Nora Kirkpatrick, who plays the sweet and dizzy Courtney Cloverlock, had no objections to spending her entire summer on yet another college campus. “Shooting at the Buddhist college was such an interesting dynamic, because I think we really frightened the students at times," she recalls, "We would be in bikinis shooting a ‘slip and slide’ scene in the middle of the night, and they would stand on their steps wondering what the heck was going on. We all ate in the same cafeteria and there was a definite chalk line down the middle of the room. We were always in costume, I don't think they had any idea if we were shooting, or had simply lost our minds.”
Where did such a group of brainy comedians come from? The six students that conceived the idea were in the same UCLA comedy group and have also trained at various improv schools in LA. Although they write the show, they allowed much room for improvisation – especially the webcam section on Dorm-life.com. The cast actually lived in character in “5-South” to fully develop their personalities. “It’s funny, because the Courtney that was written originally is very different from the Courtney who exists in the episodes, due mostly to improv on set and having the freedom to not play the stereotype. Courtney, as written, was more of the spoiled sorority girl, but I thought she would be more interesting if she was a queen bee artistic type who always barrels straight ahead, even if it’s in the wrong direction. None of the writers were saying, 'No, I want it to be the way we wrote it.'" "They were very supportive of our input in our characters,” says Nora. Courtney Cloverlock even has an EP coming out called “Four Leaf Clover”, which will be available shortly on Dorm-life.com.
As you can imagine, a bunch of actors living together in character in tight living spaces made for one big dysfunctional, happy family. Nora recounted how they passed the time when they weren’t shooting. “Poncho Morris, who plays Josh, and I, would often improv in character for hours on set when we weren’t shooting. Once, Poncho found a wheelchair, and we pretended he was an elderly man bound to a wheelchair, and I was his nurse. This went on for hours. Although the scenario doesn’t sound ripe with humor, it was very, very funny to us for some reason. We also made up a play about a couple from New Jersey, which ended up being about a two-hour improv production.”
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Although it sounds like all fun and games, the long hours were grueling and the determination with no promise of recognition shows the dedication of these actors. “The cast gets along tremendously well, which is why I think the onscreen chemistry is so interesting. We were often shooting very late at night and into the early morning, and the only reason I think we got through some of these late nights was because we all had such respect for each other and how hard everyone was working on this project. It really was like kids putting on a show: There was no real higher power behind the scenes. It was a group of friends writing the show, decorating the set, finding costumes, doing our own makeup and improvising all of our own Webcams. The crew numbered two – a director and a camera/sound man.”
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Dorm Life is actually so popular it is now in its second season and is the most viewed series on Hulu. Not to mention the second season premiere on Myspace.com and sponsorship from Carls Jr. What is so different about this series that it demands such a cult following? Well, for starters it’s not like every other college series about Fraternities and Sororities. It’s about the dorms, where personalities are more likely to clash, thus bringing more absurdly amusing situations. Secondly, it is written first hand from real life college kids and real life college drama, which are, more often then not, more funny and relatable then anything you could dream up organically. It didn’t start out as a huge success either, it was the work of the cast that made it that way. Through Facebook and Myspace, the students campaigned and got friends onboard. Each character even has their own Facebook and Myspace page. With such a witty, entertaining product, it wasn’t hard to get people buzzin’ - and the rest is history.
By Kiowa Bryan
By Kiowa Bryan
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