Can I Use This Chair?

Written by Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, “Can I Use This Chair?” was directed by senior Dania Baig for SET. Heavily based on comedic timing, this scene follows Danny, a man in an audition room whose monologue involves continually asking if he can use a chair and getting worked up when he gets no response, so when the casting directors continually answer the question, his frustrations heighten.

Senior Nicholas Merchant played Danny and noted that the repetition in his scene allowed him to express humor through his character’s experience rather than his lines.

“A challenge when working on “Can I Use This Chair” was to keep it fresh for the audience,” he said. “There’s a lot of repetition in the script, so it was very important that the performance didn’t feel repetitive and that each time he asks if he can use the chair, there was something new comedically that I was adding. Although a challenge, I loved this about the play because it allowed us as actors to have a lot of fun with timing and creating comedy from our interactions and chemistry rather than just relying funny lines.