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A sketch comedy show by eight talented teens and tweens, and one semitalented middle-aged man (his words, not ours), takes the stage at the Siren Theater starting May 2. This is the fifth installment of Wonderland by Jason Rouse—actor, director and writer, and aforementioned middle-aged man—but the first one in which Rouse fully handed the creative reins to his students.
“It’s not a kids’ show by any means,” he says. “I could put adults in these sketches quite easily and it wouldn’t change much. It wouldn’t be as charming.”
The eight youth are all current or former students at Pacific Crest Community School in Northeast Portland, where Rouse teaches theater. Rouse, whose credits include Weekend at Bernie’s, Live Wire, The 3rd Floor and Sweat, started Wonderland nine years ago and has been incorporating his students more and more. This year, the eight children ages 12 to 16, “edged me out completely,” Rouse says.
The students took the lead on writing the show. Sketch topics include ASMR, bad lifeguards, game shows, and depressed yoga instructors.
Rouse appreciates that the students’ “bullshit level is way low,” among other benefits of working with teens rather than adults: “They’re on time. They learn their lines. When they’re hungry, they tell you.” (OK, one downside: Rehearsals are after school and sometimes the kids hit the wall. The youngest performer, who is only 12, gets very tired by the end and “no amount of Snickers will revive her,” Rouse says.)
Wonderland is produced with the help of a Regional Arts & Culture Council grant. It will run for four performances over the first two weekends in May. The sketch comedians are Sam Burnett, Luke English, Roscoe Finkel, Trixie Finkel, Alex Ireland, Aziza Laks, William Patrick O’Neill and Ari Penner. Previous participants have gone on to form a sketch group called Jacuzzi Massage that was invited to open the 2024 Portland Sketch Comedy Festival.
Rouse is pleased to help train up the next crop of sketch comics. The students are usually exposed to the genre via clips on YouTube and TikTok, rather than the old-timey way of watching Saturday Night Live or The Kids in the Hall in full each week.
“All of these kids are plugged into a generation that I’m several removed from, and it’s great,” Rouse says. “I see them just carving things out of their brains and their hearts, and it’s really exciting to know that maybe sketch comedy that isn’t tied to a TikTok or a meme can live on.”
GO: Wonderland at the Siren Theater, 3913 N Mississippi Ave., wonderlandsketchcomedy.com, sirentheater.com/. 7:30 pm Friday and Saturday, May 2, 3, 9 and 10. $20.