and then in October went back to it. You know, just wrote silly for 40 pages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Vogel<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Brittany Vogel (left) and Morgan Lynn Sutter (right) rehearse a scene for Work in Progress Feb. 11. Vogel and Sutter are both full-time nannies in their time off stage.(Jessica Gable\/ Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Phelan<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Cast members Jim Phelan (left) and Herb Metzler (right) relax between scenes rehearsing for Work in Progress. When not acting, Phelan is finishing his master\u2019s degree in counseling psychology, while Metzler is an art handler at the Art Institute. (Jessica Gable\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Cast<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
The cast of Work in Progress tackles the play\u2019s final scene on a speed-thru rehearsal before Friday\u2019s Feb. 13 performance at Piccolo Theatre. (Jessica Gable\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Tony<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Director Tony Lawry watches as the cast rehearsal. He launched the First Laughs One-Act Festival last year to attract new and younger audience and cast members to Piccolo Theatre. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n

Several months after encountering the characters they played in the first act of Work in Progress<\/em>, the actors reunited to contribute to the show\u2019s next act, which was still being written.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something I had never done,\u201d Ross Compton recalled. Compton plays Harrison, an insecure but happy-go-lucky figment of the fictitious writer\u2019s imagination. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of new for all of us, I guess, but it\u2019s been super-cool because you very rarely get to revisit a role that you\u2019ve done once already. So it\u2019s almost giving you a whole year to nail down a character.\u201d<\/p>\n

The First Laugh One-Act Festival ran from Feb. 6-7 and 13-14.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Cast members Jim Phelan (left) and Herb Metzler (right) relax between scenes rehearsing for Work in Progress. When not acting, Phelan is finishing his master\u2019s degree in counseling psychology, while Metzler is an art handler at the Art Institute. (Jessica Gable\/Medill)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jessica Gable When Greg Luick submitted his one-act play, Work in Progress, to Piccolo Theatre\u2019s First Laugh One-Act Festival last February, he wasn\u2019t expecting to win. In fact, he hadn\u2019t even expected to finish the play. \u201cIt was originally a revue sketch that didn\u2019t really seem to have an ending,\u201d Luick said. \u201cI wrote […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":9034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-winter-2015"],"yoast_head":"\nFirst Laughs, Second Time Around - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/first-laughs-second-time-around\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First Laughs, Second Time Around - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jessica Gable When Greg Luick submitted his one-act play, Work in Progress, to Piccolo Theatre\u2019s First Laugh One-Act Festival last February, he wasn\u2019t expecting to win. 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