Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre

Last updated
Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre
11.4.10UprightCitizensBrigadeTheatreByLuigiNovi1.jpg
Former Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, West 26th Street, Manhattan
Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre
Type Improvisational theatre
Website
ucbcomedy.com

The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (shorter UCB Theatre or UCB) is an American improvisational and sketch comedy training center and theatre [1] originally founded by Upright Citizens Brigade troupe members Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh. [2]

Contents

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, [3] UCB had locations in the New York City neighborhoods of Hell's Kitchen and the East Village, and on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. UCB was located in Chelsea West 26th Street location from April 2003 until November 2017, after which it moved to Hell's Kitchen, 555 West 42nd Street in December 2017. The second NYC theatre located in the East Village opened in 2011, and the Los Angeles expansion started in 2014. [4]

Members of the Upright Citizens Brigade originally trained with Del Close at Chicago's ImprovOlympic where they created their signature ASSSSCAT show, the success of which led to the troupe founding the UCB Theatre in New York City.

Philosophy

The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre Training Center teaches long form improv, sketch, writing, parts of directing, and various other comedy skills. [1] The training center's philosophy of improv is based largely on the teachings of Del Close, with a strong emphasis on the "game" of the scene. [5] In 2013, they co-authored a manual titled The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual. [6] [7] The primary improvisational form is "The Harold", and the theater in all its incarnations has had a group of "Harold Teams", house teams that perform regularly. [8]

History

New York

Prior to opening their own theatre, the Upright Citizens Brigade performed their signature improv show, ASSSSCAT, first at KGB Bar, and then later at Solo Arts. Solo Arts was the first semi-permanent home to the Upright Citizens Brigade's Harold Teams and is considered by some to be the group's first theatre. [9] [10] [11] The troupe's first permanent space was at 161 West 22nd Street, a 75-seat auditorium that used to be the Harmony Burlesque Theater, an all-nude lap-dancing club—essentially a storefront. The original theatre was closed on November 18, 2002, after a building inspector ordered the theater to be shut down due to fire code violations. In the months that followed, the theater found a temporary home at the Access Theater on lower Broadway, then moved to the Chelsea Playhouse for a short time before finding a permanent space. [2]

On April 1, 2003, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre moved to its second official space in Chelsea, a 150-seat theater at 307 West 26th Street in NYC in the former Maverick Theater. The new venue had several advantages over the previous theater on 22nd Street, such as double capacity, a more professional tech booth, larger green room with a greater separation from the stage area, two dressing rooms, storage rooms, twice the number of bathrooms, and a "chill out room". [12] [13]

In September 2011, [14] UCB opened a second theater on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, at 153 E 3rd St. This theater featured 124 seats, two lobbies, and a full bar known as the "Hot Chicks Room" in reference to an episode of the Upright Citizens Brigade TV show. [15] Often referred to as "the Beast" (a portmanteau shortening of "UCB East"), the theater was initially opened in hopes of showcasing more stand-up comedy. However, it primarily featured improv and sketch shows. In January 2019 it was announced that UCB East would close in February 2019, following financial issues.

At the start of 2017, ticket prices increased (the first in ten years). [16] In October 2017, it was announced that the UCB Chelsea location would close. The last show in Chelsea was Wednesday, November 28, 2017. [17] The next UCB space was at 555 42nd Street in Hell's Kitchen, the former home to the Pearl Theatre Company. [18] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this location and the New York training center were closed on Tuesday, April 21, 2020, leaving no NYC locations of UCB, with no confirmed plans for revival. [19] However, on June 29, 2023, UCB announced its return to New York at 242 E. 14th Street, which will house a 130-seat theater, a bar, and a lounge. The space is expected to open in early 2024.

