A basketball coach shouts at her team in the makeshift locker room. It’s halftime and you can tell by the tone in her voice that the game has not gone in her team’s favor. The young players, still in high school, look dazed, upset and confused. Because they’re blind — and slightly retarded.
Welcome to “St. Mary’s School for the Blind and Slightly Retarded,” just one of the comedic sketches in the African-American Theatre Ensemble’s production of “Out Da Box: Real World Black House.”
“It’s not like any other show you’ll find on campus,” said cast member and Communication junior Adrienne Holloway. “It’s so off-the-wall.”
Holloway and other cast members have been putting the show together since Fall Quarter, after the group held auditions. Once the ensemble is selected, members are each required to write three sketches for the show. In the winter, the ensemble chooses the funniest sketches and “Out Da Box” becomes a comedic reality. The annual AATE revue started in the late 1980s, but took a six-year hiatus prior to 2000. This year’s show features a cast of nine, one of the largest casts in recent years, according to co-director Fatimah Simmons.
Other sketches in the show include “My African Family,” “Girls Gone Mild,” and “BET Nightly News,” a segment that shows Trent Lott reaching back to “his roots.” Like Saturday Night Live, Mad TV, and even Northwestern’s own Mee-Ow, “Out da Box” presents plenty of pop culture parodies and celebrity impersonations. Cast members even break into several satirical musical numbers during the course of the show.
“To see this show you have to be open-minded,” said Simmons, a Communication senior. “Otherwise, you won’t enjoy it.”
Though “Out Da Box” contains mainly sketches, Holloway said the cast members consistently add their own improvisation. “You’re going to get a different feel on Thursday than you will on Saturday, ” she said.
The jokes hit a range of topics, covering both on- and off-campus issues. Among the show’s targets: Searle Health Services, Justin Timberlake and infomercials about starving children in third-world countries. Co-director Nana Ofori-Ansah said it was important for the show’s content to reach past the black community and find a broader, more diverse audience.
“If you like to laugh, this is the place you wanna come to,” said Ofori-Ansah, a McCormick senior. “It’s more than just your typical black comedy.”
In fact, not all of the cast is black.
“I didn’t know I was white before I joined ‘Out Da Box,'” joked Russ Armstrong, the emsemble’s only white member. “They tried to give me cornrows once; that’s when we discovered the difference between white and black hair.”
Armstrong, a Communication sophomore, was the only non-black student to audition for the show, even though auditions were open to all students, Simmons said.
“Russ definitely adds a different aspect that we haven’t had before,” she said. “(Having him in the show) adds a whole other element … like the vibe Jim Carrey brought to ‘In Living Color.'”
With recent hate crimes creating a racially charged atmosphere on campus, Simmons added that the show has found a new, unexpected role: to settle that unease.
“I think there’s a lot of tension mounting and if we don’t laugh soon, something negative’s going to happen,” she said. “(The show) comes at a good time. People need to laugh.”
Who: African-American Theatre Ensemble
When: 8 p.m. Thurs.; 8 and 11 p.m. Fri. and Sat.
Where: Shanley Pavillion
How much: $5
