You’re reading Variety Pack: The Newsletter, a twice-a-month treat to read.
Someone forwarded you this email? Congrats on having a friend who knows you well! Subscribe to be among the first people in the WORLD to know what’s happening at Variety Pack!
Vol. 3 is Underway!
Welllllll friends. The results are in: 23 hilarious and bizarre acts submitted themselves for consideration in Variety Pack Vol. 3, and now we have some serious deliberation to do as we build out our July lineup.
This was the first time in three fests that we opened the doors to any ol’ freak who had a good idea for a show and I, for one, giggled with delight with every submission that rolled in. Isn’t it nice to live in a city that’s a) not New York and b) bursting at the seams with fun, interesting people and art and ideas and cherry trees? Gosh.
Although the lineup won’t be announced for a few more weeks, there IS something you should know right the f*** now:
Sign-ups are open for Variety Pack’s first-ever WRITERS ROOM and CAST!!!!!
That’s right, baby: it’s time for you, the funniest guy in the office, to get up there and show us what you’ve GOT. Amateur Hour is an hour-long sketch comedy showcase written and performed by technically non-professional writers, actors, and comedians. (“Technically non-professional” in the same way that recreational sports is for “technically non-professional” athletes. If you’re already a writer or performer who just needs an OUTLET, this is for you too!)
Remember high school theater? Community theater? Doing lightsaber moves with a big stick in the park? Remember how FUN that was?? Well now’s your chance to do it all again—this time with lights and sound and a live audience of your peers, friends, and colleagues! There are two tracks, $150 tuition each:
Writers Room, led by me! Chaz T. Martin! Over six weeks we’ll write an hour-long sketch show, starting with How To Write A Sketch basics, pitching, writing, editing, and ending with a table read with…
Actors Edition, directed by Ci’Era Spencer! The cast convenes to bring the Writers’ words to life in a guaranteed slot in the festival!
Both cohorts are limited to 10 per group, which means you should sign up SOON if you want to make sure you get a spot. And yes: you’re absolutely allowed to sign up for both.
Comedy with Tickets!
Sansom Street, April 10 + 17
TEXT THE GROUP CHAT! The Best Friends Variety Hour with Kris & Alli is back in town after their Florida tour! Two nights only at ComedySportz, make your rezzies NOW (for both the show and the girls’ night (non-gendered) before/after)!
FUTUREMORE AWARD WINNER
We all remember where we were when Philadelphia Artists Collective won the Lifetime Achievement Futuremore Award.
FUTUREMORE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNER The Contrast OPENS THIS WEEK at The Louis Bluver Theatre at the Drake from Philadelphia Artists Collective! I’m goingTOMORROW because if there’s one thing I can’t get enough of, it’s plays in which the word “dandy” appears in the plot summary.
PAC Artistic Director and Director of the play, Ann Garner, describes The Contrast as “genuinely funny” which is HUUUUUUGE coming from Ann, who I know personally and have never seen laugh. (That’s called “libel”. Please don’t sue me, Ann!)
Here’s an excerpt from PAC’s newsletter that actually drove me to buy my ticket in advance instead of waiting til the last minute like I usually do:
One of the things I love about old plays is that they give us direct access to the people who lived in the period in which they were written. A society's entertainments are a really good record of that era's joys and anxieties. If the play was popular, as The Contrast was, we have an even better barometer of what those people were thinking and feeling, and what they valued. What seems really clear to me with The Contrast is that, after eight years of war and the expulsion of an oppressive global power, what people craved was celebration; what they worried about was losing their hard-won freedom; and what was on their minds was what it meant to be "American."
Are you kidding me??? I have a BFF’nA (Bachelor of Fine F*ckin Arts) and not once in my debt-riddled education did anyone ever introduce this idea to me?? I LOVE the idea that a play is like capturing lightning in a bottle. I’m also very moved by the thought that we can crave celebration. That sounds really, really nice.
Anyway, let’s all go see The Contrast to celebrate its Futuremore-winning status, and everything it’s contributed to the field of Old Plays in its lifetime.
That’s all folks!
Not a subscriber yet? Fix that! Subscribe here for twice-a-month emails and be among the FIRST IN THE WORLD to know what’s happening at Variety Pack!