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Triangle program hits comedy writing square in the nose

Students in the Triangle Club Writer's Workshop get a welcome break from passively reading Voltaire and Shakespeare. When I visited their lair in the Triangle office in the depths of McCarter Theatre during an extended seminar this past weekend, they were discussing a newly conceived comic sketch.

A character named Kaplan, making a phone call, has just spelled his name to the operator as follows: "K as in knife, A as in aardvark, P as in pneumonia, L as in Luscious, A as in aardvark again, N as in newel post." Who knew the humble newel post (the rounded knob at the end of a staircase) would be such a source of laughs?

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The workshop, which is offered every spring, is a humor laboratory where students, mentored by theater professionals Robert Duke and Jay Kerr '67, generate songs and sketches for two Triangle shows: the May "Rude Olympics" and the November production in McCarter. Kerr and Duke began the workshop in the fall of 1997 with the goal of better coordinating Triangle's writing process.

"In previous years, the officers would get their friends together and say, 'Okay, who wants to write a Triangle show?' Sometimes a lot of people helped out, sometimes not," says Duke.

Now, students apply to the workshop for the opportunity to write Triangle shows. All applicants must submit a funny song or sketch they have written. Based on the submissions, Duke and Kerr select about fifteen writers — whose majors range from comparative literature to electrical engineering — to bring on board.

The acceptance criteria vary. One needn't be George Bernard Shaw to be chosen. But it helps.

"If we laugh, that's good," says Kerr.

Duke adds, "We look for all sorts of things — a sense of structure in the sketches, an intuition for how musical theater works. Cleverness. Great ideas. Melodies. We're looking for wordsmiths and tunesmiths."

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The workshop meets every Tuesday night during the spring semester. It is not for credit.

Since its primary purpose is to amass material for shows, Duke and Kerr don't waste time expounding theories of humor writing. Weekly assignments begin right away. Students then spend the sessions critiquing one another's work.

Here's a typical assignment: "Write a song about a man without teeth — explain how he lost them, and end with the word 'Gum-diddly-umptious'." Or: "Write a sketch about a group of robots teaching one another about human love." Or: "Take something sacred and profane it." (This prompt resulted in a controversial song in last year's "Rude Olympics" called "The Holocaust Rag.")

The workshop atmosphere is frank. Lots of material is discarded outright. Duke and Kerr function as sounding boards, using their experience to assess what will and won't work on the stage.

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They have final creative control, but leave most of the woodshedding to the students. Slowly, the drafts become stage-ready.

The raunchier material comprises May's "Rude Olympics." The rest is further developed over the summer and fall, finally reaching the stage in November. In February, the writing cycle begins anew.

Experience is not a prerequisite for the workshop. Often the participants are new to comedy writing. "Before they applied, many of them had never written a single song or sketch," says Kerr.

"Before long, the kids begin to find where their talents are, what their function is in the group — some are gifted lyricists, others better at composing or sketch writing," says Duke.

Peter Kidd '02, who is a graduate of the program, says, "Through the workshop, I became a writer. It has been as valuable an experience — if not more so — as my academic work."

Last year's writing coordinator Eric Bland '02 concurs. "I learned freedom in writing," he says. "The workshop really opens you up and knocks down a few creative walls."

It's still early to tell if the workshop alumni will go on to writing glory like former Triangle Club members Doug McGrath '80 (Oscar-nominated for the screenplay of "Bullets Over Broadway") or Clark Gesner '60 (creator of "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown").

Just give them a little time.