Viola Spolin

WIRTEgo Circus, a reimagining of the Improvisational Repertory's Theater Ensemble's 2013 dark comedy of the same name, will play The Producer's Club beginning in February. Learn more about the performance here!

Sills/Spolin Theater Works has announced esteemed actress of TV and film Amy Pietz will be teaching a new generation of actors the technique of Viola Spolin, the legendary theater innovator known as the 'Mother of improvisational theater.'

IRTE, the Improvisational Repertory Theatre Ensemble, is back having just opened 'My Thanksgiving Recipe (Chaos is the Point)', an improvisation based comic theatre piece, featuring live, original music. See photos from the production.

My Thanksgiving Recipe (Chaos is the point) features a mostly female cast and a live musician. Together, they will discover that the moments that matter live within the mess and chaos of family gatherings. Even when following the 'ideal recipe' for a picture-perfect Thanksgiving, control is an illusion.

A new original musical, HAVEN WAITS FOR EVERLY makes its New York debut at United Solo Theatre Festival on Theatre Row this October.

It's 1970, and the college students who live in Hillendale Hall are about to graduate. They each chase their dreams and grapple with an uncertain future, but the Vietnam War is raging, and one student is determined to hold a rally to stop it. Somehow, it all works out...

Powerstories, a working professional theatre, produces the nationally award-winning Girlstories Leadership Theatre program, providing young girls an opportunity to participate in the magic of creating live theatre while learning how to be a leader.

For the past eleven years, IRTE, the Improvisational Repertory Theatre Ensemble, has been captivating audiences and winning accolades for their wildly funny and wildly absurd take on improvisational based theatre.

Chicago's oldest running improv troupe that brought you Bill Murray, John Candy, Day Aykroyd, Eugene Levy and dozens more, returns to Ridgefield for a night of improvisational comedy at the highest level! It's love at first laugh with The Second City and their new show Swipes Right: An Incomplete Guide to The Ultimate Date Night.

The PIE Story Theatre Holiday Stories and Carols CD is celebrating ten years this month. Produced in 2012, the CD features original and adapted holiday stories and carols to celebrate the season. The program was originally a live show that premiered at North Pier Festival Market in Chicago in 1993.

A new original musical, DAYS OF THIRST AND BEAUTY, makes a return engagement at Don't Tell Mama in Manhattan on October 9th at 7 pm.

Providing a cocktail of timely topics, retro reference, and immersive imaging, IRTE presents impromptu high-jinx with a twist. Its team of trained actors don't just do skits, they build a play right in front of your eyes.

Panic! Productions, along with Born To Perform Studios and BarCinBoo Productions, Inc. have announced that Barry Pearl will once again direct their late summer teen musical 13, this time at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center. This will be Pearl's third time working with Panic! Productions and also his third time directing the musical on the West Coast. I decided to speak with Barry about his connection to the teen musical and what inspired him to direct it for the third time, as well as how it may differ from his previous incarnations.

Legendary Chicago comedy institution The Second City has announced the creation of The Victor Wong Fellowship, a program to train and mentor up-and-coming comedians. Named after The Second City's first Asian American performer and funded by Peng Zhao, CEO of Citadel Securities, and his wife, Cherry Chen, the fellowship will focus on developing the next generation of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) talent. 

It has been said that a shared sense of humor is key to a happy relationship. That is why the McAninch Arts Center believes there is no better way of celebrating Valentine's Day than with “The Best of Second City” Saturday, Feb. 12, at 5 and 8 p.m. Special Valentine's-themed drink specials will be available.

Likest thou to laugh? Then get thee to the Theater Lab at the Kennedy Center through December 19 for The Improvised Shakespeare Company who returneth with 90 minutes of gallimaufry for mature groundlings only. The lads invent what viewers dealt/in Shakespeare's words, so timely felt/clad but in sword and in dance belt. In other words, five gentlemen are going to make you laugh for an hour and a half with no sets, no costumes, no props, no sound cues, no microphones, no play--just one suggestion from the audience plus every situation, complication, characterization, and implication in every play that Shakespeare ever wrote. See these players well bestowed, because they don't know whose line it is anyway.

Staging 'Island Song' virtually seems to fit in this pandemic season since live events are currently limited in the Philippines. However, Artremix Productions successfully made it possible to inspire theater enthusiasts and practitioners not to lose hope, as if theater is still alive [physically]. The internet could also be a platform to present a play or musical, but the difference is that it has to be either pre-recorded or be done live online. This first production of Artremix has various talented actors from different theater organizations, which means all of them are trained very well and can sing.

A new original musical, DAYS OF THIRST AND BEAUTY, will be performed at Don't Tell Mama in Manhattan on October 21st at 7 pm.

JCS Theater Company and Spin Cycle will present ADJUST THE PROCEDURE, a new play by Jake Shore (The Devil Is On The Loose With An Axe In Marshalltown, Holy Moly, and Down The Mountain And Across The Stream) conceived during the pandemic and created with Zoom theater in mind.

Join Unexpected Productions for A (Very Special Improvised) Christmas Carol on Saturday, December 19th with a preshow at 6:30 and event at 7:00pm. They will take you on a journey through Unexpected Productions' past and present and invite YOU to help support their reopening!