"For a lot of people, Saturday Night Live is their first introduction to sketch comedy—or even comedy in general," says BFA III Comedy Arts major Lily Valentine Russell. "We want to pay homage to that."
Russell is one of several student executive producers on 'TTSNL'—an hour-long sketch show inspired by the stylings of Saturday Night Live, produced in collaboration with the Comedy Arts, Wig, Hair and Makeup Design, and Scenic Design departments at The Theatre School.
Since the Comedy Arts program was introduced at The Theatre School in 2020, students have been collaborating with one another to produce a wide range of work to showcase their comedy chops. These works include student-run productions in Studio 408, MessFest (The Theatre School's annual comedy festival), and student sketch shows, plays, and specials produced at venues outside of DePaul.
Now, with the help of department head Liz Joynt-Sandberg and faculty advisors Annalise Toft and Erin Kennedy Lunsford, Comedy Arts and Design/Tech students work together during class and rehearsals to create a sketch experience like never before.
"Our goal was not just like eight or nine sketches put together, but one cohesive show," says Russell. "And I think what makes that possible is our technical team."
TTSNL takes elements of the beloved Late-Night show and combines them with a new, fresh take on sketch from the next generation of comics.
"We've kept the elements of SNL in terms of the structure and live show, but everything else we're making our own," says Russell. "Especially the content of the sketches. They're fully expressive of these students."
Since the inception of the program, Comedy Arts students have been itching to work with Design/Tech majors at TTS. TTSNL has created a curricular collaborative opportunity for the theatrical focuses of study.
"I just know more people in the TTS community that I can say 'hi' to and talk to in the hallways and outside of school," says Russell. "It's just so cool that everyone involved is so excited and passionate about contributing to the project."
Much like Saturday Night Live, TTSNL features a guest host and musical guest each week.
"We start with meeting our host and interviewing them with the head writer's questions, which we use as inspiration to write sketches for the host based on their experience," says Russell.
"Our host for the first one was Derry Queen, and she's a drag queen, so a lot of the sketches revolve around drag and gender expression."
After the executive team chats with the host, writers get busy pitching and writing sketches. Then, the head writers choose and narrow down the sketches that they feel would work best for the show.
"There were so many brilliant sketches that didn't get in the first show because they were either too thematically similar to another one, or had a technicality that wouldn't work with the theme of the first week," Russell says.
"It's just like that with comedy. It's got to be mutable. It's got to be all changing. You got to keep it fresh, you got to keep it fun, and you need other eyes on it, for sure."
After editing and finalizing sketches, writers and performers collaborate with designers to build upon the world of each sketch through scenic elements, props, and costumes/WHAM.
"It just elevates sketch comedy to a new level," Russell says. "You are becoming a different person. You are becoming the character once you have the wig and the fake mustache on, and you get the set and the props—it's like something we've never done before, because we're usually putting all this stuff up ourselves."
TTSNL's first installment took place on Friday, April 24th, and was a massive success. Comedians played to a packed house, with the Watts Theatre filled with eager patrons.
For Russell, the experience has been transformative.
"What I've learned is valuable through this, especially because we're working with so many people, is that there is always someone to catch you when you make a mistake, and everyone is there to help you," Russell says. "I think that's one of the most valuable things to learn about comedy, and collaboration in general."