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.
Brave New Workshop was founded in 1958 by Dudley Riggs, a fifth-generation circus aerialist who performed all over the globe. Riggs's parents were circus and vaudeville performers, and he regularly joked that he ran away from the circus to find a home. BNW was originally known as the “Instant Theatre Company.” Riggs assembled and led a talented group of writers and performers intending to make people think by first making them laugh. In the late ’50s, the troupe travelled to Minneapolis and performed at a restaurant called Steffano’s. The Instant Theater Company then decided to stay in Minneapolis and create a performing space for themselves; "Dudley Riggs' Cafe Espresso" opened in a former garage at 18 University Avenue NE. In 1961 the venue relocated to 207 E. Hennepin Avenue, and after much planning and brainstorming, and with help from friends Dick Guindon, Irv Letofsky, and Dan Sullivan, this would be the beginning of the satirical comedy theatre that was known for many years as Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop. [1] [2] [3] [4] Four years later, in 1965, the theatre moved to 2605 Hennepin Avenue, a space that had been a bicycle shop, and would be home to the theatre for most of the following four decades. [5]
The Brave New Workshop took its name from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and bills itself as the oldest ongoing satirical comedy theater in the nation. Nearly 400 original productions have been mounted on Brave New Workshop stages for more than three million people. Improv and sketch comedy shows can be seen on its stage nearly every weekend.
In March 1997, Riggs sold the theater to John Sweeney, Jenni Lilledahl, and Mark Bergren. Bergren left the Brave New Workshop in 1999 to pursue other interests. The name of the theater changed slightly to "The Brave New Workshop, founded by Dudley Riggs in 1958." Despite the name change, BNW continued to produce all-original sketch comedy and improvisation revues on a year-round basis. They also oversaw the Brave New Institute, a training center for improvisation. The school claimed to have the most broad-based improv curriculum of any training center in the country, with more than 300 students and specific programming for performers, non-performers, youth, seniors, and corporations.
In December 2021, Hennepin Theatre Trust purchased the assets of BNW as well as the Dudley Riggs Theatre, located at 824 Hennepin Avenue with the vision of carrying on BNW's long-standing legacy of world-class sketch comedy and improvisation. [6]
Early locations for Riggs' venue were across the Mississippi River from downtown Minneapolis, at 18 University Avenue NE and 207 East Hennepin Avenue. In 1965, Riggs moved the company to its historic location at 2605 Hennepin Avenue South, where it remained until 1998, when the BNW moved four blocks south to Calhoun Square in Uptown Minneapolis. Finding the location a financial burden, the company returned to 2605 Hennepin in 2002. The Brave New Workshop also operated a satellite location in neighboring Saint Paul, Minnesota for five years before closing in 2006. In 1971, a satellite theater and cafe, the "ETC" ("Experimental Theatre Company," not to be confused with The Brave New Workshop's current "Experimental Thinking Centre"), opened in the Southern Theatre at Seven Corners in the Cedar Riverside area of Minneapolis' West Bank. In 2010, previous owners John Sweeney and Jenni Lilledahl purchased the Hennepin Stages Theater at 824 Hennepin Avenue (the longtime home to productions such as Tony n' Tina's Wedding) in downtown Minneapolis. The historic location at 2605 Hennepin Avenue was sold in August 2014. In December 2021 the 824 Hennepin Ave building was purchased by the Hennepin Theatre Trust. The building was renamed Dudley Riggs Theatre in November 2022 and currently houses the theater where the main stage sketch comedy shows are performed, as well as an event space.
BNW, was closed by executive order in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The troupe returned to the stage as a Hennepin Theatre Trust Resident Theatre in May 2022. Recent shows include Back to Workshop or Everything's Fine! (Summer 2022), This Show is Cheaper Than Gas - America on Empty (Fall 2022), and The Best Christmas Show in Three Years (2022).
Notable alumni of the Brave New Workshop include Louie Anderson, Mo Collins, Tom Davis, Al Franken, Penn Jillette, Carl Lumbly, Paul Menzel, Pat Proft, Annie Reirson, Taylor Nikolai, Nancy Steen, Peter Tolan, Linda Wallem, Lizz Winstead, [7] Peter MacNicol, Melissa Peterman, and Cedric Yarbrough. [8]
The Brave New Workshop is a Resident Theatre of the Hennepin Theatre Trust. Caleb McEwen, who has been with BNW for 26 years and part of more than 100 productions, currently serves as the artistic director. [9] Matthew Vichlach, veteran Technical Director continues to provide Light, Sound and Video Design. Long time performers Lauren Anderson, Taj Ruler, Denzel Belin and Jon Pumper (music director) have all returned to the writer's room and the stage. They are joined again by a more recent addition, Doug Neithercott (long time Twin Cities performer) to continue the tradition of Promiscuous Hostility and Positive Neutrality started by Riggs more than 60 years ago.
