Since 26-year-old Blake Petit graduated from Nicholls, it has been a dream of his to watch one of his plays acted out before a live audience.
And although the 2000 alumnus and local playwright had already penned an entire play, it was never was performed on stage.
But today, with his second play, the Ama native’s dream finally becomes reality.
Petit’s comedy, “The 3-D Radio Show” opens tonight at the Jean Lafitte Cultural Center Theatre at 314 St. Mary St. The production, part of the Thibodaux Playhouse, will run through Saturday and again from Feb. 6-7 at 7:30 p.m., with a 2 p.m. matinee on Feb. 8. Tickets cost $8 for the general public and $6 for students. For more information, call (985) 446-1896.
“I feel great that it’s finally being done with such a great cast of actors and a spectacular director,” Petit said. “It’s a different kind of show that we normally do at the Thibodaux Playhouse. I think it will surprise a lot of people. We just want people to come see it and enjoy themselves.”
In “The 3-D Radio Show,” a group of modern actors try to create their own radio variety show imitating classic radio comedies, soap operas and westerns. But the group encounters numerous obstacles and distractions as equipment fails and staff members quarrel. The production seems to always be one step away from disaster.
The radio crew — a cast of 11 members — performs its shows through microphones set up on stage, making the audience feel as though they are watching a live broadcast.
Heather Petit, Blake’s sister and sound technician actor in the play, said “The 3-D Radio Show” is the second production she’s been a part of. She enjoys working with a smaller cast and acting with humor.
“It’s been exciting to be in a play that is different from the norm,” Heather Petit, a mass communication senior, said. “The director has been taking some of the scripts that are already funny and making them even funnier. If this play takes off one day, I want to say I was a part of the first one.”
Blake Petit gained some of his ideas for his play from old-fashioned radio shows he loves, with “Amos and Andy” and “Abbott and Castello” being his favorites. Some of the ideas also came to him when recalling his performance in “The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged” while a student at Nicholls, he said.
“I’ve always been a fan of classic comedy radio shows,” Blake Petit said. “I wanted to make a show with that kind of quality and humor. But I always say I write a script; it’s the performers who make it a play.”
As he was composing the play, Petit observed many old-fashioned comedies to gain new ideas for the scenes. The play also contains references to current entertainment programming, such as MTV’s “The Real World,” “Star Wars” and sporting events.
“I try to include a little of every time period so I can and put it all together,” Petit said.
Petit finished most of the rough draft within a month, but he had trouble creating a catchy ending. Months later, he picked up his pen once again and finished.
Petit, who earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communication, has been involved in theater since 1997. He has performed in about 18 plays — eight as a student for The Nicholls Players and 10 at the Thibodaux Playhouse.
A board member of the Thibodaux Playhouse, Petit showed his work to many of his friends, including Rone Garcia Bourgeois, who serves on the board’s reading committee. After Bourgeois proposed the play to the theater’s board, it was approved for performance.
Petit has never directed a play, and he chose not to direct “The 3-D Radio Show.” But he was excited when he discovered that Bourgeois, his close friend, would direct the play.
“It was so important for her to be the director,” Petit said. “She knows my sense of humor and how to translate that onto stage. She and I really have the same goofy sense of humor.”
Petit hopes to one day have “The 3-D Radio Show” published, but he will be relying on the audience’s response to his work before he makes improvements and queries publications for print.
Petit also wrote a humorous novel, “Other People’s Heroes,” which was published by Publish America in the summer of 2002. He has also authored several short stories published in many magazines, and he recently finished drafts for two more books — a suspense novel and a children’s novel.
Petit, who did not gain an interest in drama until he came to Nicholls, is perhaps best known for his entertainment reviews and columns for the Internet site Comixtream.com and his award-winning weekly humor column for the St. Charles Herald-Guide, where he serves as managing editor.
During his years as a student, Petit was involved with more than drama. He was a member of student media as the 3-year Lagniappe editor for The Nicholls Worth and a disc jockey for KNSU.
He was also a member of the Colonel marching band, concert band, chamber singers and Phi Mu Alpha Symphonia, a musical fraternity.
“Nicholls has made a great impact on me,” Petit said. “I wouldn’t have gotten involved with drama if not for the plays I participated in at Nicholls. I wouldn’t be waiting to see my own play being performed.”