Arcade Comedy’s fourth Sketchville festival gets an upstairs-downstairs twist

Arcade Comedy’s sketch comedy festival Sketchville takes over the upstairs/ downstairs theaters of the Downtown venue, with multitheater triple features Friday and Saturday nights.

For the fourth Sketchville in six years, six Pittsburgh-based troupes will offer performances of new material at 7, 8:30 and 10 p.m. Each show will run just over an hour and feature two sketch troupes, as well as a recurring series of story elements by local playwrights Joe Lyons and Fred Betzner.

Audiences who attend multiple shows in a night will be able to see up to six different sketch troupes, as well as pick up on a storyline that runs through all three shows.

“We wanted to try something totally new for Arcade: giving audiences a chance to see multiple shows in a night, one after the other, spanning two floors,” said Mike Rubino, director of programming. “We’re taking over the entire building.”

Participating troupes are Frankly Scarlett, Secondhand Sketch, The Big Deal and Cousins, who have the first-floor theater, while JFLE and The Oneders will perform upstairs. There will be 30 performers a night on each stage in Arcade’s first sketch festival since moving from smaller digs across the street to the larger 943 Liberty Ave. building.

With the move, Arcade has been trying new performances, including a musical and an upcoming full-length play.

Actor-director Don DiGiulio is Sketchville director, working with festival producers Mike Rubino and Mindy

Cooper, and Arcade technical director Aaron Tarnow.

Mike Rubino The women of Frankly Scarlett — from left, Liz Labacz, Abby Fudor and Robin Hitchcock — are among six comedy troupes in Arcade Comedy’s Sketchville.