What's Funny?

Ever since we decided on our targeted communities, I’ve been thinking about our target audience. Who should enjoy this play the most? Obviously we want everyone who sees this to love it, but there are definitely people we should focus on. Theater and sports are pretty broad categories, but I want people associated with those areas to experience this play on higher level than other audience members. Even though I generally frown on this, I feel like this is the sort of thing where we can include a bunch of inside jokes that our communities will immediately understand. I think one of the Cornerstone readings discusses this too, but since we are righting this play about, for and through these community members, I feel like it’s only natural that they enjoy this even more than the general public.

At this point, most of the script is completed and we have a good idea of what we’re doing. But as we refine and edit our play, I want us to plug in some more references for sports and theatre people. We already have some: “We can’t split up; this isn’t a Solo Command Performance,” the acting warm-ups, Bradyman, etc. But I feel like we can do a lot more. A lot of ideas have come up in our improv sessions and we really just need to sit down and work them in.

But, that also brings up the point that we don’t want there to be so many inside jokes that anyone on the outside is lost and confused. There’s definitely a distinct balance, but I feel like a lot of the sports-themed references could reach more people than the theatre ones. Maybe we can get community members involved in picking these inside jokes, helping us know what seems funny to them in what situation? They might even be able to generate some ideas of their own that we can work in.