The Gift Theatre's Improv Team Natural Gas to Welcome Special Guests Susan Messing and More, 7/31-8/29

Natural Gas turns five years old in August. Nearly every Wednesday since August 2008, the house improv team of The Gift Theatre has taken one suggestion from the audience to create an entirely improvised world of comedy that is wild, randy and appropriately inappropriate.

For the next month a roster of special guest improvisers will join Natural Gas Ensemble members Kyle Zornes, Dan Aho, Ed Flynn, Jim Kozyra, Joey Lesiak, Kirby O'Connell, Carly Olson, John Pantlind, Aemilia Scott, Amy Speckien and Michael Patrick Thornton on the Gift stage for world class Chicago improv in Jefferson Park.

Here's the schedule:

Wed., July 31: Mick Napier
Wed., Aug. 7: Susan Messing
Thurs., Aug. 8: 10PM Anniversary Show
Fri., Aug. 9: 10PM Anniversary Show with Dummy (Jason Shotts & Colleen Doyle)
Sat., Aug. 10: 10PM Anniversary Show with Jack Bronis
Wed., Aug. 14: TJ Jagodowski & David Pasquesi
Wed., Aug. 21: Norm Holly
Wed., Aug. 29: Jack Bronis

"We're turning five years old. Many people go from zygote to literacy in that amount of time," said Natural Gas Artistic Director Kyle Zornes. "Natural Gas... we're funny... and literate."

Natural Gas continues to perform every Wednesday, as it has for the past five years, at 8pm at The Gift Theatre, 4802 N. Milwaukee Ave, two blocks from the Jefferson Park Blue Line stop at Milwaukee and Lawrence. Admission is $5 in advance or at the door. http://thegifttheatre.org/natural-gas (Free to Gift subscribers).

Natural Gas is the house improv team of The Gift Theatre sponsored by Fischman Liquor & Tavern that takes one suggestion from the audience to create an entirely improvised world of comedy that is wild, randy and appropriately inappropriate! Every Wednesday, 8 p.m. at The Gift Theatre, 4802 N. Milwaukee Ave (at Lawrence) in Chicago. Tickets are always $5 in advance or at the door.

Kyle Zornes is the artistic director of Natural Gas, the house improv ensemble at The Gift Theatre. He has co-written and co-starred in all four Santa Showsas well as performed in Vigils, Stop/Kiss, Talk Radio, Almost, Maine and both Ten productions... all on the Gift stage.

The Gift Theatre is dedicated to telling great stories on stage with honesty and simplicity. Previous productions include: Mine, Vigils, TEN 2013; Natural Gas' Jugband Christmas; Dirty; Oh, The Humanity (and other exclamations); Fact & Fiction; Absolute Hell; TEN; Cloud 9; Northwest Highway; Night and Her Stars; Get Behind Me, Santa!; Lonesome West; Suicide, Inc.; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; Almost, Maine; Santa's Great American Depression Holiday Show! (2009 & 210); Summer People; The Ruby Sunrise; Talk Radio; Stop/Kiss; Natural Gas; Streamers; Wit ;The Last Days of Judas Iscariot; White People; Three Sisters; The Beauty Queen of Leenane; Blithe Spirit; 365 Days/365 Plays; The Halloween Show; Long Day's Journey Into Night; The Glass Menagerie (Remount: Theatre on the Lake); The Good Thief; The Clearing; Hurlyburly; The Glass Menagerie; The Pavilion; A Young Man In Pieces; Language of Angels; 6; County Fair; The Countess; Alcatraz (Abbie Hoffman Festival); Orestes 2.0; Boys' Life. The theater also sponsors the giftED Ensemble, a rigorous two-year afterschool course for creative and motivated high school students on Chicago's Northwest side, and the literary program/Salon Series giftLIT.

The Gift's 2013 Season opened in January with TEN, its annual kickoff celebration of ten-minute plays curated by Gift Co-Founder Michael Patrick Thornton, then shifted tone with the Chicago revival of Vigils, directed by Erica Weiss followed by the Chicago premiere of the thriller Mine, directed by Marti Lyons. The final production of the 2013 Season is the Chicago premiere of Broadsword by Sons of Anarchy staff writer Marco Ramirez, September 26 (first preview)-November 24. Subscriptions for the entire 2013 season, which includes two Chicago premieres, are available for as little as $65. The Gift subscribers ("Gifters") receive admission to three shows, free parking at Gale Street Inn, free admission to all Wednesday night "Natural Gas" improv shows and an invitations to special subscriber-only special events. Subscribe at thegifttheatre.org or call 773-283-7071.

The Gift Theatre is conveniently located at 4802 N. Milwaukee in Chicago's Jefferson Park neighborhood, and is easily accessible by the CTA Blue Line, the Lawrence and Milwaukee Avenue buses and the Kennedy Expressway.

Photo Credit: Joe Mazza / Brave Lux, Inc.

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