After six shows on campus, “PTG Live!” VI is essentially an established Case Western Reserve University institution. On April 3, The Players’ Theater Group (PTG) took over the Walter and Jean Kalberer Black Box Theatre once more for what is technically their last run of “PTG Live!,” at least in name. Complete with a charmingly hilarious monologue by Professor Hayley Jannielli and 12 sketches written, directed and performed by CWRU’s own undergraduate actors, it is safe to say that it was bigger and better than ever.
As is typical, the faculty monologue was followed by a cold open. This semester it was “Heartbreak Karaoke” a sketch that is superficially about a wailing man attempting to sing karaoke, and more seriously a heartwarming tale about finding self-worth after heartbreak. Oh so many heartbreaks. Producer Raaghuv Vazirani serenades his past lovers—and their partners, who are oddly supportive—with hits like “Kiss from a Rose” by Seal and “Careless Whisper” by George Michael, all in the hopes to win them back. It’s a cute sketch that accomplishes what the producers need to do: get everyone on stage and warm the audience up.
What follows is an ambitious 11-sketch run featuring what PTG does best, commenting on student issues. As Vazirani puts it, “It’s written by us, for us.” While this means the show regularly comments on campuswide social issues, it also means that the jokes read young. “Archive of Our College Days” by Producer Charlie Klineman follows a young girl (Johanna Perry) who is caught reading Harry Potter fan fiction on Archive of Our Own (AO3). Their mother (Tess Lozar) starts reading the fan fiction aloud to their father (Logan Corrales) and hilarity, as well as embarrassment, ensues. “The original draft [was] quoted directly from [the source fan fiction],” said Klineman, “As it turns out, it made the writers room, we all agreed that it was far too much.” They instead decided to get more buzzwords in there, like “tongues battling for dominance,” to really satirize the genre. The comedic twist of the sketch is that the Mother wrote the fanfiction all along, leaving their daughter horrified. Overall, the sketch is a cute take on modern fan culture.
“Rho Rho Kappa” is as quintessentially PTG as it is experimental. With more members and a longer timeline, the group was able to pull off a newer format, a pure one-character monologue. However, it still pokes fun at frat culture and misogyny—relevant social issues. Vazirani plays a frat guy lecturing his brothers, now the audience, on being “respectful, responsible and kind.” The crowd really got into it, whooping in support and joining the frat for the space of the three minute monologue. It was a heartwarming good time.
This semester, again due to increased interest, PTG was able to include a runner: “Rebrand,” “Re-rebrand” and, of course, “Re-re-rebrand.” Since the beginning of the year, all anyone on campus can talk about is the CWRU rebrand, the shift from blue to different blue and the many, many signs. In a series of quick, punchy sketches, Tanya Clemens, Shakhi Andrews and Ave Tallarida say what we’ve all been thinking, the rebrand is a little ridiculous.
Winding down the night, the penultimate sketch leaned on more standard comedic conventions. “The second to last sketch tends to be the sketch that we think is the most sort of classic sketch comedy,” said Klineman. In turn, “The Menu” addressed what seems to be on every young person’s mind right now: brain rot. Vazirani and McKenzie Roman play Ben and Sarah, a couple eating out at a new restaurant. The twist? The menu is more for dopamine than food as a barrage of references hit the stage at once. From subway surfers to people yelling brain rot buzz words, it was a lot. The sketch either really worked or really didn’t, but for the most part, you can either laugh at the brain rot or laugh at people who laugh at the brain rot.
In contrast to the second to last sketch, the closer, “Donating to a Bad Cause” by Ky Tan, is fairly experimental from a form perspective. A man (Ben Creiner) walks by a fundraising table, manned by another man (Jack Exline), “for cancer,” and naturally assumes it is for cancer treatment. He donates and is horrified to find that it was a donation to support cancer itself. The sketch snowballs as he donates to increasingly worse causes and is mocked by passersby. It’s weird, shocking and sticks with you past final bows. Exactly what you want from a closing sketch. As Klineman puts it, “We can tie things up with a sketch that has the potential to be weird and different.”
On the note of taking different paths, “PTG Live!” as a production is splitting off into a new club, Etch-a-Sketch. “We don’t need another roman numeral,” said Klineman. As a new USG club, the organization will have the opportunity to do so much more. More writers meetings, more workshops and more programming. The “PTG Live!” you know and love is not going anywhere, it will only be renamed. Future programming could include anything from shorter live performances to pre-tapes at their shows and digital content, all with a focus on the writing process.
“If you’re somebody that loves theater and doesn’t know where to start, if you’re somebody that loves comedy and wants to get involved with something, if you’re somebody who doesn’t necessarily know your time commitments yet, but wants to get involved in something that gives you the chance to get out in front of people, make somebody laugh and have a huge reward to a super small risk,” said Vazirani, “Come join a sketch.”