A broader sense of humor

Josie Dykas has had her fill of the service industry. The Latina comic has played a maid, a busboy, and a dishwasher on stages all across Chicago, and she's more than ready to throw in her towel.

"It's just assumed I speak Spanish and eat beans and rice," she says, laughing. "But I'm half white and Polish, too, and I grew up speaking English."

African-American performer Kevin Douglas can relate to being pigeonholed. "So many times, you're the only African-American person in the class, so you're pretty much Shakira or Colin Powell in every scene."

Tomorrow night, Ms. Dykas and Mr. Douglas will get their chance to play everybody from a flashy record producer to reggae artist Shaggy at the première of a new minority sketch revue sponsored by Second City on Chicago's North Side. A new Second City theater, scheduled to open next fall on the South Side, will feature only minority performers.

Andrew Alexander, owner of Second City, hopes the walls between white and black audiences and performers will come crashing down, like the high rises of public housing being torn down on Chicago's South Side.

This is the latest, and most ambitious effort of the renowned improv theater - which has launched comedians from Bill Murray to Bonnie Hunt - to include minority voices. And Mr. Alexander says he's already seeing encouraging signs.

"Because of the awareness of what we're doing," Alexander says, "it's opened up a dialogue in the community, and we're starting to see that on our North Side Second City. There are more African-Americans coming to the training center."

For a theater known for its improvised sketches, this is one act that's not spur of the moment.

"There's a need [for this program] because Chicago is very segregated," says Dionna Griffin, director of the Outreach Program. "If we are improvising, you have to have all these different perspectives. You have to have your take, my take."

Alexander has the "if we build it, they will come" attitude. He plans to build a new theater and training center in Bronzeville, a predominantly black Chicago neighborhood. Alexander says that Second City desperately needs another theater that stars minority performers "because a lot of African-American performers seem to go straight into standup and aren't coming into this ensemble work.

"We felt that if we get into the community, we could make this kind of work more accessible."

Performer and writer Dykas hopes this push for diversity works in her favor. She dreams of landing a role on Second City's main stage some day (the crème de la crème for improv performers). Dykas says that comedy, either ensemble or standup, is not a natural career for Latinas. She's beating the odds already.

"Because we weren't brought up that way," says Dykas, who works as a waitress to make ends meet. "We were taught to 'be there for your man....' Being funny and aggressive is not promoted."

Producer Kelly Leonard says that the creation of the African-American/Latino Second City, called Brownco, has helped them focus their efforts and successfully attract more minorities. Now, he says, they have to train them.

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