MFA Scriptwriting and Story Design students win Just for Laughs ComedyPro Pitch Competition
Master of Fine Arts in Scriptwriting and Story Design students Michelle Forrester and Marileina Pearson have won the CBC Presents Comedy Originals Pitch as a part of Just For Laughs ComedyPro. Their project, Writers Room Sketch Show, is a variety sketch show satirizing pop culture and Toronto news with an in-depth look inside the writer’s room. It was selected as the winner by a panel of CBC experts and was presented on stage by Forrester and Pearson, who were supported by co-creators Kieran Turnbull and Christopher Kelly.
The students will also be awarded a mentorship opportunity from the CBC executive team as well as program moderator Mike Allison from This Hour Has 22 Minutes. The mentorship program is designed to assist the students with professional development and to help bring their project and vision to life.
“I think we're both excited to connect with someone in the industry who has decades of experience in sketch,” said Forrester. “Our show is still in the early stages of production, and we are in a position where we will benefit greatly from their expertise and their advice.”
Bringing a sketch to life
Writers Room Sketch Show began as a project with Met-TV, the University's student-run broadcast network. As graduate students in the MFA Scriptwriting and Story Design program, the four students developed a fully produced project that they could showcase in their portfolios upon graduation. Kelly, one of the co-creators, saw Met-TV posters around campus asking for pitch submissions for shows. Along with Pearson, Forrester and Turnbull, the students brainstormed ideas around creating a sketch comedy show that satirized a Canadian writers room.
“As screenwriting grad students, we wanted to poke fun at our own lives and experiences while creating sketch comedy that is relevant to millennials and gen Zs. We started writing and shooting sketches in March and shot two episodes worth of sketches by the end of the semester,” Pearson described. “Michelle, a stand-up comedian in her own right, suggested we submit our show to the CBC Stand Up and Pitch competition at Just For Laughs, and then we got selected as finalists after submitting a script, pitch deck and some short sketches.”
After further developing the concept for Writers Room Sketch Show, Forrester and Pearson traveled to Montreal to pitch to Just for Laughs ComedyPro. After a long day of travelling and waiting in anticipation, they finally got the news that they had won the competition.
“The day of the pitch was very long – we had a tech run at 10 a.m. and we were pitching at 3 p.m.. We spent most of the day running it over and over again, in between over-caffeinating ourselves,” said Forrester. “Following the pitch, Marileina and I were at a networking event, and we received an email from the team advising us that we had won. We were elated; after a 13 hour work day, it felt like we had been through the ringer and this news made it truly worth it. Picture two women in the middle of a star studded party jumping up and down like we had won the lottery.”
The students will now go on to the next stage of production for their sketch and will receive invaluable mentorship and professional development from industry professionals.