OVER THE LEGE Comes to The Institution Theater

Over the Lege-the number one, and some say only, political satire comedy show exposing the shenanigans of the Texas Legislature-returns to The Institution Theater with a live podcast recording on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, February 14th-16th, at 8:00 p.m.

The brainchild of Director Stephanie Chiarello, Over the Lege teaches audiences how to watch over-and positively impact-the Texas Legislature. "As the Legislature gets more absurd," Chiarello muses, "writing a parody of it gets harder and harder. If we just read transcripts from some of the debates, the audience would bet that it was fiction."

Sometimes, the cast is similarly shocked by the truth. "A Latino cast member didn't know about poll taxes. A while later, he visited his grandpa and told him about this sketch. His grandpa left the room and came back with a receipt from having to pay a poll tax in order to vote."

"When we were talking about writing a sketch about having to crowdfund rape kits in Texas, cast members thought that I had just made that up because it was so absurd.

It's like throwing a pebble in the water, and watching the ripples. When I can get just one person to pay more attention to state politics, that's kind of all I need."

Many voters do not know what the state legislature does because only national politics interests them. Some voters only become aware during presidential campaigns. Others never even vote. Can comedy cure this civic irresponsibility?

Chiarello thinks so. "I decided to put together Over the Lege after realizing that I spent an incredible amount of time watching legislators say and do things that I thought were inappropriate, but nobody was paying attention. At the same time, people knew what was happening at the national level because they were also entertained by comedy shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I wanted to see if I could put together something that was Texas specific."

Thus, Over the Lege was born, premiering in September 2016 at The Institution Theater, and now in its fifth year.

Not all the sketches are funny. Some are just meant to educate. "We had a terrible time trying to figure out how to do a sketch about school shootings after the Texas Legislature refused to pass gun control legislation, but did pass a bleeding control bill which means we have stations in school so the kids can wrap each other up after they've been shot. The writer presented five versions to us before we settled on one."

OTLPodcast will be similar in mission, but different in structure from the theatrical version of OTL.

Local comedians and a celebrity guest associated with the legislature will play Texas Legislature themed trivia games recorded before a live studio audience.

Celebrity guests include:

Friday, February 14th - Cliff Walker, TDP Executive Director

Saturday, February 15th - State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez

Sunday, February 16th - Texas Tribune Managing Editor Ross Ramsey

Comedians include:

Friday, February 14th - Aaron Salinas, Kevin miller

Saturday, February 15th - Aaron Salinas, Liz Morris

Sunday, February 16th - Aaron Salinas, Jeremy Sweetlamb

Tickets for the live recordings may be purchased here: bit.ly/OTLPodTkt.

The podcast may be found anywhere you get your podcasts and is called Over the Lege, The Live Podcast!