When my daughter Katherine looked for material to write her award-winning Second City Works by Women comedy sketch, she mined a source familiar to all of us — Homecoming.
“Me, Myself, and Oh My!” debuted Friday night and told the story of a precocious, socially awkward 15-year old reluctantly preparing for a dance she isn’t sure she wants to attend. Encouraging her, much to her consternation, are her nearly 50-year old self and her nearly 25-year old self.
Having parented children through a dozen of these iconic high school dances, I think the sketch is spot on. I am the mother of the sophomore girl whose date accidentally threw water on an enraged senior football player and spent the rest of the dance hiding in the men’s bathroom; and the Homecoming king who came home from the dance all hollow-eyed and stressed because his date had gotten mad at him for spending too much time with the Homecoming queen; and the shy sophomore boy who appreciated the nudge his history teacher gave him to ask a girl he admired to be his date; and the 15-girl who thinks people should spend less time worrying about frivolous things like high school dances and more time worrying about global warming.
“How do you have fun at Homecoming?” I asked them repeatedly in a line used in the sketch. “You have fun at Homecoming.”
I also told them every year, “It’s not a wedding proposal, it’s a dance. Just go! Have fun! Be brave enough to ask if you’d like to go, be kind enough to say yes if you’re asked. Relax! Dance!”
Fifteen can be an awkward age, when emotions lie raw on tender skin. Fifteen can also be hilarious, sweet, fun and inspirational.
As she prepared to write her very first comedy sketch, Katherine invited Molly and Me to participate in a round-robin exercise in which we wrote letters to ourselves. Some of that made it into her sketch, which we enjoyed seeing take shape as she sent us versions to approve.
We were all thrilled when Katherine’s piece was chosen for the Works by Women Festival and even more excited to see it performed live.
Please enjoy Me, Myself and Oh My! a comedic look at high school performed by Grace Stuart, Katherine, and Lori McClain.
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