Los Angeles

In 2005, the Los Angeles branch of the theater opened at 5919 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, offering up improv, sketch and stand-up comedy shows nightly with a 120-seat capacity. Soon after, Comedy Bang! Bang! (formerly Comedy Death-Ray), a Los Angeles alternative comedy show moved from its former home at the M Bar to join the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, appearing on Tuesday nights. [20]

In 2014, UCB announced the opening of UCB Theatre Sunset located at 5419 Sunset Boulevard for November 1. The venue played home to Upright Citizens Brigade's training center, an 85-seat theatre, cafe/performance space called Inner Sanctum, video production offices, and even retail stores on street level. [21] This location was sold in December 2020, leaving the Franklin theater as the only space owned by UCB. [22]

In March 2022, former owner and CEO of The Onion, Mike McAvoy, and co-founder of Mosaic talent management, Jimmy Miller, acquired UCB and its lone remaining theater with the backing of venture capitalist, Elysian Park. They reopened the UCB comedy theater and Los Angeles training centers in September 2022. [23]

Pop Culture

Saturday Night Live has been known for seeking top talent from UCB's pool of students. [24]

TV shows like The Chris Gethard Show created by Chris Gethard; and Broad City created by Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer started out as UCB experiments.

Notable alumni

See also

Related Research Articles

The Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Amy Poehler, Matthew Walsh, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Adam McKay, Rick Roman, Horatio Sanz and Drew Franklin. Other early members included Neil Flynn, Armando Diaz, Ali Farahnakian and Rich Fulcher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Poehler</span> American actress and comedian (born 1971)

Amy Poehler is an American actress and comedian. After studying improv at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, Poehler co-founded the improvisational-comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade. The group moved to New York City in 1996, where their act became a half-hour sketch-comedy series on Comedy Central in 1998. Along with other members of the comedy group, Poehler is a founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Besser</span> American actor and comedian

Matthew Gregory Besser is an American actor, comedian, director, producer, writer, and one of the four founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, who had their own show on Comedy Central from 1998 to 2000. He hosts the improvisation-based podcast Improv4humans on the Earwolf podcasting network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Walsh (comedian)</span> American actor and comedian (born 1964)

Matthew Paul Walsh is an American comedian and actor. He is best known for his role as Mike McLintock in Veep for which he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He is a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, with which he co-starred in its original television series and the 2015 reboot. He also previously starred in short-lived comedy programs such as Dog Bites Man and Players, and was a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He has also appeared in films such as Road Trip (2000), Bad Santa (2003), School for Scoundrels (2006), Role Models (2008), The Hangover (2009), and The Do-Over (2016).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Channel 101 NY</span>

Channel 101: NY, formerly known as Channel 102, is a monthly live screening of five-minute-long "TV shows" in New York City, created by Tony Carnevale, with the blessings of Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab. Harmon and Schrab created Channel 101, the Los Angeles-based film festival that inspired Channel 101: NY.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Roberts (American actor)</span> American actor, comedian and writer (born 1965)

Ian Michael Roberts is an American actor, comedian, writer, and a founding member of the famed Upright Citizens Brigade improv and sketch comedy troupe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rob Huebel</span> American actor and comedian

Robert Anderson Huebel is an American comedian and actor. He is 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 Russell on the FX/FXX series The League and as Len Novak on the Amazon Prime Video series Transparent. In December 2022, Entertainment Weekly called Huebel "the premier d-bag character actor of his generation".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Improv Everywhere</span> Comedic performance art group based in New York City

Improv Everywhere is a comedic performance art group based in New York City, formed in 2001 by Charlie Todd. Its slogan is "We Cause Scenes".

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 taught and hosted 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Respecto Montalban</span> Comedy troupe in New York from 1998 to 2005

Respecto Montalban was an improvisational and sketch comedy troupe associated with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City from 1999 until September 2005.

Ali Reza Farahnakian is an American actor, writer, and improvisational comedian. He is the founder of The Peoples Improv Theater in NYC and co-starred in the Adult Swim comedy series Delocated. He has been married to Beth Saunders since September 2004.

