Bad Medicine Comedy Troupe, sponsored by Lake Howell High School and Lake Howell Theatre Company, is the only acting group in the country that performs sketch comedy routines that are entirely student written, produced, and performed on a high school stage.

History

The First Season (2004-2005)

Cast

Andrew Athridge<br />

Kyle Beach<br />

Izzy Bonilla<br />

Irene Delmonte<br />

Jeramie Dominguez<br />

Essie Golden<br />

Erin Hill<br />

Josh Howd<br />

Dustin Mauser<br />

Scott Mazariego<br />

Rachel Patterson<br />

Lars Sahl<br />

Matthew Schlichting<br />

Kyle Staron<br />

The Start of Something "Bad"

Beach and Staron dreamed up the concept for a sketch comedy troupe backstage during a rehearsal for their sponsor theater company's production of playwright Bruce Jacoby's The Girl in the Mirror. The duo's desire to express themselves comically in front of a large audience led them to recruit other students for the project. After the rehearsal, they approached Lake Howell Theater Company sponsor James Brendlinger with the idea. Since the group was performing for a mostly teenage audience, they were given several parameters in relation to profanity, sexual innuendos and various other conditions. Members of the troupe were hesitant about being so heavily censored, but they eventually decided that it was too great of an oppurtunity to pass up and performed the first Bad Medicine production in the Fall of 2004. This performance, simply entitled Bad Medicine, was the only show the troupe performed during the first season and had no official "director". Preparation for the production consisted of one, one hour rehearsal immediately before the show began. There was only one copy of the script on hand to be shared by all of the cast members, so much of the show was improvised. While the rehearsal time was extremely limited, the troupe managed to integrate costumes, props, technical effects and set pieces into the show. Though rushed and unprepared, the first show set the precident and created a path for future members to build off of. When senior members Dominguez, Golden, Patterson, Sahl and Staron graduated at the end of the year, only nine students remained to carry on the legacy.

The Second Season (2005-2006)

Cast

Andrew Athridge<br />

Kyle Beach<br />

Jordan Belcher<br />

Izzy Bonilla<br />

Irene Delmonte<br />

Erin Hill<br />

David Hiller<br />

Josh Howd<br />

Dustin Mauser<br />

Scott Mazariego<br />

Matthew Schlichting<br />

A Year of Change

Several changes occurred in the troupe's second year. Attempting to improve upon the unpolished professionalism of the previous year, members Athridge and Beach took over as the "directors" of the troupe, implementing a more solidified planning process and a lengthened rehearsal schedule. Though the executive power lay with Athridge and Beach, a majority vote was still needed amongst the rest of the troupe to make important decisions final. Together, the troupe decided to stray from the style of the origianl show (which was straight sketch comedy, much like that seen on SNL or MadTV) and create a "plot" and "theme" for each show to follow. In this sense, the troupe began to merge improvisation and sketch comedy with a process similar to that of a traditional "one-act" production. The cast, which included new members Belcher and Hiller, produced three shows during the second season: Bad Medicine Strikes Back, Bad Medicine: Holiday Special and Bad Medicine Forever. In addition, the second season's cast was given much greater freedom in relation to content; all three shows performed during the season contained either mild profanity, mild violence, a mild use of sexual innuendos or all of the above. When the season ended, all but Belcher, Bonilla and Schlichting had graduated, leaving the three underclassmen to keep the troupe alive.

The Third Season (2006-2007)

Current Cast Members

Jordan Belcher

Izzy Bonilla

Jordan Bragg

Chris Brown

Ricky Caldwell

Patrick Donovan

Devon Kodzis

Ry Kovacevich

Shannon McEnteer

Daniel Motta

Tashan St. Victor

Matthew Schlichting

Tom Schlieder

Corey Snow

Current Featured Members

None, though featured members may be cast at any time if the script requires them.

The Namesake

Originally, the troupe was named Prime Rib as a joke paying homage to Beach, who, according to original cast member Andrew Snyder, said that the troupe had to be "great, we have to be f***ing Prime Rib man!". Soon after, however, Beach and Snyder were listening to Bon Jovi's Bad Medicine and Beach was inspired. Snyder originally contended the name, but eventually agreed and the name stuck. The troupe later tweaked a song lyric and a catch phrase was born: Bad Medicine: It's What You Need!

Bad Medicine Myspace