The Improvised Shakespeare Company®

The Improvised Shakespeare Company^®

Theater Lab

This beloved improv group is back by popular demand! Based on one audience suggestion (a title of a show that has never been written), The Improvised Shakespeare Company® creates a brand new, fully improvised Shakespearean masterpiece right before your eyes!

Please note: Recommended for mature audiences.

Nov. 29 - Dec. 23, 2024

Genre

Comedy
Price Range

$35.00 – $54.00
Runtime

approx. 120 minutes
View Digital Program

Program

Based on one audience suggestion (a title of a show that has never been written), The Improvised Shakespeare Company® creates a brand new, fully improvised Shakespearean masterpiece right before your eyes. Nothing has been planned out, rehearsed, or written. All of the dialogue is said for the first time, the characters are created as you watch, and if ever you’re wondering where the story is going... so are they! You’ve never seen the Bard like this before!

Due to the improvised nature of the show, some performances may contain mild mature content.

CAST:

Joey Bland, Ross Bryant, Brendan Dowling, Randall Harr, Blaine Swen

Please note: Cast subject to change without notice.

The Improvised Shakespeare Company® (ISC) is thrilled to be returning to the Kennedy Center for its seventh year! The ISC is one of the most critically-acclaimed improv troupes in the world. It was founded in Chicago in 2005 where its hit show Improvised Shakespeare Chicago℠ still runs today. The ISC performs regularly at The Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles for audiences that are, according to the LA Times, “Beatlemaniacal.” In addition to the Kennedy Center, it has been featured at the 92nd St Y, Bonnaroo, San Francisco Sketchfest, the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival, and the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal and Chicago. It plays frequently at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) where the ISC has performed nearly 300 performances, including a 178-show residency as part of the DCPA’s Broadway Series in 2019–20. It also continues to return to New York where it “plays to packed theaters with an atmosphere more like a rock club than a repertory house” (The New York Times).

ISC guest performers have included Jason Alexander, Bradley Whitford, Patrick Stewart, and Helen Hunt. Sir Patrick Stewart has presented the troupe at the Soho Theatre in London. It has been named Chicago’s best improv group by both the Chicago Reader and the Chicago Examiner and has received numerous awards in L.A. (Best of LA, LA Weekly), New York (New York Nightlife Awards), and Chicago (The Chicago Improv Foundation). It has been called “Staggeringly Brilliant” (TimeOut Chicago), “Elite Improv” (The New York Times) “Indisputably Great” (Centerstage Chicago), “Mad Genius” (LA Times), “Wildly Entertaining” (The Washington Post), “Hilarious” (LA Weekly, Seattle Times, Chicago Reader, TimeOut Chicago, Nashville Scene, Naples Daily News, CBC Manitoba, Winnipeg Free Press), and TimeOut New York says, “Don’t Miss Them. Seriously.”

Website:

IG/X: @improvshakesco

FB: /improvisedshakespeare

Players

Please note: Cast subject to change without notice.

Joey Bland

Joey Bland is a Los Angeles–based writer/performer who hails from Virginia, where he attended the College of William and Mary. He spent many years in Chicago where he performed with ComedySportz, the iO Theater, and The Second City.
Ross Bryant

Ross Bryant is a writer/performer from North Carolina. Bryant is a performer on Dropout.tv and can be seen regularly at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater in Los Angeles.

Bryant also tours the country and performs monthly at The Largo in LA with The Improvised Shakespeare Company®. Braynt began performing in Chicago where was a member of the resident cast of The Second City Mainstage. Bryant is a writer for Mystery Science Theater 3000, and has cowritten original television pilots for Pop TV, Warner Bros, and the Showtime network. TV credits include The Good Place (NBC), Crashing (HBO), and I Think You Should Leave (Netflix). Bryant is also a cartoonist. Many of his original animations have been featured on Comedy Central Digital. Check them out on his Instagram
Brendan Dowling

Brendan Dowling is an actor and writer whose recent credits include writing for and appearing in Showtime’s Work in Progress.
Randall Harr

Randall Harr is an actor based in Los Angeles, California. He has performed and improvised at the iO, Annoyance, and Second City theatres in Chicago.

Harr also spent two years in Amsterdam performing at the BOOM CHICAGO comedy theatre. Some of Harr’s Second City credits include American Mixed Tape (Garner Galleria Theatre Denver); Sex and the Second City (National Tour); Rod Blagojevich Super Star (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Peach, Drop, Stop and Roll (Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre); #DateMe (UP Comedy Club); and Louder! Longer! Wagner! (Chicago Lyric Opera).
Blaine Swen

Blaine Swen is the creator and director of The Improvised Shakespeare Company®. He is a Nashville-based writer/actor who has performed for many years in Chicago where the Chicago Reader named him the “Best Improviser in Chicago.”

His iO Chicago credits include the two-person group Blessing with Susan Messing, The Armando Diaz Experience, and the one-person improvised musical BASH! Additional Chicago stage credits include the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pegasus Players Theatre, The Back Room Shakespeare Project, and The Second City. Television credits include Game Changer (DropOutTV), Um, Actually (Dropout TV), Crisis (NBC), and The Odd Couple (CBS). He has developed original pilots with NBC, Universal Cable Productions, and Pop TV. You can hear him as Arnor the Warrior and Barnor the Lawyer on the podcast Hello, from the Magic Tavern. Blaine also has a PhD in philosophy from Loyola University, Chicago.

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