Formation | 2015 |
---|---|
Type | Theatre group |
Purpose | Improvisational comedy |
Location | |
Website | www |
Blackout Improv is an improvisational comedy theatre troupe in Minneapolis, Minnesota. [1] Founded in 2015, the cast is completely black. Topics of monthly comedy performances include standard improv audience suggestions as well as a special focus on civil rights issues like police brutality, white privilege, and cultural appropriation. [2] Blackout Improv responded to the shooting of Jamar Clark [3] as well as the acquittal of police officer Jeronimo Yanez after the shooting of Philando Castile. [4]
Blackout founded the Black and Funny Improv Festival [5] with the intent to bring more people of color to the Twin Cities improv theater scene. [6] Blackout Improv regularly performs at HUGE Theater, Mixed Blood Theatre in Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis, and other venues throughout Minnesota. [2]
Blackout's founders are Alsa Bruno, Joy Dolo Anfinson, Andy Hilbrands, John Gebretatose and Kory LaQuess Pullam. [7]
Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted, created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script.
Mall of America (MoA) is a large shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota. Located within the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, the mall lies southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north of the Minnesota River, and across the Interstate from the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. It opened in 1992, and is the largest mall in the United States, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, and the twelfth largest shopping mall in the world.
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise. It is the oldest improvisational theater troupe to be continuously based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959, and has become one of the most influential and prolific comedy theatres in the English-speaking world. In February 2021, ZMC, a private equity investment firm based in Manhattan, purchased the Second City.
The Brave New Workshop (BNW), based in Minneapolis, Minnesota was founded by Dudley Riggs in 1958 and is the longest running sketch and improvisational comedy theater in the US. BNW continues the tradition, of writing, producing, and performing as a Resident Theatre of Hennepin Theatre Trust.
Dudley Riggs was an improvisational comedian who created the Instant Theater Company in New York, which later moved to Minneapolis to become the Brave New Workshop comedy troupe.
The Minneapolis Armory is a historic event center and former National Guard armory located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Built by the Public Works Administration in 1936, the building was occupied by several Army and Naval Militia units of the Minnesota National Guard from its opening until 1985. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Minnesota Fringe Festival is a performing arts festival held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, every summer, usually during the first two weeks in August. The eleven-day event, which features performing artists of many genres and disciplines, is one of many Fringe Festivals in North America. Minnesota Fringe is the largest nonjuried festival in the United States and the third-largest Fringe festival in North America. In 2013, Minnesota Fringe ran August 1–11 and featured 176 shows with a total of 895 performances in multiple venues around the city and distributed 50,007 tickets over the eleven-day event. In 2007, attendance and box office revenue were adversely affected by the collapse of the I-35W bridge the day before the festival opened.
Oui Be Negroes is an African-American improvisational sketch comedy ensemble, founded by Artistic Director Shaun Landry and Director Hans Summers. They worked together for many years in Chicago with the Underground Theatre Conspiracy, and had thrown around the idea of an African-American-driven sketch and improvisational comedy troupe, which would be geared specifically toward social and political humor.
Improv A Go-Go is a weekly showcase for local improvisational theatre groups in the Twin Cities. Produced by Five Man Job and hosted by HUGE Theater, it runs most Sundays during the year.
Walking Shadow Theatre Company is a Minneapolis-based professional non-profit theatre company which was founded in 2004 by John Heimbuch, Amy Rummenie and David Pisa with the following aims: to develop the talents of its artists, to nurture audience commitment to the arts, to facilitate dialogue within the community and to examine local culture in a global context. The company's name comes from Act V, Scene V of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Heimbuch currently serves as the company's Artistic Director; Pisa currently serves as the company's Executive Director.
Charles Henry Sanders is an American actor, comedian, and Writers Guild Award–winning writer best known for starring as Officer Joe Stubeck in the MTV comedy-action series Death Valley, writing on all five seasons of Key & Peele and creating the YouTube Premium series Weird City. He is currently hosting the hit podcast 'Bald Talk' on iHeartMedia with comedian and actor Brian Huskey.
HUGE Improv Theater is a Minneapolis artist-led non-profit theater company founded in 2005 by improvisers Jill Bernard, Butch Roy, Nels Lennes, Joe Bozic and Mike Fotis, dedicated to long-form improvisational theater.
Delrae Knutson is a stage actress and singer from Minnesota, USA specializing in musical comedy. She started her career in 1981 and has performed in theaters throughout the United States and Canada, though most of her work has been in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota, USA.
Jeff Gerbino is an American stand-up comedian, actor and former radio show host. Gerbino is the originator of professional stand-up comedy in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota.
Chris Knutson is an American stand-up comedian from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is known for his work as half of the comedy-rap duo Valley Meadows. Patrick Strait of City Pages said that "Knutson has established himself as one of the most consistently funny performers" in the Midwest.
William C. "Bill" Young was an American stand-up comedian from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Young appeared on three comedy albums released by Stand Up! Records, including the posthumous career retrospective Eat the Cake!, released in 2023.