You Found the Perfect Script. How To Help Actors Find The Comedy.
Where Artistic Vision Meets Production Reality — Part 2
By Susan Parker, Playwright
First, I’d like to thank all the directors of farce around the world, who’ve told me that farce needs a few special tools in their tool belt—and perhaps a stopwatch. (I know some experienced directors who love to direct comedy, but won’t touch a farce.) Whether you already direct farce or are thinking about it, I hope my perspective as a playwright confirms what you know and offers guidance for your next production.
The Hidden Comedy In A Script
You’ve found a play that made you laugh, the production details are in place, and now it’s time to dive into the script and use your artistic vision to discover the hidden gems that make the comedy tick. Some laughs are easy to spot. Others are hiding in a carefully chosen word, a puzzled look, or an entrance that’s one second away from disaster.
So, as you look through the script, there are a few simple yet important items your actors need to find to give those laughs their best chance. After all, you chose a farce and a polite chuckle probably wasn’t what you had in mind. Personally, I want you to have all the belly laughs you can!
Some of these will be obvious. But some require a bit of script dissecting/analysis to discover where the comedy lies.
The set up/pay off
The double entendre
Comedic timing
Say what’s written please
Enjoy the laughter
Let’s explore some examples.
The Funny Line Has an Accomplice
You know that wonderful line you laughed at when you first read the script? Go back a little. Another line or action may be quietly making that laugh possible.
That’s the setup—the straight line before the laugh, the repeated situation that gets a little worse each time, or the glance that tells us something isn’t quite as normal as it first appeared. Perhaps someone is behind a door where absolutely no one should be hiding.
Naturally, someone is.
One example of a set up/payoff can be found in Act I of Who’s In Bed With the Butler? Josephine Sykes arrives at the estate of Mr. Olden to discuss his will. Also there is his daughter Constance and his attorney Mr. Vance.
LEAD IN
Vance. ….he left you something in his will.
Jo. Really?
Connie. You seem surprised.
THE SET UP
Jo. Well, actually I am. You know it’s been over six months since Bill and I (hesitates) parted company.
Vance. He left you the yacht.
Jo. Good heavens, How absolutely spiffing. He always said he would. He named it after me you know.
PUNCHLINE
Connie. But your name is Josephine and the yacht is called ‘The Big O’ (JOSEPHINE smiles knowingly at her.) - Oh, I see!
As a playwright, I create the lines that create laughter. But without the proper set up, they can fall flat. That’s why I believe the set up is as equally important as the laugh line.
In the above conversation the set up actually begins with Jo’s hesitation allowing the audience to guess the relationship.
Then Jo again sets up the punchline with, “He named it after me you know.”
It may seem like an unremarkable sentence, but if this set up is missed by being rushed, mumbled, or lost beneath an earlier laugh, the audience will miss the information that makes the payoff funny.
Connie’s next line is the punch line, “But your name is Josephine and the yacht is called the Big O.” Jo’s knowing look is an important part of enhancing the punchline.
So, additional laughter can sometimes be found in what’s not written, but the reaction.
Director Brendan Gibbons observes:
“Just as often, it’s the reaction to the joke – the eyes, the breath, the body language…”
All that laughter without having to memorize another line! Priceless!
As a director you know the importance of finding the set up/payoffs. Teaching your actors to learn when they need a little more emphasis so the audience hears them—well, that’s why you rock the director’s hat!
From my side of the script, I hope this information helps as you go on your treasure hunt through the script.
The Double Entendre or Double the Trouble
One of my favorite farce devices puts two people into a conversation they both believe they understand but don’t.
The Double entendre! You and I know they’re in for trouble.
Double entendres are great fun in farce, and I love the confusion they cause, but I also understand the challenges of presenting them to the audience.
On the page, I choose words that make sense in two different conversations, so each character believes the other is talking about the same thing they are.
In rehearsal, you have the delightful task of keeping both conversations real and believable. If your actors are struggling, something that might help is asking, “What is your character talking about? And why does the next line make sense to you?”
Those answers matter as they can help actors understand a very confusing conversation.
For the double entendre to be a comedic tool, you and I both know it’s important for both actors to play it straight. It’s important for one character to remain perfectly calm while the other grows increasingly incredulous.
A humorous example of a double entendre from Sin, Sex & the CIA occurs in Act II.
Luke has just told Millicent, Reverend Samuel Abernathy’s secretary, that he is a CIA agent, not a chef. Luke exits as Samuel enters and introduces a completely different topic he wants to discuss with her—setting up the double entendre that follows.
Samuel: Millicent my dear, I need you to understand that men are predators, they prey on the innocent. Please come sit down.
(Millicent is focused on her own thoughts about the excitement of Luke being a CIA agent.)
Millicent. Oh Samuel, I didn’t hear you come in.
Samuel. I need to warn you. I am sure that this Luke fellow is not what he appears to be.
Millicent. I know that Samuel, but how did you figure it out?
Samuel. Ah, well…the Lord works in mysterious ways.
