Setting the Stage for Creativity
Room 2007 of the Mahurin Honors College and International Center looks like any standard classroom on WKU’s campus.
Tables? Check.
Chairs? Check.
Computer? Whiteboard? Video screen? Check, check, and check.
The feel inside, however, is unique. With the tables pushed aside and the chairs drawn into a circle, the room seems more like the writers’ room of a sketch comedy show.
Script notes in hand, SCATS campers share their ideas for a comedy monologue, the first project of their class, Double Threat: Writing and Performing Original Monologues.
“Comedy is best in threes,” says instructor Julie Roberts Boggess. “Think of comedians when they do a set. What they talk about when they start the set, they will come back to at the end. Start with an idea, then think of three funny things. Mention each of those three things, then wrap it up and bring it back around.”
Campers talk in turn about their initial ideas, getting feedback and suggestions from their peers. Beau is working on “crispy toes and slimy chicken” and other trials and tribulations from summer camp (not this one, he is quick to note). Lowell discusses a sister-in-law determined to “rescue” a “stray” cat that has all the hallmarks of an animal that is already beloved and well cared for.
When it is Sophia’s turn, she claims to have no funny ideas, but her fellow campers quickly chime in. “What about that time you were outnumbered when talking about whether cereal is soup?” “Oh, yeah, that’s great!” And they are off and running.
The collaborative circle is followed by a block of writing time with the promise that the next few days will bring more workshops as well as a focus on dramatic pieces and opportunities to try out their material. The campers quickly move the tables back into place, and the classroom takes on the air of a more ordinary place. What’s happening inside, however, is anything but ordinary.
