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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.
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program The Colbert Report from 2005 to 2014 and the CBS talk program The Late Show with Stephen Colbert since September 2015.
Amy Louise Sedaris is an American actress, comedian, and writer. Most recently, she has appeared in both The Mandalorian (2019–2023) and The Book of Boba Fett (2022) as Peli Motto. She played Jerri Blank in the Comedy Central comedy series Strangers with Candy (1999–2000) and the prequel film Strangers with Candy (2005), which she also wrote.
Strangers with Candy is an American television sitcom created by Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Amy Sedaris, and Mitch Rouse that originally aired on Comedy Central from April 7, 1999, to October 2, 2000. Its timeslot was Sundays at 10:00 p.m. (ET). The series, inspired by after school specials, follows Jerri Blank (Sedaris) a 46-year-old woman, who after living as a prostitute and drug addict, decides to go back to high school and start doing things the right way. The series was produced by Comedy Partners, with Kent Alterman serving as executive producer and Colbert as co-producer.
The Annoyance Theatre, or Annoyance Productions, is a theatre and associated ensemble based in Chicago, Illinois, that deals mainly in absurd and outrageous humor. Many people who have performed with the ensemble have gone on to become successful stage and screen actors. Popular productions have included Co-Ed Prison Sluts and That Darned Antichrist. Annoyance Productions currently runs classes in improvisation, writing, musical improvisation, acting, and solo work.
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Viola Spolin was an American theatre academic, educator and acting coach. She is considered an important innovator in 20th century American theater for creating directorial techniques to help actors to be focused in the present moment and to find choices improvisationally, as if in real life. These acting exercises she later called Theater Games and formed the first body of work that enabled other directors and actors to create improvisational theater. Her book Improvisation for the Theater, which published these techniques, includes her philosophy and her teaching and coaching methods, and is considered the "bible of improvisational theater". Spolin's contributions were seminal to the improvisational theater movement in the U.S. She is considered to be the mother of Improvisational theater. Her work has influenced American theater, television and film by providing new tools and techniques that are now used by actors, directors and writers.
Paul E. Dinello is an American comedian, actor, and writer, best known for his collaborations with Stephen Colbert and Amy Sedaris. His accolades include five Primetime Emmy Awards, three PGA Awards, and two WGA Awards.
Strangers with Candy is a 2005 American comedy film directed by Paul Dinello, written by Dinello, Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris, and Mitch Rouse, and serves as a prequel to their 1999–2000 Comedy Central television series of the same name. Colbert co-produced the film alongside executive producer David Letterman. The film grossed $2.3 million.
iO, or iO Chicago, is an improv theater and training center in central Chicago, with a former branch in Los Angeles, called iO West and in Raleigh, North Carolina called iO South. The theater teaches and hosts performances of improvisational comedy. It was founded in 1981 by Del Close and Charna Halpern. The theater has many notable alumni, including Amy Poehler and Stephen Colbert.
The Improv Institute was an improvisational comedy company in Chicago from 1984 until 1994. The mainstage show was improvised following audience suggestions. The troupe had two storefront-theaters, both on West Belmont Avenue on Chicago's North side, first at 2939 W. Belmont (1984–1990), and later at 2319 W. Belmont (1991–1994).
Exit 57 is a 30-minute sketch comedy series that aired on the American television channel Comedy Central from 1995 to 1996; its cast was composed of comedians Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Jodi Lennon, Mitch Rouse, and Amy Sedaris, all of whom had previously studied improv at The Second City in Chicago. In 1999 Sedaris, Dinello, Colbert and Rouse also created the Comedy Central show Strangers with Candy.
Mick Napier is an American director and improvisational theater teacher. He is the founder and artistic director of the Annoyance Theatre and a director at The Second City. He has directed Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Horatio Sanz, Nia Vardalos, Andy Richter, Jeff Garlin, and David Sedaris.
David Pasquesi is an American actor and comedian. His screen credits include Groundhog Day, Strangers with Candy, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Return to Me, The Ice Harvest, Veep, At Home with Amy Sedaris, Lodge 49, and The Book of Boba Fett.
Wigfield: The Can Do Town That Just May Not is a satirical novel by comedians Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, and Stephen Colbert, three of the four creators of the Comedy Central show Strangers with Candy. It was first published on May 7, 2003, by Hyperion Books.
Edward Mitchell "Mitch" Rouse is an American film and television actor, director, and screenwriter. He is known for co-creating Comedy Central's Exit 57 (1995–1996) and Strangers with Candy (1999–2000), with fellow The Second City alumni Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris. In 2008 he created and starred in Spike TV's comedy series Factory.
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Mark Levenson, a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, is a musical director for The Second City Detroit. Levenson helped open Second City Detroit in 1993. In addition to his work with The Second City Detroit, Levenson scored the hit Comedy Central series, Strangers with Candy. He has also written music for shows on MTV, VH-1, NBC and scored productions at both Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Levenson composed music for David Sedaris's two Off Broadway shows and numerous recording projects. He recently toured the country with Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello in their production of Wigfield, which concluded its run at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado.
Eric Forsberg is an American writer. He wrote and directed the feature film Mega Piranha, as well as the writer of the feature film Snakes on a Train, one of the first mockbusters produced and released by The Asylum. He also wrote the screenplays for 30,000 Leagues Under the Sea and War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave, also for The Asylum. He directed the film Alien Abduction which aired on Sci Fi Channel, as well as Night of the Dead which aired on Chiller TV. Other writer and director credits include the political thriller Torture Room, and the stoner comedy Sex Pot as well as Monster, Almighty Thor, Arachnoquake, and Age of the Hobbits. He also worked as a Co-Producer and assistant director on numerous films for Christopher Coppola and Alain Silver, including White Nights, Bel Air, and Palmer's Pickup. In his early years Forsberg was an improvisational comedy instructor at The Players Workshop and The Second City Training Center in Chicago.
Created in 1971 by Josephine Forsberg, The Players Workshop was Chicago's only official school of improvisation for over a decade. Although it was never officially a part of The Second City cabaret theater, The Players Workshop was often referred to as Players Workshop Of The Second City, due to the school's close affiliation with the famous sketch comedy stage. From 1971 through the mid-1990s, performers flocked to The Players Workshop to study improv with Josephine Forsberg, Linnea Forsberg, Martin de Maat, or one of the school's many other instructors, in the hopes of eventually getting onto The Second City mainstage.
References
- ↑ Scott, A. O. (2006-06-28). "Strangers With Candy - Review - Movies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-02-15.
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-05-15. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ↑ "Artist Corner: Greg Hollimon Interview". April 9, 2009. Archived from the original on August 29, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
