Madcap Theater is a shortform improvisational comedy group located in Westminster, Colorado. Opened in 2006 by improv actors Russ Faillaci and Brian Harper, the group performs weekly improv shows and offers improv classes. [1] In 2007, 2008, and 2009, it was voted Denver's best live comedy venue by ABC Channel 7. [2] Unique from many other improvisational comedy groups, Madcap performs family-friendly, clean comedy. [3] [4]
The theater closed in 2017. [5]
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.
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of improvisation can apply to many different faculties, across all artistic, scientific, physical, cognitive, academic, and non-academic disciplines; see Applied improvisation.
The Groundlings are an improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school based in Los Angeles, California. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin, whose improvisational theater techniques were used by Del Close and other members of the Second City, located in Chicago and later St. Louis. They used these techniques to produce sketches and improvised scenes. Its name is taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act III, Scene II: "...to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumbshows and noise." In 1975 the troupe purchased and moved into its current location on Melrose Avenue.
The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre is an American improvisational theatre and training center, founded by the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe members, including Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh. It had locations in the New York City neighborhoods of Hell's Kitchen and the East Village and currently operates theaters in the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard. UCB was located in Chelsea West 26th St location from April 2003 until November 2017. After which the theatre moved to Hell's Kitchen, 555 West 42nd St in December 2017. The second theatre located in the East Village opened in 2011 and the Los Angeles expansion started in 2014.
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.
Robert Anderson Huebel is an American actor, comedian and writer best known for his sketch comedy work on the MTV series Human Giant and for his role of Dr. Owen Maestro on the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital. He also appeared as Len Novak on the Amazon series Transparent.
The San Francisco Improv Alliance is a group of actors dedicated to improvisational theater. It was started in 2005 by Shaun Landry, artistic director of Oui Be Negroes. The Alliance offers performance opportunities to upcoming ensembles, stages self-produced shows, co-production of pre-established ensembles, master class workshops and national ensembles and community outreach in the field of improvisational theatre.
The Wellington Improvisation Troupe (WIT) is a not-for-profit, community-based improvisational theatre group in Wellington, New Zealand. It is run by a committee elected by and from its forty to sixty active members. WIT performs both long and short-form improvisation.
Theatre Strike Force is the University of Florida's premier improv and sketch comedy troupe. The group also goes by TSF. The style of improv performed by Theatre Strike Force is a combination long form and short form. They both teach and perform improvisational comedy. They have six house teams which include both forms of improv as well as a sketch team. There are four long form house teams which are cast every semester and usually have six to eight members. The TSF Short Form Team is cast every semester as well and usually has fifteen to nineteen members. TSF Sketch is the final house team and usually has twelve to sixteen members, cast each semester.
Philly Improv Theater, or PHIT, is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania comedy theater which produces and presents shows at The Adrienne Theatre in Center City Philadelphia. The theater also operates a training center with programs in improv comedy, sketch comedy and stand-up comedy. PHIT's most notable alumnus is stand-up comedian Kent Haines, who was the 2008 winner of the Philly's Phunniest contest at Helium Comedy Club and has appeared on public radio show The Sound of Young America and Season 4 of Comedy Central's program Live at Gotham. In addition to Haines, other comedians from Philadelphia who appeared on stage at PHIT have gone on to perform at major comedy venues in cities like New York and Los Angeles, founded their own theatre companies, and appeared in touring productions for The Second City.
The Lobby is an improvisational comedy group based in Southern California. Unlike many improv groups, which are composed of many members who perform on a rotating basis, The Lobby is a small, close-knit group. The audience gets to know each of the players and feel they are part of the group. The Lobby also irregularly puts up a podcast, which further allows their audience to connect with the players.
Elizabeth Claire Kemper is an American actress and comedian. She played the receptionist Erin Hannon in the NBC comedy series The Office (2009–2013), and later the starring role of Kimmy Schmidt on the Netflix comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2020), for which she has received two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Kemper also appeared in the films Bridesmaids (2011) and 21 Jump Street (2012). In 2018 she published her first book, My Squirrel Days.
The Purple Crayon of Yale, or the Purple Crayon, is an improvisational theater group at Yale University in New Haven, CT, United States. The group specializes in longform improv, such as the Harold. The Purple Crayon is Yale's second-oldest improv group, after the Ex!t Players, and the oldest collegiate longform group in the country.
The Peoples Improv Theater, also known as The PIT, is a comedy theater and training center based in New York City, founded by comedian Ali Farahnakian in 2002. Shows performed here include improvisational comedy, sketch comedy, stand-up comedy, theater, and variety shows. Shows are hosted both by "house teams" and by outside comedians.
Dad's Garage Theatre Company, located at 569 Ezzard St. in the Old Fourth Ward in Atlanta, Georgia, was founded in 1995 by Chris Blair, Marc Cram, Sean Daniels, George Faughnan, John Gregorio, David Keeton, Joseph Limbaugh, Matt Stanton, and Matt Young. A second wave of people in the founding summer soon followed, and the theatre company spent the next five years establishing itself in the Atlanta improv and theatre communities. The small theater company has since achieved international recognition for original stage productions and Improvisational comedy. The current Artistic Director is Jon Carr. Lara Smith is the current Managing Director.
Applied improvisation is the application of improvisational methods in various fields like consulting, facilitating, teaching, coaching, researching, generating or evolving ideas and designs, theatrical training and playing, medical and therapeutic settings or in social work.
Seoul City Improv (SCI) is a theater company and improvisational comedy troupe located in Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 2007, in Seoul's Itaewon neighborhood by an international group of actors and creatives it known to be Korea's oldest English-language improv group and has since grown to perform all around the world, including Taiwan, Tokyo, Hong Kong, USA, Canada and more.
The Improv Bandits are an improvisational theatre group in Auckland, New Zealand. They have performed with renowned improvisors Wayne Brady and Colin Mochrie, as well as voice actor Dan Castellaneta. The Improv Bandits were formed by Wade Jackson, and have been described in the New Zealand Herald as "one of New Zealand's most successful comedy ventures".
 | This comedy or humor related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