<i>Broad City</i> American comedy TV series (2014–2019)

Broad City is an American television sitcom created by and starring Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson. It was developed from their independent web series of the same name, which was produced between 2009 and 2011. The sitcom, like the web series, is based on Glazer and Jacobson's real-life friendship, and their attempt to "make it" in New York. The sitcom premiered on Comedy Central on January 22, 2014, and aired for five seasons, ending on March 28, 2019. The show received critical acclaim throughout its run and has been ranked among the best television shows of the 2010s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbi Jacobson</span> American comedian and actress

Abbi Jacobson is an American comedian, actress, writer, producer, and illustrator. She co-created and co-starred in the Comedy Central series Broad City (2014–2019) with Ilana Glazer, based on the web series of the same name. Her other roles include voicing Katie Mitchell in The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021), Nya in The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017), and Princess Bean in the series Disenchantment (2018–2023), in addition to appearing in the live-action films Person to Person (2017) and 6 Balloons (2018). She is a writer and co-creator of the Amazon Prime series A League of Their Own (2022), in which she also stars as Carson Shaw, a baseball player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ilana Glazer</span> American comedian

Ilana Glazer is an American stand-up comedian, actress, writer, producer, director, and activist. She co-created and co-starred, with Abbi Jacobson, in the Comedy Central series Broad City, which is based on the web series of the same name. She was twice nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for the series. Glazer also starred in the 2017 film Rough Night and released her debut stand-up comedy special, The Planet Is Burning, in January 2020. In 2022, she won the Tony Award for Best Musical for serving as a producer for the Broadway show A Strange Loop.

The UCB Show is an American sketch comedy series that premiered on December 3, 2015 via the Seeso comedy subscription streaming service. The series features members of Upright Citizens Brigade, an improvisational sketch comedy group. The cast includes Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh, the same actors that appeared on Upright Citizens Brigade, the previous show that aired on Comedy Central in the 1990s. The variety series features various sketches, characters and stand-up shows from the Upright Citizens Brigade theatres in Los Angeles and New York. The show is hosted by the original actors of the theatre and filmed in front of a live studio audience. The UCB Show was renewed for a second season, which premiered January 12, 2017.

Lucia Aniello is an Italian-born American director, writer, and producer best known for her work on Hacks, for which she won multiple Emmy Awards, and Broad City. She has directed and written episodes of both shows, as well as the miniseries Time Traveling Bong and the 2017 film Rough Night.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D'Arcy Carden</span> American actress and comedian (born 1980)

D'Arcy Beth Carden is an American actress and comedian. She is best known for her portraying Janet in the NBC sitcom The Good Place (2016–2020), for which she earned a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and Greta Gill in the Prime series A League of Their Own (2022). She also played Gemma in Broad City (2014–2019) and Natalie Greer in the HBO dark comedy series Barry (2018–2023).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keisha Zollar</span> American writer, comedian, and actress

Keisha Zollar is an American writer, comedian, and actress. She is a founding member of Upright Citizen Brigade Theatre's first all-black team Astronomy Club and was co-head writer for the group's Netflix series. Zollar was on the writing staff of Busy Tonight, and The Opposition with Jordan Klepper.

Will Berson is an American screenwriter living in Los Angeles, California. He wrote the screenplay and story of Judas and the Black Messiah with Shaka King, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2021.

Sue Galloway is an American actress, comedian, and screenwriter. An Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre alumna and teacher, she is best known for playing Sue Laroche-Van der Hout on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock. Since 2002, Galloway has been an active member of the longtime Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) troupe.

