Pittsburgh may have a lot of neighborhoods — 90, to be exact — but I bet most yinzers never have explored Sketchville.
Okay, Sketchville isn’t a “neighborhood,” per se. It’s a sketch comedy revue opening Thursday and running through Dec. 10 at Downtown’s Arcade Comedy Theater. “Sketchville” features eight actors performing variety show-style skits written by more than a dozen local authors. Tickets for every performance are available for $20 via arcadecomedytheater.com.
Arcade Comedy has done different iterations of “Sketchville” since it opened in 2013, though this one has the distinction of being the first since the COVID-19 pandemic officially began in March 2020. The comedy-theater hybrid is being directed by Parag S. Gohel, Pittsburgh Public Theater’s director of education and engagement.
“For people who are curious about Arcade Comedy or what goes on there, this is exactly the type of show that really highlights a lot of different aspects of it,” Gohel told the Union Progress. “This feels like a networking of a lot of the best parts of Arcade Comedy.”
Gohel is a Philadelphia-area native and University of Pittsburgh graduate who in addition to his work with Pittsburgh Public Theater acts as a teaching artist with other local arts spaces such as City Theatre Company and Bricolage Production Co. He also teaches an introduction to performance class at Pitt and leads a teaching ensemble lab at Point Park University.
This is Gohel’s first stab at directing a “Sketchville” run at Arcade Comedy. Fun fact: He actually performed at Arcade Comedy during its grand opening weekend almost 10 years ago.
“Going from getting to perform on the stage to now helping to create something that goes on the stage, that full-circle journey has been really exciting,” he said.
Arcade whittled down 60 submissions into a dozen or so sketches, musical numbers and other wacky interludes. They will all be brought to life by cast members Stacey Babyak, Fred Betzner, Beth Geatches, Kevin O’Brien, Montaja Simmons, Matt Solter, Maame Danso and Haley Holmes. While some of that group are seasoned sketch comedians, others will be making their Arcade Comedy debuts. Gohel shouted out Holmes, a Point Park student who “blew our socks off” in the audition room to the point they had to cast her.
Production manager Frank McDade has been helping Gohel in his efforts to mold this “Sketchville” into something memorable. The Beaver County native’s comedy bona fides include studying at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater in New York City and working for Second City’s marketing department in Chicago before moving back to Western Pennsylvania and becoming a regular at Arcade Comedy. McDade has been “blown away” by how robust Pittsburgh’s comedy scene has proven to be.
“It’s been very fruitful,” he said. “I’ve met some lifelong friends who are also collaborators. … Pittsburgh doesn’t have a dedicated comedy style like a New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. It’s really a testing ground for whatever you want to put up.”
For Gohel, it’s the “interdisciplinary approach” to its cultural scene that makes Pittsburgh such a unique place to practice any sort of art form. “Sketchville” is a great example of that in the way Gohel has been able to take elements of his theater background and blend them into a traditional sketch show format “that really elevate the production as a whole.”
Other “Sketchville” iterations have involved multiple teams of comedians putting on different shows over a certain period of time. McDade said that this one was designed to be both cohesive and consistent across all performances. Some of the sketches will highlight “physical and comedy and movement,” while others will utilize a prop “to deliver the entire story of the sketch,” he said.
Celebrities, organizations and other recognizable entities will be parodied in “unexpected ways” during “Sketchville,” according to Gohel. He credited his actors for their abilities to seamlessly play more than 50 characters while never sacrificing the “clear and effective storytelling” that Gohel always prioritizes in his productions.
“The demands of that are really high,” Gohel said. “It takes a lot of creative versatility and that ‘yes and’ energy to make sure everyone is having fun.”
McDade likened “Sketchville” to a “Saturday Night Live”-style experience that just happens to have been written and produced by a lot of “homegrown talent.” Gohel sees it as evidence of just how many cultural offerings are available for yinzers at any given time.
“The arts community is very close-knit,” he said. “I think Pittsburgh allows the space for all these different art forms to exist together.”
Joshua covers pop culture, media and more at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Contact him at jaxelrod@unionprogress.com.