The Brave New Workshop was the featured entertainment for Disney Cruise Lines for several years, and the resident comedy-writing team for NPR's "All Things Considered." Brave New Workshop actors have worked with Minnesota Public Radio's comedy show Wits, hosted by John Moe.
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.
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is used widely in variety shows, comedy talk shows, and some sitcoms and children's television series. The sketches may be improvised live by the performers, developed through improvisation before public performance, or scripted and rehearsed in advance like a play. Sketch comedians routinely differentiate their work from a "skit", maintaining that a skit is a (single) dramatized joke while a sketch is a comedic exploration of a concept, character, or situation.
Hennepin County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its county seat is Minneapolis, the state's most populous city. The county is named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. The county extends from Minneapolis to the suburbs and outlying cities in the western part of the county. The county’s natural areas are covered with extensive woods, hills, and lakes.
Sue Scott is an American actress and character voice actor (AFTRA/SAG/AEA) in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. She is best known for her work as a radio comedy actor on Garrison Keillor's public radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, and for her work as a voice-over talent in radio and television commercials. She has also appeared in films and television.
Paul Menzel is an American actor, writer, producer, and business consultant in Houston, Texas.
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 Comedy Workshop and the attached Comix Annex was a comedy club in Houston, Texas. Opened in 1978 It was quite popular in the 1980s and the breeding ground for a group of influential comics, once known as the Texas Outlaw Comics that included Ron Shock, Riley Barber, Bill Hicks, Jimmy Pineapple, Steve Epstein, John Farnetti, Carl LaBove and Andy Huggins. Comedian Brett Butler of Grace Under Fire fame and SNL longtime writer T. Sean Shannon honed their skills as members of the CW competitive dysfunction. In addition, Sam Kinison had his beginnings at the Workshop as well, with it being the location of where his 1993 posthumous comedy album, Live from Hell, was recorded.
The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts is a performing arts center and flagship for dance in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Cowles Center was developed as an incubation project by Artspace Projects, Inc and includes the refurbished 500-seat Goodale Theater ; the Hennepin Center for the Arts, home to 20 leading dance and performing arts organizations; a state-of-the-art education studio housing a distance learning program; and an atrium connecting the buildings. The Cowles Center is a catalyst for the creation, presentation and education of dance in the Twin Cities.
The Pantages Theatre is a historic theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The original building was a Beaux-Arts style twelve-story complex on Hennepin Avenue, designed by Kees & Colburn and operated by Alexander Pantages, a Greek immigrant who opened 500 theatres.
Orpheum Theatre is a theater located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is one of four restored theaters on Hennepin Avenue, along with the Pantages Theatre, the State Theatre and the Shubert Theatre.
Minneapolis is the largest city in the US state of Minnesota, and the county seat of Hennepin County.
Peter James Tolan III is an American television producer, director, and screenwriter.
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.
Josephine Forsberg was an American comedian, teacher and author.
John Sweeney is an American keynote speaker, author, and owner of the Brave New Workshop Comedy Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The State Theatre is a historic theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. It is one of four restored theatres in the Hennepin Theatre District.
James Francis Doughan is an American actor, teacher and writer. He is best known for his roles as Detective Doyle in The Mask (1994) and Detective Allen as well as the voice of Lucky the Cat in Stuart Little (1999) and the head coach for the soccer team Stuart and his human brother, George Little, play for in Stuart Little 2 (2002). He is currently a performing arts teacher at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, California.
Blackout Improv is an improvisational comedy theatre troupe in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 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. Blackout Improv responded to the shooting of Jamar Clark as well as the acquittal of police officer Jeronimo Yanez after the shooting of Philando Castile.
Dan Sullivan was a widely-read American theater critic with columns in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Minneapolis Tribune, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He was the director of the Eugene O'Neill National Critics Institute, and co-founded the American Theater Critics Association. He was a founding member of Brave New Workshop, which for more than half a century continues to be a theater venue for satiric comedy in Minneapolis.
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