References

  1. 1 2 "Classes: New York". Upright Citizens Brigade Training Center. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  2. 1 2 McKinley, Jesse (January 27, 2003). "Masters of Improv Are Stumped". The New York Times . Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  3. ↑ O'Connell, Mikey (22 April 2020). "Amy Poehler, UCB Co-Founders Address NYC Facility Closures: "We're Really Trying to Keep It Alive"". The Hollywood Reporter.
  4. ↑ Wright, Megh. "UCB Is Moving from Chelsea to Hell's Kitchen Next Month". Vulture. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
  5. ↑ Voss, Eric. "Improv's Babel: Defining the Game of the Scene". Splitsider. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  6. ↑ Get the Laughs, but Follow the Rules, The New York Times, 20 February 2014
  7. ↑ "And....Scene". New York Magazine. September 25, 2011. Retrieved July 4, 2012.
  8. ↑ "New York: Shows: Harold Night" . Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  9. ↑ Levy, Ariel (August 10, 1998). "The Odd Squad". New York Magazine. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  10. ↑ "Jason Mantzoukas interview". jesterjournal.com. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  11. ↑ "Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre Nightclub in Chelsea, NY". clubplanet.com. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  12. ↑ "[UCBT] No more Chelsea". Improv Message Boards. March 14, 2003. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  13. ↑ "We need this for the UCB chill out room". Improv Message Boards. March 9, 2005. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  14. ↑ "Schedule - UCB Theatre". UCBTheatre.com. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
  15. ↑ "Comedy Troupe Delivers Its Second New York Baby". The New York Times. October 30, 2011.
  16. ↑ Zinoman, Jason (30 January 2017). "Upright Citizens Brigade Raises Prices. Comedy Fans Shouldn't Laugh". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
  17. ↑ McGlynn, Katla. "Comic Chaos Reigns at the U.C.B. Chelsea's Final Night". HWD. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
  18. ↑ "UCB Is Moving from Chelsea to Hell's Kitchen Next Month". Oct 16, 2017.
  19. ↑ "30 iconic NYC institutions that have now permanently closed". Time Out. 23 February 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  20. ↑ "Comedy Bang Bang: Standup". UCB Theatre. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  21. ↑ "Upright Citizens Brigade Announces the Grand Opening of UCB Theatre Sunset - Splitsider". Splitsider.
  22. ↑ "Eight Months After Shuttering Their NYC Venue, Upright Citizens Brigade Closes L.A.'s Sunset Theater - Vulture". Vulture. 23 December 2020. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  23. ↑ @ucbtla (September 13, 2022). "UCB is back!" (Tweet). Retrieved 2023-04-11– via Twitter.
  24. ↑ Evans, Bradford (March 14, 2013). "Second City vs. Groundlings vs. UCB: Where Do the Most 'SNL' Cast Members Come From?". Vulture . Retrieved April 22, 2019.
  25. ↑ "Aziz Ansari". ucbcomedy.com.
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "The 25 Most Famous UCB Alumni". Complex Networks .
  27. 1 2 Busis, Hillary (29 November 2017). "12 Stars Who Got Their Start at the U.C.B. Theatre". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2021-05-05.
  28. ↑ "Ilana Glazer". ucbcomedy.com.
  29. ↑ "Donald Glover". ucbcomedy.com.
  30. ↑ "Ed Helms". ucbcomedy.com.
  31. ↑ "Ed Helms". Biography.com. 5 September 2019.
  32. ↑ "Abbi Jacobson". www.ucbcomedy.com.
  33. ↑ "Abbi Jacobson". MICA.
  34. ↑ "Ellie Kemper". www.ucbcomedy.com.
  35. 1 2 Snierson, Dan. "Wild times at UCB with Amy Poehler, Ilana Glazer, Nick Kroll and more". Entertainment Weekly.
  36. ↑ "Ego Nwodim". egonwodim.ucbcomedy.com. Archived from the original on 2018-10-20. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
  37. ↑ "Aubrey Plaza". www.ucbcomedy.com.
  38. ↑ "Amy Poehler | Bio | Broad City". Comedy Central Press.
  39. ↑ "Amy Poehler". ucbcomedy.com.
  40. ↑ Weldon, Annie (16 June 2011). "Rob Riggle at House of Blues: From Marines Brigade to Upright Citizens Brigade". OffBeat Magazine.
  41. ↑ "Rob Riggle". ucbcomedy.com.
  42. ↑ "Ian Roberts". ucbcomedy.com.
  43. 1 2 Cohn, Gabe (14 June 2020). "Upright Citizens Brigade to Overhaul Its Leadership". The New York Times.
  44. ↑ "28-Year-Old Sudi Green is a Comedian on the Forefront". Forbes .
  45. ↑ "Ben Schwartz". ucbcomedy.com.
  46. ↑ "Matt Walsh". ucbcomedy.com.
  47. ↑ "Zach Woods". ucbcomedy.com.

40°44′51″N73°59′51″W / 40.7475°N 73.9976°W / 40.7475; -73.9976

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.