Image via Vimeo / Over Our Head Players
Jokes getting out of hand are usually viewed as bad. In the case of “Snowdance,” the 17th annual competition among 10-minute comedy plays presented by Racine’s Over Our Head Players, it’s a gag that the company’s managing artistic director, Rich Smith, encourages.
“It started with us joking about making Racine the home of the 10-minute comedy competition,” Smith says. “That joke has sort of become a reality because we are unique in the way that we allow our audience to vote for the winner. We felt we needed to bring our audience with us and make them part of the festival.”
And “Snowdance” has grown considerably since its inception a couple of decades ago. “Our first experience brought us around 150 scripts,” Smith recalls. “Last season we reached an all-time high of over 650, including several countries, most of our ‘finest‘ states,” to which he kiddingly adds,”...and Illinois.” But, more seriously, he continues. “The festival has now produced over 170 new comedies, most of them world premieres. Our audience has continued to grow as well. It’s great to say that every performance of ‘Snowdance’ has basically been sold out since its start! The only thing we can do is add performances, so we’ve continued adding performances each year.”
In 2021, in light of COVID-19 cautions and mandates, performances of this year’s seven “Snowdance” entries were captured on video, as produced at Over Our Head’s own Sixth Street Theatre in Racine by Gary Alvarez and Preston Hill of A.V.A. Media Services with video sound design by Skip Carlson. Comedy lovers open to viewing some one-act plays are encouraged to buy an online ticket from OverOurHeadPlayers.org to view the competition from now until 3:30 p.m. Saturday, March 27. The price of 24 hour access to “Snowdance’s” Vimeo Video On Demand stream includes a ballot to cast a vote for the playwrights will win this year’s $500 first place prize, $200 for the runner-up and $100 for third place.
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Over Our Head Players include some ribbing of the troupe’s home town. Of the local humor intrinsic to the production, Smith says that it “comes in the interludes-we call them hijinks-between each play. They’re fun bits of comedy that allow us to laugh at ourselves, laugh about current events, and then quickly introduce the next finalist.” He adds, “The Racine audience takes ‘Snowdanc’ seriously. They have become quite educated and critical about their comedy and take pride in their votes, which may be the growth that we are most proud of" creating an audience.”
It’s takes some judiciousness to pare the competition's hundreds of entries down to an entertaining roster that doesn’t go overly long. To that end, Smith explains, “This year we included six different readers for the finalists. Every script is read anonymously, and we never consider where it’s from or who wrote it. Obviously, it’s a comedy festival, so if our readers find the play to be funny, unique, clever, or just special- then that play is passed on and re-read by another and so on until we end up with our semi-final pool. Whittling down from the semi-finalists is extremely difficult because we want the festival to be different. We can’t have 10 finalists that all take place in a café or ten finalists that all have the same style, or several of them, for example, have the same subject matter. It’s tricky!
“So, there might be a very funny play that wasn’t selected because there was a similar play that was just a little funnier, and there might be a play that wasn’t as funny that ended up in the mix because it was unique to everything else. But at the end of the day, our goal is a comedy festival that’s entertaining from start to finish and different and enjoyable. We never seek out a specific theme or try to make an artistic statement with each show; it’s just about comedy and fun,” Smith says. Under current circumstances, picking “Snowdance’s” competing plays wasn't the show’s sole challenge this year though.
Smith seems at peace about adapting to coronaviral conditions when he offers, “The losses include a rapport with our audience in a live experience that simply can’t be replaced. The fun and energy of being in our intimate theater for a live performance is incredibly unique and sorely missed.”
Conversely, he adds, “The positives are that this format allowed us to use several more artists in the production than we normally would’ve. We were able to locate some very talented married couples who could rehearse and perform in their own “bubble” along with close friends and so on. Doing “Snowdance” virtual allowed us to reach some very talented friends and performers who have been with us over the years and allowed us to get them all involved at the same time and allowed us to do it in a very safe manner with very little interaction.”
Smith’s bright spirit regarding “Snowdance” extends to Over Our Head Players’ future overall as well. “We ain’t going nowhere! Be it online or in our space; we will be here when this dust settles. There are plenty of edgy new unique plays that we know our Racine audience will welcome and enjoy, and we’re prepared to bring them to them as soon as possible. We hope it’s in 2021!”
