Tears of laughter streamed down the smiling faces of audience members as they watched Nitrous Oxide, a two-hour-long sketch comedy directed by senior Will Hartzog and junior Sage Alcalde, which ran Feb. 5-7 in the Little Theater. 

According to Hartzog, auditions for the show began in September, when actors came up with an original comedy sketch idea. Once the cast was decided by the two directors in addition to Theatre Ink director Adam Brown and history teacher Jamie Bal, rehearsals consisted of sketch-writing, learning specific comedy genres, feedback and revisions of sketches, and eventually run-throughs of the whole show. 

The cast of Nitrous Oxide included seniors Jordan Andrews, Zach Baumel, Zadie Besev, Jacob Brown, and Will Hartzog; juniors Sage Alcalde, Emma Liu, and Ellison Pierre-Louis; sophomores Wyatt Nelsen and Theo Reilly; and freshmen Max Clarke and Carmen Ruelos. 

The first act included a skit about a real-life Duolingo simulation that left the audience cackling. Both acts included humorous sketches about mansplainers on a first date, where all of the male actors sat at tables with their respective “girlfriend” and said the same script containing condescending explanations of famous films. 

Junior Alex Santonastaso, who attended the opening night of Nitrous Oxide, remarked on a particular sketch where a rap video was projected onto the screen.The video centered on an elementary school aged boy with a crush on a girl at the playground, and the song was his confession of love for her.

“It was fully produced, fully edited, and it was a whole music video. I thought that was spectacular,” Santonastaso said. 

Santonastaso added that his favorite part of the show was the video sketches. “It looked like they had a lot of freedom,”  he said. “They really worked with breaking the creative boundaries that they had, and they were able to incorporate so many aspects of comedy.”

The show included a brief intermission dubbed a “15-minute Recover-From-Laughing Intermission” by the humorous playbill distributed to guests upon their entry.

According to Alcalde, it wasn’t easy to direct while managing her friendships and academic life.

“A challenge of mine during the entire Nitrous process was balancing schoolwork and directing work, as well as managing being friends with my cast,” she said.

Alcalde commented that she wants the audience to leave thinking they watched a clever show with high-quality humor.

“I hope that they walk away feeling a real sense of enjoyment,” Alcade added.

Nitrous Oxide will make another annual appearance next school year.