Before

A lot happened in the six or so years before there was even talk about The Halftime Show or the two previously named comedy troupes. For most of the founding members, it all started in a little place called SUNY Oswego. It’s a nice little college in upstate New York located on lake Ontario, about forty-five minutes north of Syracuse. It was a great place for a group of curious improv individuals to make their start and learn the basics of improvisation. The comedy troupe was called The Shaun Cassidy Fan Club. The troupe had a slight connection with the Oswego theater department, partly because half of the members were also theater majors. I guess that’s just how things work out.

The members of the now Halftime Show started attending SUNY Oswego in the fall of 1994. C.L. Weatherstone was the first to start school, but not the first to join The Shaun Cassidy Fan Club. In 1994 the troupe was run by a group of students and they were performing in various rooms around Tyler Hall (the theater building). The troupe was led by Christine Sinacore and Russ LaChanse. In 1994, Christine graduated and the next year Russ took over as president of the troupe. That year, The Halftime Show cast member Andy Chmelko and writer Mike Betette joined the comedy troupe along with many others including unforgettable members Brian Ciacco and Peter Kurys. During this year the troupe started performing on the lower level of the Union, in Timepieces. In 1996 both Andrew Girard and C.L. Weatherstone joined the troupe. At this time they were not only performing in Timepieces on Saturdays, but also on Wednesdays at a bar in town called Sarcastics. The troupe was coming together and that next year they were joined by Stephen Fecteau and Stephanie Johnson. The year was 1997 and Russ LaChanse, in his final year, was still president. The year went by smoothly, new members were joining and the audiences were growing. That year the comedy troupe(or Oswego, either one) graduated three key members: Russ LaChanse, Colleen Clohessy, and C.L. Weatherstone. In 1998 Mike Betette took over as president and Andy Chmelko was vice president. It seemed like each year the audiences were getting bigger and the group was working together better than they ever had. As people were leaving, new members were joining. In 1998 Peter Kurys graduated and then in 1999 Mike Betette, Andy Chmelko, and Stephanie Johnson left Oswego as well, and moved on to better things. In fall of 1999, Andrew Girard and Stephen Fecteau took over the troupe and did a joint presidency.

During that same year, C.L. Weatherstone and Stephanie Johnson moved to New York City. Mike Betette had moved to Chicago and joined a group of past Shaun Cassidy members: Christine Sinacore, Russ LaChanse, and Colleen Clohessy who had moved there previously. Later that same year Andy Chmelko moved to New York City and started performing in a comedy troupe called Horsey.

So, how did our comedy troupe get started? It all happened after an audition that C.L. and Stephanie had gone to for an improv troupe. Both of them were called back, but neither of them made it in. One weekend the two of them were going home and they took the same bus. They started talking about not getting into the troupe and how they should just start their own troupe. C.L. had come up with the name The Lorne Michaels Fanclub and they began looking for places to perform. They called up Peter Kurys who was living in Staten Island and got him into the troupe. Things were rolling and they were performing here and there, but it got hard with only three people and this random guy Jeff. Then there was an idea to change the name and finally the majority won and the name was changed to D*O*R*K. The troupe performed a few more times here and there, but still there were only a few people in the troupe. C.L. and Stephanie had been cast in shows and the troupe was put on hiatus for a while.

In spring of 2000 Andrew Girard and Stephen Fecteau graduated from school and Andrew moved to New York City in June. At that time there were ideas to get the troupe going again. Andy C. stopped performing with Horsey and the troupe started meeting again. Later in September Steve moved down to the city and the troupe was performing again. Peter was unable to perform because of time conflicts so the troupe was made up of five people: C.L., Steph, Andy, Steve and Andrew.

A month later the troupe got an email from a familiar person. A couple of the group members had met him before and had hung out in Oswego with him. His name was Brandon, and though he didn’t go to Oswego, he was friends with some other friends that did go to Oswego. One of them being Christine Sinacore. She told Brandon to get in touch with us and from that day on he became a member of the troupe. Just the six of them performed for a while and later that year, Christine Marie Horstman was added to the troupe. It may be a long story, but it ends here and brings us right up to that cold night in February….