‘Future Sketch’ brings funny business to Play On

Some of Charlottesville’s favorite improv players are bringing funny back.

“Future Sketch/Laugh Sounds,” a new sketch comedy revue created and directed by Ray Smith, starts Thursday and runs through Jan. 25 in the Theatre at Ix, the home stage for Play On! — A New Virginia Theatre.

“Because it’s a revue show and the cast plays a lot of different characters, it’ll please a lot of people,” said Smith, who graduated from Second City Conservatory in Toronto.

The cast includes Lisa Jensen-Mitchell, Ruth Morton, Wendy Repass, Mary Waalkes, Katy Walker, Christina White, Andy Davis, Alex Modic, Jack Rakes, Nate Wooten and Jim Zarling. Mecca Burns is the musical director, and Derby Thomas is lighting designer.

Theater lovers can banish the post-holiday winter doldrums with a good laugh or two, or three, or four …

“People can expect to have a lot of fun,” Smith said. “It’s an adult show, so people can expect to talk about grownup sorts of things.”

Smith said that fans of Second City and “Saturday Night Live” performance styles will be familiar with the format, which makes room for plenty of movement and dance. He also likens the approach to commedia dell’arte, a script-free process that relies on stock characters and traditional plot lines but delights in the new twists that emerge from different combinations of creative performers.

Together, they’ve created humorous sketches and then honed them in rehearsals.

“The Second City method is a completely collaborative process,” Smith said. “We improvise a scene, and we re-improvise it over and over until it’s ready.”

Fans will get the best of both comedy worlds — the structure of rehearsed pieces and the no-holds-barred delights of improv. Audience members who want to have a say in how the show proceeds will get their wish in the last section of the performance.

Smith said it was easy to assemble an adept cast in the strong local theater climate.

“Charlottesville has a great comedy community in the form of Bent Theatre,” Smith said, saluting the popular improv troupe.

The show is recommended for mature audiences for mature themes and language, but one cast member brought her child to rehearsals with no ill effects.

“There’s some adult language,” Smith said. “That’s the only thing, really, that parents bringing their kids need to consider.”

There’s plenty of free parking at the theater, which is at 983 Second St. SE.