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For Immediate Release
April 19, 2005
Contacts: David Ottalini, 301 405 4076 or dottalin@umd.edu

A Comedy Club Decade of Laughter

The Comedy Club is celebrating its tenth year at the Col. E. Brooke Lee Middle School in Silver Spring, Maryland.

For the past few years, the Art Gliner Humor Center at the University of Maryland has been supporting the production. During the 2004-2005 school year, graduate student Rebecca Krefting assisted Director Harry Bagdasian in coaching the students to write and perform original comic material.

This year's play was titled Laughing Matters. About half the material was actually written by the students - a first.

Krefting says the club is so popular that, "many graduates continue to come back and help during practices and productions, taking time from their own busy high school and college lives."

Bagdasian is an internationally known playwright, who co-founded the Comedy Club with Lisa Levin Itte', because his daughter, Kate, was a student at Lee (and who now comes back to help with current productions). But he kept coming back even after she graduated. The two-night production has been a run-away hit every year. Past productions are now performed by other middle schools all over the U.S. and around the world.

Gliner Humor Center Director Larry Mintz says it's no wonder the Comedy Club is a success: "Its unique ability to let young teens express themselves Comedy Club Kids about issues important to them-bullying, dating, teachers, parents-is what makes this special," he says.

In December 2004, the Comedy Club received a $2000 grant from the Freeman Foundation that provided funds for another playwright, Dale Stein, to help with creative writing workshops for the growing number of students interested in being part of the program.

Krefting wrote an ongoing series of "blogs" about her experiences with the Comedy Club this school year. The performances were presented to rave reviews on the evenings of April 19 and 20, 2005.

Krefting says, "The levity served up... will be just what the doctor ordered for parents looking for something to do other than their traditional post-tax activity of wailing and gnashing of teeth."

The Gazette Newspapers published a report about the Comedy Club on April 13.

Follow Krefting's reports by clicking on the links below:

2005

April 19, 2005 : That's a Wrap!

March 30, 2005 : Down to the Wire

March 11, 2005 : Sketchtaccular

March 4, 2005 : And So It Begins

February 25, 2005 : Defying Convention

February 18, 2005 : Tying Up the Loose Ends

February 11, 2005 : I didn't know how much I loved you!

February 4, 2005 : A Snap-Happy Day at the Club

January 28, 2005 : Putting it All Together

2004
December 16, 2004 : To Write or Not to Write
December 10, 2004 : Playing in the Dark
November 30, 2004 : First Successes
November 17, 2004 : Auditions: "Engaging Characters."
November 12, 2004 : Auditions: "Anything Could Happen."

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