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The Bent Theatre is an improvisational comedy troupe based in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States that was founded in 2004. [1]
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Whole World Theater Charlottesville was formed in February 2004 by Jennifer Horne as she started teaching classes above Sylvia's Pizza on the Downtown Mall. [2] They become the fourth major improv group in Charlottesville joining, The Whethermen (UVA), [3] Amuse-Bouche (UVA), [4] and the Improfessionals [5]
In October 2005, the group changed its name from Whole World Theater Company to the Bent Theatre Company.
In 2006, due to the closing of their performance space at Garden of Sheba [6] the Bent Theatre moved to the "trendy" hot spot R2, the dance club located in Rapture Bar and Grill.
Over summer 2007, the Bent Theatre re-ignited improv as a popular entertainment option in Charlottesville with several pop culture parodies. They performed improvised versions of the Star Wars Trilogy, Raiders of the Lost Ark , Romeo and Juliet (for Valentine's Day) and The Life and Times of George W. Bush (an original improv play written by Bent member ).
On December 31, 2007, the Bent Theatre performed at First Nite Virginia for the second year in a row with fellow improvisers, the Improfessionals. [7]
On April 25, 2008, the Bent Theatre began performing monthly shows at Play On! Theater having one of its largest audiences ever attend its premiere performance at the theater. UVA improv group, Amuse-Bouche performed at half-time.
In August 2008, The Bent Theatre was once again asked to perform at First Night Virginia.
On October 13, 2008, the Bent Theatre announced a Tribute to Star Wars show planned for November 21 at Play On!
On November 21, 2008, the Bent Theatre opened Star Wars to an audience of over 70 people. This show was the largest cast performance in its history (11) and was the first show where the entire cast wore costumes
On December 12, 2008, the Bent performed an improvised tribute to Dr. Seuss' classic tale"How the Grinch Stole Christmas, directed by Andy Davis, with Ray Smith starring in the title role
The Bent's shows generally run for about 90 minutes with a brief intermission separating two halves. They primarily perform shortform improvisation, a series of short scenes or games featuring MC interaction and multiple audience suggestions.
The MC is often the writer of the show, who selects the games, the actors, the background stories and the type of suggestions to ask the audiences. The members who most often write and MC the shows are Jenn Horne and Andy Davis. Recently,[ when? ] more people have begun writing shows, particularly the parodies. Patrick Kilmer directed The Wizard of Oz, Alex Modic directed Harry Potter and Aaron Gilley directed Casino Royale.
The Smart Asps was the teen improv group founded by Jenn Horne shortly after the Bent Theatre was formed. The group performed several shows and grew to more thanr a dozen members before disbanding in 2007. Two of its members, Ben Cole and Michael Abraham, joined the Bent Theatre and have been regular cast members since.
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, often shortened to improv, 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.
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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 ironically based in Manhattan, purchased the Second City.
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Spontaneous Broadway is an advanced long-form improvised performance, based on audience suggestions. The audience typically submits titles of songs that have never been written, and the performers choose suggestions to create songs, the audience votes through acclamation on their favorite song, which is then used as the core of a brand new Broadway musical.
Friday Nite Improvs, or Friday Night Improvs (FNI), was a long-running weekly improvisational comedy show staged on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The show functioned as an improv jam, performed by improv actors who don't normally work together. FNI was unique in that, in addition to the audience's providing improv suggestions, the performers are all pulled from volunteers in the audience. FNI ended in 2014. A student improv group, Ruckus, has succeeded FNI as a resident improv group on the University of Pittsburgh's campus.
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