By Christina AmorosoPLAY Editor

For the past eight months, Marjorie Preston has taken a bus into Chicago nearly every weekend in preparation for the opening of a sketch comedy show at Donny’s Skybox Theatre she helped write.

Did we mention Preston lives in Cleveland?

“This is the first time I’ve ever done this,” says Preston, a freelance writer and publicist, of her involvement with a sketch comedy production.

The show, “Home is Where the Hurt Is,” is co-written by Second City Training Center students Preston, Karna Anderson, Erik Gernand, Kandy Hopkins, Elijah Meshiah, Michael Pasternak, Paula Shur and Jed Stoneham. It opened to a sold-out audience Fri., Jan. 5. Directed by Nancy Beckett, who was also the group’s teacher, the show’s sketches are a satirical look at family function.

Shane Hill, one of the show’s actors, says he enjoys all the roles he plays and that they all include some similarities. He says he particularly enjoys an office e-mail sketch because of the sarcasm it employs.

“Nancy has a really good eye of who should be playing what,” says Hill, who started taking classes at the Training Center two years ago.

The material for the show was written in Training Center classes. The writers then decide what will be put in the show, Preston says.

“The theme we saw coming up was family and dysfunction,” Preston says. The group decided to focus on these main concepts, and after sitting around for a while, Preston came up with the show’s title.

Training Center classes are divided into five levels, and most of the material for the show is usually written by the end of level three, Preston says. Levels four and five are basically the planning and production phases for the show. Preston estimates the entire process is about one year long.

“It takes months to come up with the writing and weeks to do the blocking,” she says.

The process does not end with the start of the show. Preston and Hill spoke to the need of group cohesiveness that is essential to the show’s success.

“(It’s) hard enough to learn all these lines, from all these writers,” Preston says.

Hill, who has performed in both sketch comedy and improv shows, says, “(For) a lot of people it’s their first or their second show; they’re not very experienced with doing the whole process.”

Time was also an issue, according to Preston.

“Everything took longer than I thought,” she says. She worked on the sound effects for the show and says finishing it took longer because she was new to the procedures.

Hill says the entire program is unique because it allows everyone to learn, from the writers to the directors to the actors.

“It’s an education process for all involved,” he says.

Overall, Preston says she believes everything went according to plan and that the process went very smoothly. “If you don’t follow with your timeline, things won’t happen,” she says.

“Home is Where the Hurt Is” is running at Donny’s Skybox Theatre, 1608 N. Wells St. every Friday at 7:30 p.m. through Feb. 2. Tickets are $5 for students and can be purchased by calling (312) 337-3992 or by logging on to www.secondcity.com.

Medill sophomore Christina Amoroso is the PLAY theater editor. She can be reached at [email protected].