Sketch comedy troupe coming back to ˴Ƭ

Sketch comedy troupe coming back to ˴Ƭ

September 18, 2015

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[She Said What]
She Said What is an all female sketch comedy troupe made up of four Queen's graduates – from left, Megan MacKeigan, Marni Van Dyk, Emma Hunter and Carly Heffernan. (Supplied photo)

They’re all women, they’re all graduates of Queen’s and, now, they are all returning to the university.

Award-winning sketch comedy troupe She Said What will be at Queen’s on Monday, Sept. 21 for a series of workshops with current students of the Department of Drama and Music, as well as a performance at Theological Hall in the evening.

The troupe is made up of four alumni – Emma Hunter, Marni Van Dyk, Carly Heffernan, and Megan MacKeigan, all Artsci’07 – who met while performing with Queen’s Players. Following graduation, they each moved to Toronto and formed their own group as a way to continue doing comedy and to create their own performance opportunities in Toronto.

As Ms. MacKeigan explains, the four are very much looking forward to performing again at Queen’s, particularly for the three others who either majored or minored in Drama.

“It’ll be great to go back and, I didn’t but all the others performed on that same stage so it’ll be quite nostalgic to come back and perform, especially for the Drama 100 class at 1 pm on Monday,” she says. “They all took that class when they started at Queen’s so it’ll be neat to see these budding young students in their second week of class.”

Ms. MacKeigan studied Applied Economics and is now a lawyer.

She Said What has performed in the Toronto and Chicago Sketch Comedy Festivals, won the Second City best of the fest at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival and was nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award for best sketch troupe.

They were invited back to Queen’s by Director of the Queen's School of Drama and Music Craig Walker. He says it was an easy decision to ask them to come back.

“She Said What is a very funny, very entertaining sketch comedy troupe. They really put the lie to the stupid old canard that ‘women aren’t funny,’” he says. “So the main reason I invited them is that they will be very entertaining.  But the other reason I invited them is that they are terrific examples of successful alumni.”

Since graduating, the members of the troupe have had interesting and successful careers, Dr. Walker points out, adding that they have accomplished this by being “resourceful and flexible and often by creating their own work in a remarkably joyous way.”

Ms. Hunter has appeared on CBC's Mr. D as well as CTV's Spun Out, Pop Quiz, Match Game. Ms. Heffernan is also a Second City alumni and now writes and teaches with the company as well as a number of television shows. She also is a very active voiceover actor. Ms. Van Dyk  is a television producer, writer and producer of short films. She is also an actor on a number of web series and other television shows. Ms. MacKeigan is the new chair of the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, vice-president Queen's Players Toronto and a partner in a law firm.

 She Said What will perform at Theological Hall at 8 pm. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Arts and Science