Wicked Sketchy Comes to the Stage
By Annabelle Chen ‘28
Wicked Sketchy premiered Thursday, May 15 to a freshman and sophomore audience, and it was a hit! The show was subsequently performed on Friday, May 16, and Saturday, May 17, open to both students and family. Milton’s annual sketch comedy show is unique because all of the sketches are student-written. This aspect means that students are more involved with the show, engaging thoroughly with the material by producing and editing it. In this way, Wicked Sketchy provides an immersive experience for cast members.
This year, the production process started in March with lots of brainstorming. Those who were in the show collaborated in smaller groups to formulate ideas. These ideas could be inspired by prompts, events in daily life, or even each other. For Finn Chen ‘26, “putting ideas on the page” was the hardest part of producing Wicked Sketchy. Liz Harris ‘28 added that “the writing process was super long.” A wide variety of ideas were produced and drafted after which cast members read and gave feedback on each of the sketches. That way, even those who did not originally work on the sketch can engage with the material. Some sketches went through numerous drafts produced by different people: one sketch, which was cut from this show, ended up having seven renditions!
Vivienne Mockenhaupt ‘27 explained that she loved how collaborative Wicked Sketchy was, elaborating that, for her, “combining everyone’s common interests to produce something that’s fun for all” was the most rewarding part. This year’s response to the performances definitely measured up! Since each draft was written by several different people, all of the sketches have a distinct voice and personality shaped by both their writers and their performers.
After the sketches were written, several were selected to be performed in the show. This year’s show featured nine different sketches, ranging from pun-filled performances to parodies of popular musical songs. Director Peter Parisi ensured during casting that each performer gets a “funny moment,” a part where their character truly shines in the spotlight. Harris loves the independence and energy that each actor was able to bring to their unique characters since the sketches are original and student-written: “Doing our own character work is the best part of the show.” David Lee ‘25, one of Wicked Sketchy’s head writers, agrees, saying that acting is his favorite part of the production process because it’s where all the hard work comes together and in a visual, tangible payoff.
The cast faced several challenges throughout the production process. Memorizing lines was particularly hard: the off-book date, when actors were expected to know their lines, fell just two days after blocking the last scene. Additionally, Mr. Parisi and the cast tweaked some lines— whether spoken or sung—throughout the rehearsal process, making the memorization harder for cast members. Blocking and choreography also proved challenging, as many movements were modified later in the rehearsal process to look better spatially on the stage after having been choreographed in the dance studio. Despite these difficulties, however, Anders Yu ‘28 stated that the choreography was his favorite part of the process.
Although there were many challenges in producing the show, all the cast and crew members brought such great energy to the production. Specifically, the collaborative element of Wicked Sketchy made the cast more tight-knit, so that, although the rehearsal process was very short compared to the writing process and the actors found memorization difficult, the cast of 18 people “always had each other’s backs.” The crew was just as helpful, learning their cues and supporting the cast swimmingly during tech week.