Mee-Ow, Northwestern’s longest-running student comedy and improv group, returns with “The Mee-Owgic School Bus” this weekend at Shanley Pavilion.
While preparing for the annual Mee-Ow Show, Communication senior and Mee-Ow co-director Brenden Dahl said he began watching “The Magic School Bus” on Netflix.
“I went back and watched a really trippy episode where they all transform into literal water,” Dahl said. “This show is wild.”
Traditionally, the opening sketch of the Mee-Ow Show is based on the show’s theme. This opener parodies “The Magic School Bus,” Dahl said.
All cast members will play different children in the class, with the exception of Communication senior and co-director Shai Bardin, who will play the red-haired teacher Ms. Frizzle.
“Let’s just say that it escalates to the magic school bus getting pulled over by the cops,” Dahl said.
During the first two weeks of Winter Quarter, the cast of eight met Monday through Thursday for four-hour long sketch workshops and held improv practice on Fridays, Bardin said. Each cast member wrote eight to 10 sketches to be considered for use in the show.
Bardin said the process of picking sketches, writing the opening sketch and learning the show’s dance number all occurred the following week, known as tech week.
“It makes Winter Quarter really fun,” Bardin said. “Yes, it’s super cold, and that can be depressing, but at night, I get to laugh for four hours straight.”
Bardin said cast members voted for the theme out of 50 total pitches, all of which were puns on “Mee-Ow.” Proposals included “High School Mee-Owsical” and “The Mee-Owppet Show.”
Another popular pitch was “Take Mee-Owt to the Ball Game,” but the theme had already been used twice in Mee-Ow’s 51-year history, Bardin said.
Even with such an extensive history, the Mee-Ow Show shows remain fresh through improv, Dahl said. The show’s format is one-third sketch comedy, one-third improv and one-third music.
“No two shows are the same,” Dahl said. “Every show has its own energy.”
The production team follows a similarly tight schedule as the actors. Communication junior and show producer Zoe Davis said technical work only begins after the cast selects sketches.
Davis said they and the co-scenic designers spent last weekend in Shanley Pavilion painting set pieces, which center around a yellow school bus with photos of cast members’ faces attached.
Communication junior and light designer Sam Bessler said his favorite part of the light design is the headlight near the front of the bus. The headlight changes colors to signal location changes or movement in the sketch.
For Bessler, the quick pace from concept to stage differed from his usual approach of completing detailed lighting plans in advance, he said.
“It allows me to go with my gut and just do what is funny with lighting, rather than trying to create a grand image of how things need to be,” Bessler said.
After four shows this weekend, the cast and crew will repeat the process for another set of shows with a different theme, taking place in four weeks.
This “last-minute nature” of Mee-Ow, Davis said, ensures the show remains new and exciting.
“I really, really love to see the art come to life,” Davis said.
Email: desireeluo2028@u.northwestern.edu
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