Firehouse Theater’s improv group, “The Bit Players,” tickles newport’s funny bone

By: Briana Scafidi
Posted In: Entertainment

The Firehouse Theatre on Equality Park Place in Newport was abuzz on Saturday, March 29, after the cast of “Two Celtic Comedies & a Ditty” performed to a packed (albeit small) house. Immediately after the cast took their bows and exited, the Bit Players took over. Neal Leahee, Alan Sousa, Casey Regan and Vlad Tenenbaum rushed the stage, jumping and shouting, and the crowd took immediately to their high energy.

The four members of the Bit Players had been upstairs in a small room of the theatre an hour before, playing creative games and doing improv exercises to mentally prepare and get excited for the show. After a fair amount of singing, jumping and laughing, they headed backstage, where Regan scribbled the show order on a small scrap of paper and quickly read it over to the others. As she read the name of each game, she explained which of the four of them would be playing in each, and which would be “hosting,” or explaining the rules of the game to the audience. For the most part the three stood and nodded excitedly, but at one point Neal had to interrupt. “I don’t think I’ve ever played that one,” he said. “What is it?” Casey explained the game to an eager Neal, finished the show order, and led the four in rushing the stage.

Having captured the attention of the audience in merely seconds, the Bit Players jumped right into games. Since the games were similar to those on shows like “Whose Line is it Anyway?” the audience caught on quickly to the rules and had no problems participating. Before each game, the host would ask the audience to call out suggestions for things like location, occupation, and object (much like a live game of Madlibs), and their suggestions would make it into the scenes. While these games are funny to watch on TV, a certain dynamic of entertainment was added when the audience got to personally call the shots.

The Bit Players’ Saturday night performances stick to a PG-13 rating. “We try to keep the swearing to an absolute minimum,” says member Alan Sousa, “like, zero”. The performers get to leave their inhibitions behind on Thursday nights, though, when they offer an adult crowd an R-rated performance. “But this doesn’t mean we can use swearing and dirty jokes as an excuse for bad scenes.” Regan reminds the group, “The audience wants and expects the same quality scene as always, just with juicier language”. On this particular evening, the house occasionally seemed to forget which night it was, as they offered suggestions like “sperm donor” when asked to name an occupation. The cast themselves, let a few foul words slip. Regardless of language and subject, the scenes performed by the Bit Players were hilarious. The group has a youthful energy sure to entertain Newporters of all ages. Audience members young and old were heard praising the group as they left the theatre.

While performance times for the Bit Players fluctuate, they usually take place at 9:00 p.m. every Saturday night, directly after the main stage performance. While most purchase one ticket to see the play and the Bit Players, it is perfectly acceptable for someone who only wants to see the latter to show up slightly before 9:00 to find a seat for the improv show. Since the main stage play and the improv performance are only about an hour long each, though, it seems well worth it to make an evening of seeing both.