The long-running sketch comedy show on campus Friday Night Live, more commonly known as FNL to students, has come into the Spring semester with a fresh rebrand. Reagan Gibbs and Sarah Cawley, the co-directors of the show, decided that it was time for a new kind of comedy. Instead of the Saturday Night Live-esque sketches that have taken the stage in previous years, they are moving to a variety show style.
“Now we have the opportunity to do more things and to give writers an opportunity to do more,” Cawley said. “Writers aren’t restricted to writing sketches and digital shorts, they can write their own bits if they want to. We really just want to open up After Hours as a space for more creativity and more people to come together.”
Cawley, a junior Communications major, has been involved in the comedy scene on campus since her freshman year. She unintentionally auditioned to be a cast member, originally intending to just be a writer. After going through what she thought to be “icebreakers and team bonding,” she got an email that night informing her she had made callbacks.
A significant change Cawley mentioned was the recent detachment from Asbury’s Theatre Department. This past fall semester was the first away from the department, which created challenges like production, running shows and funding. Now, the show will be completely student-run.
Rather than one large show at the end of the semester, which they have done historically, there will be one 30-minute pop-up show every month. There will likely be a larger show to conclude the semester with an intermission. This show will be one hour – half the time of the previous shows.
“We want to open it up to more styles of comedy, while also keeping it shorter and more straight to the point,” Cawley stated about the change in duration. “We want to cut it down to an hour for the bigger show and have an intermission between that because we used to do the two hours with no intermission, which was a lot to get through. And to be honest, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Not everyone is going to want to sit down and watch all of it, they might just want to come for a certain part of the show.”
Auditions for the cast and writers took place on Jan. 30 and 31 in the Miller Screening Room. Some familiar faces have returned for another season of comedy, like senior Tiffany Rutledge and sophomore Jenna Hauser, but there will be new faces on the stage as well.
The dates of the pop-up shows have yet to be announced, but they will be in the Student Center (Stuce) and shown for free. FNL used to perform in the Black Box Theater in the Miller building, so the switch to the Stuce will be a more convenient opportunity for students to find comedy on campus.
Some involved in After Hours, like Cawley herself, do not have a background in comedy or theatre. Regardless of previous involvement, Cawley, Gibbs and others participating in After Hours encourage all students to dip their toes in comedy.
More information can be found on their Instagram account (@asburyafterhours), which will be continuously updated as the semester progresses.
Photo courtesy of Asbury After Hours.
