Lights! Camera! Action! SUTV, most well-known for its production of Salisbury University campus-wide news broadcasts and coverage of sporting events, is expanding its horizons to more entertainment and comedy-based shows. In an effort to raise views and appeal to a wide audience, the organization held its very own "Salisbury Night Live."
Based on the TV program Saturday Night Live, the show on Nov. 11 included many humorous skits and a music performance by Salisbury University’s music group, Squawkappella.
Creating the show required a variety of different students. Some of the members of SUTV worked on writing, producing and directing skits, while others are the actors in the skits during the show.
SU senior Connor Marsh was assistant director, but also helped to write skits.
“I really liked the one [skit] I made, which was the driving instructor one. It took a long time to make and put together …" Marsh said. "It was kind of a joke about how everyone around here kind of drives like a jerk sometimes, and it’s just someone who is teaching everyone how to avoid that.”
Besides the driving instructor skit, the show offered a multitude of other skits about many different topics. Many of the skits were related to SU and were jokes that students would be likely to understand and relate to.
For those who were not able to attend the event, SUTV also streamed the event live to its Facebook page.
The producer and director of SNL was SU student and President of SUTV Leon Nguyen.
Nguyen explained the multitude of skits as he listed them off and gave a brief explanation of each.
“There was our cold open … We had a train-wreck sibling that you could rent out for Thanksgiving. After that we had a tour guide sketch, which was stereotypes of different schools on campus," Nguyen said.
Along with the skits listed, the show also included a fake news skit, an instructional driving sketch and a TikTok sketch.
No matter the role in the production, the members of SUTV worked hard for over ten weeks to produce the show that was held. Aside from the skits they performed that night, they also had already filmed certain clips that were shown to the audience.
SU sophomore Peter Schoff stared as an actor in the show, and he explained that the project was much more in-depth than just a few run-throughs of the sketches.
“Several of the filmings took a while," Schoff said. "The one with the tour, that one took, like, six hours to really do everything and get it all pieced together, and that is without all of the editing ... for filming, it took about six hours.”
As the president of the club and director and producer of the show, Nguyen had many different responsibilities and jobs leading up to the show and was key in making sure the show went off without a hitch during the actual filming.
“Behind the scenes, I produce, like, I helped to make all the recorded [content], I got the rehearsals together and stuff like that," Nguyen said. "During the show, I was the director, so we have different shots that we needed to call, and I would call those shots and cut to the next scene, cut to the next shot and stuff like that.”
Still, while it is a lot of work and a fairly large time commitment, members of the cast and crew felt that it was well worth it, and many enjoyed the work that they put into the show.
Marsh especially felt that the final product was worth it in the end.
“I really enjoy doing it … if you enjoy doing it, it’s not really work and it is all fun, the hours of writing and hours of filming and getting … footage and stuff like that. It’s really fun,” Marsh said.
SU students were able to get free tickets to come watch the filming of the show and be part of the live audience. Students who took part in the audience were recorded laughing and clapping throughout the show, just as TV producers often do with sitcoms.
Melanie Staszewski, a sophomore at SU, was part of the audience. Staszewski was part of the show last year, and while she didn’t partake in it this year, she was excited to see what the cast came up with this year.
Staszewkski emphasized that she was very pleased with the skits.
“I think my favorite skit was when they did the different types of personalities, so they had a VSCO girl, an E Boy, an E Girl," Staszewski said. "I thought it was really cool to portray different stereotypes that we see a lot nowadays … I thought it was really funny.”
SUTV’s Salisbury Night Live was a show that allowed audience members to laugh and allowed the actors to take part in many different skits. While the crew won’t be doing another SNL for a little while, the club continues to meet every Wednesday.
Members of the organization emphasize that joining is a great opportunity for students who are interested in TV production.
After participating in SNL, Schoff worked to encourage other students to become aware of the club and take advantage of its many perks.
“It was a really great experience overall, and I would recommend auditioning to anyone who wants to come out and give it a shot,” Schoff said.
For more information on SUTV, see its social media at: https://www.facebook.com/salisburytv/.
By LAURA AMRHEIN
Staff writer
Featured photos by Laura Amrhein Images.
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