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.
Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is commonly known as the Twin Cities after the area's two largest cities, Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Minnesotans often refer to the two together simply as "the cities". The area is Minnesota's economic, cultural, and political center.
Target Center is a multi-purpose arena located in Minneapolis that opened in 1990. It hosts major family shows, concerts, sporting events, graduations and private events. Target Corporation, founded and headquartered in Minneapolis since 1902, has held the naming rights to the arena since its opening.
William Smith King was a Republican U.S. Representative for Minnesota from March 4, 1875, to March 3, 1877. He was a journalist and businessman. He is best known for allegations of political corruption during this congressional term. The House of Representatives did not specify his offense, but decided it was constitutionally unable to punish him for actions that took place before he entered Congress. He did not run for reelection.
Thomas Lowry was an American lawyer, real-estate magnate, and businessman who oversaw much of the early growth of the streetcar lines in the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and surrounding communities in Minnesota. He became head of the Minneapolis Street Railway Co., later to become part of Twin City Rapid Transit (TCRT). He is not known to be a relative of Sylvanus Lowry, the slaveholder and profiteer of slavery-related enterprise from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
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.
Lowry Hill East, also known as the Wedge, is a neighborhood in southwest Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, part of the Calhoun Isles community. Lowry Hill East developed in the 1880s along a horse-drawn streetcar line built by Thomas Lowry. The interior of the neighborhood is residential, with large early 20th century homes and multi-unit apartment buildings, while the border streets are lined with bars, restaurants, grocery stores, coffeeshops, and other small businesses. Most housing is renter-occupied.
The Windom neighborhood is located in the Southwest community of Minneapolis. Its borders are Diamond Lake Road and West 54th Street to the north, Interstate 35W to the east, West 62nd Street to the south, and Lyndale Avenue South and Highway 121 to the west.
East Harriet is a neighborhood in the Southwest community in Minneapolis. Its boundaries are West 36th Street to the north, Lyndale Avenue South to the east, West 46th Street to the south, and Lake Harriet, Lakewood Cemetery, and William Berry Parkway to the west.
Kenny is a neighborhood in the Southwest community in Minneapolis. Its boundaries are West 54th Street to the north, Lyndale Avenue South and Highway 121 to the east, West 62nd Street to the south, and Logan Avenue South to the west.
Jet City Improv is an Improvisational theatre troupe from Seattle, Washington, United States. The troupe was founded in 1992 and is operated by Wing-It Productions, a 501(c)(3) non-profit company, from their theater located at 55th Avenue and University Way NE in Seattle's U-District.
King Field is a neighborhood in the Southwest community in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Its boundaries are 36th Street to the north, Interstate 35W to the east, 46th Street to the south, and Lyndale Avenue to the west. King Field, within the King Field neighborhood is a park named after Martin Luther King Jr.
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.
The Peoples Improv Theater (PIT), also known as the PIT, is a comedy theater and training center in New York City, founded by comedian Ali Farahnakian in 2002. Shows combine improvisational comedy, sketch comedy, stand-up, theater, and variety. Each show is hosted by a combination of "house teams" of comedians hired by PIT and by outside comedians.
Lyndale Avenue is a major street in the U.S. state of Minnesota that traverses the cities of Minneapolis, Brooklyn Center, Richfield, and Bloomington. A noncontiguous portion also exists in Faribault, part of Highway 21. There are several commercial districts along the street, including Lyn-Lake in South Minneapolis, Shops at Lyndale in Richfield, and the Oxboro area in Bloomington. Portions of both Interstate 94 and Interstate 35 run on the right-of-way of Lyndale Avenue.
The Riverview Theater is a cinema in the Howe neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Designed by Liebenberg and Kaplan, the theater was built by theater owners Bill and Sidney Volk in 1948. After building a subsequent theater in a new ultramodern style, the Volks returned to the Riverview in 1956 and had its lobby area heavily renovated and updated. The Riverview remains one of several surviving single-screen cinemas in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area and typically showed second-run films until the COVID-19 pandemic, when it switched to showing first-run movies. Since the early 2000s, it has been consistently recognized by City Pages as one of the best movie theaters in the area.
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.
