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Abby Howells (Left) and Caitlin McNaughton (Right) are directing 2013’s Wizard of Oz-themed Capping Show, which kicks off this Wednesday. Bella Macdonald interviewed them during one of their nightly rehearsals.

What do you see as the purpose of the Capping Show?

Caitlin: I guess it was originally to celebrate the graduation; it kind of still is, but it has moved away from that a bit. It brings a whole bunch of students together – all the students that are in the cast, not just theatre students.

How often do you rehearse?

Abby: It starts off about three to four times a week and then it builds up to every single night.

Caitlin: Three hours a night for rehearsal, and the weekend probably 20 hours-ish.

What are some of the minority groups that the Capping Show will be offending this year?

Abby: The gays. Actually we are quite pro-gay. Jetstar, Margaret Thatcher. We have an Indian member of cast this year…

Caitlin: He has been typecast in a lot of roles. We never go out to offend, it just happens. And Suzanne Paul.

How did you get the role as directors?

Caitlin: I was in the Capping Show from 2010, and co-directed it last year and I sort of just volunteered to do it again because I wanted to do it with Abby.

Abby: I started in 2011 and I was assistant director this year and moved up to director this year. It’s been really great working with Caitlin. We’re possibly the first two female co-directors.

What motivates you to keep being involved with the show?

Caitlin: You just get like 22 new friends each year. And everybody that is involved is without fail a fantastic group of people to spend every night with. It’s a pretty stressful time but it always pays off the moment you get the first laugh on opening night, it’s just like the best feeling in the world.

Abby: It’s where I’ve met all my friends. I’ve never really fitted in anywhere else, and I do this show with a bunch of weirdos who like Monty Python and The Office and stuff like me. So that’s why I keep coming.

What can viewers expect from this year’s show?

Caitlin: We were astounded by the quality of sketches this year, so they can prepare themselves for a slightly more cleverer show than normal. There are really a lot of great character sketches and people doing funny things on stage.

Abby: Caitlin and I don’t like the pun groan sketches so you’ll find very few of them this year.

Caitlin: Abby’s and my style of comedy differ in some ways from the typical Capping Show. We like to think that we are kind of being kinder to the audience by assuming they are smarter than people have assumed them to be in the past.

How many people are involved in the show?

Abby: Including everything, the ballet, Sextet, I think it’s 120.

Caitlin: Our part of the show is 16 actors and six writers so that’s sort of who we are in charge of. And then there’s the crew like video, lighting …

How many people auditioned? What was the talent like in the auditions?

Abby: We had about 80 audition and we had to choose 16.

Caitlin: The auditions are really hard, they have to do a lot of improvising by themselves, it is really tough.

How do you see the future of the Capping Show?

Abby: I think every year it gets more and more professional in terms of standard of acting and writing and the people they have on board, like our props guy this year is an actual artist. The guy who is doing sound has written a manual on doing sound. Hopefully it’s going to get better and better. In the old days it used to sell out the Regent. Would be cool if it just expanded even more.

Caitlin: As well as getting more professional it’s getting more and more clever each year in terms of writing, there’s been more of a focus on how to write sketches so the quality of sketches has been improving. So hopefully that will continue to improve in future years.