“What’s interesting and amazing about sketch is that it’s immediate,” she said. “These are N.C. voices reacting to N.C. now.”
Reitz said the structure of the show, which includes 15 different mini-plays, allows for personal interpretation.
“(Sketch comedy) is different from a play because a play only has one plot,” he said.
“You’ll get to see about three dozen characters with a lot of different stories and a lot of different perspectives.”
Reitz, Melzer and the rest of the writing team worked for three months to create the sketches and pitch ideas to each other.
Actors in the show, such as UNC graduate student Rishan Dhamija, also influenced the sketches.
Dhamija said when he and the other actors got their scripts, the typical character descriptions were not included.
“So, we could bring our own element to the roles — deciding on different accents, improving on the lines — as long as we stuck to the main skeletal structure of the skit,” he said.
Dhamija said he was able to use his and his family’s personal experience to give insight on an Indian character battling the various legal roadblocks on the way to getting a job in America.
“The creative process wasn’t just writing the script and learning it to perform it,” he said.
“It was a platform to discuss these matters. There are things I know that (the other actors) don’t know, and things they know that I don’t know.”
Reitz said “Two Months In” has something for everybody.
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“It’s a catharsis for the audience to laugh at the present situation and see some of their ideas reflected,” he said. “
And some of it is just silly, just to laugh at.”
Melzer said Mettlesome worked to make the show funny, welcoming and inclusive.
“The only way we can move forward is if we can listen to each other,” she said.
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