Millicent. So does Luke
Samuel. You must understand Millicent, he’s only got one thing on his mind.
Millicent. Yes, I know, that’s what he told me.
Samuel. He told you?
Millicent. Yes, he’s going to do it in the kitchen.
Samuel. The kitchen?
This conversation continues for about a page, with Millicent innocently and calmly discussing Luke’s job, while the Reverend thinks she’s talking about something else entirely. Each answer confirms his worst suspicions, making him more alarmed—and louder.
It’s the contrast between her innocent explanation and his growing horror that makes the double entendre so funny for the audience.
If I’ve done my job on the page, and you’ve worked your director’s magic to keep both sides of the misunderstanding believable, the audience gets to be the best-informed people in the room—and laugh themselves silly watching everyone else get it wrong.
Comedic Timing: Instinctive or Learned
Team Instinctive
Picture that moment in rehearsal, when a line or a look suddenly gets everyone laughing? You’ve heard the scene several times, but this time something clicked. That’s the pleasure of finding the timing.
Casting director Rachel Freck takes the side that comedic timing is instinctive.
“You can’t teach somebody to have innate comic timing. They either have it or they don’t.”
I have seen that natural instinct at work when I performed in the world premiere of Who’s in Bed with the Butler? at the Woodland House Opera Theatre, CA. I was cast in the role of Suzie Legere and was surrounded by actors and actresses who didn’t seem to have to try to be funny—they just were.
Near the end of the play, the actor playing Roy Vance (played by Micail Buse) discovers that the butler has outsmarted him, and stole the real paintings. His exit line was simply “AAARGH!”
During rehearsal, Micail said his line and headed toward the front door. Then he stopped, came back, seized the fake paint-by-number picture off the wall, and left with it.
None of that business with the picture was in the script. But when we performed it for an audience, it brought the house down. Natural comedic timing. Needless to say, it went into the script.
His timing was impeccable. Without another word, he made it perfectly clear that this attorney was leaving with something—even if its artistic worth was questionable.
Team Learned
However, I happen to disagree with “You either have it or you don’t.” I’m sure directors love it when an actor auditions that has that instant, natural comedic talent. But for those actors who don’t, directors have the wonderful ability to help them discover the comedy in themselves and the scene.
When Michael directed me in The Sensuous Senator, it was my first attempt at comedic acting. I certainly didn’t have innate comic ability. It was his encouragement as well as the tools in his director’s toolbelt that helped me discover the comedic timing I was missing in the script. A quicker reply? A moment to let the thought register? A look before heading for the door? I’m sure you have hundreds of ideas in your tool box.
From the perfectly timed response, to the quiet glance that gets a laugh, it's the director’s patience, encouragement, and eye for those little moments that help turn the words on the page into laughter on the stage.
As you and your cast find that comedy, the characters will come alive and things will begin to feel natural.
I Wrote It For a Reason
May I make a small plea from the playwright’s desk?
I love watching my shows, although occasionally a line comes along that I don’t remember writing. Sometimes it has acquired a few extra words or pauses.
You and I know how that can happen in rehearsal. An actor adds something that feels natural for them, and before long it has settled in and become a part of the script.
But, before it becomes a permanent resident, could you please ask this question: What happens if we trust the line exactly as written?
A little known fact is that I may have spent a considerably long time deciding how a line should read. For example, a surprising amount of deliberation can go into one little apostrophe, as to whether the character would say “I am” or “I’m.”
The same attention applies to pauses. There are important pauses which are written into Parker scripts. They may make the line funnier or give the audience enough time to guess what’s coming. But beware the pause bandit that steals the momentum.
Trust the playwright! Those lines and I have spent quite a lot of time together.
Take a Little Time for a Lot of Laughter
I hope you have as much fun with the challenge of helping your actors discover the importance of finding the comedy in the lines, as I did writing them. There’s a great deal of knowledge in that treasure hunt through the script, that in turn leads to fun and laughter in rehearsals.
From my desk, I’ve planted the setup, arranged the misunderstanding, chosen the words that I hope will bring laughter and included helpful suggestions in the script. From your director’s chair, you bring your artistic vision, imagination and experience to the stage to make those moments come alive through the actors on your stage.
That’s a partnership I love.
See you at the theatre!
Susan
FUN FACTS
When writing Sin, Sex & the CIA on a road trip, Michael and I became so engrossed in figuring out three double entendres that we sailed 60 miles past our turn off. Lesson learned, don’t write and drive.
Director’s Quote: Laura Robitaille, Play With Your Food Production “Sin, Sex & the C.I.A. generously incorporates every aspect of farcical comedy into its insanely funny script.”
Blast from the past: The world premiere of Who’s In Bed With the Butler? at the Woodland Opera Theatre, in Woodland, CA included both Michael as the butler and myself as Suzie Leger.(Standing left)
So even the playwright can forget his lines: One night, during a short scene in Whose In Bed With the Butler?, I forgot one of my lines. Waiting for Michael to recover, he came up with something not in the script. This continued between us for some time and all I could think was - you wrote the damn thing, why don’t you know the lines?
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