Improvised Shakespeare

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Based on one audience suggestion (a title for a play that has yet to be written) The Improvised Shakespeare Co. creates a fully improvised play in Elizabethan style. Each of the players has brushed up on his “thee’s” and “thou’s” to bring you an evening of off-the-cuff comedy using the language and themes of William Shakespeare. Any hour could be filled with power struggles, star-crossed lovers, sprites, kings, queens, princesses, sword-play, rhyming couplets, asides, insults, persons in disguise and all that we’ve come to expect from the pen of the Great Bard. The night could reveal a tragedy, comedy, or history. Nothing is planned-out. Each play is completely improvised, so each play is entirely new!

Starring: Blaine Swen, Steve Waltien, Martin Wilson, Greg Hess, Joey Bland, Ross Bryant, Brendan Dowling, Andy Carey, Josh Logan, Rich Prouty, Ric Walker, Jake Schneider, Joe Burton, Matt Young

"Mind-blowing. It was one of the funniest, most amazing things I’ve ever seen." - The Charleston City Paper Online

""Critic's Choice" Their experience doing Shakespeare flowers in the language: they relish iambic dialogue, execute perfectly timed asides, occasionally utter rhyming couplets, and drop parodic phrases, and well-placed anachronisms. Even the ending echoed the real plays: story lines resolved tidily—and uproariously." - Chicago Reader

""Critic's Pick" Quite remarkable." - Chicago Public Radio

"This is pop Shakespeare to be sure. Men play every role, working from a "script" generously sprinkled with rhyming couplets and catering in equal measure to our baser and loftier instincts. The modern tribute to the Bard mixes Shakespearean language and tone with heaping tablespoons of Monty Python-esque slapstick and wordplay. …this is indisputably great improv, fueled by smart plot development, stage chemistry and recognizable characters." - Centerstage Chicago

"A delightful evening that celebrates the best of both iambics and long-form improv." - The Chicago Tribune

"Set aside your preconceptions about Shakespearean theater. It's not all pretentious, puffy-garbed players trained to speak foreign English at the Raised Hand School of Acting. IO Chicago's rollicking hit show "Improvised Shakespeare" is smart and knowing enough to delight Elizabethan drama fans and charming enough to win over the most avowed Anglophobes. Director Blaine Swen brought the show to Chicago in 2005 on the heels of its smash IO West engagement. But true to the play's title, Swen assures audiences that the cast conceives every performance on the spot. In "The King of the Fairyland," a melancholy prince sits imprisoned in a tower, pining for the woman he loves in a kingdom that has banished all females. His lover and her friend, homely enough to inspire the night's slyest insults, don robes and beards and sneak a visit. Reunited, the couple plots an alliance with neighboring gnomes to depose the king and live happily ever after. This is pop Shakespeare to be sure. Men play every role, working from a "script" generously sprinkled with rhyming couplets and catering in equal measure to our baser and loftier instincts. The modern tribute to the Bard mixes Shakespearean language and tone with heaping tablespoons of Monty Python-esque slapstick and wordplay. Dramatic purists might be disappointed, but I suspect the title alone will keep many of them away. Quibble if you must about liberties taken, but this is indisputably great improv, fueled by smart plot development, stage chemistry and recognizable characters. Here's a goofy, sophisticated take on The Harold, a long-form exercise popularized by the late IO legend and Upstairs Theater's namesake, Del Close. The players support and challenge one another, letting situations and characters drive the story and its humor. Clever asides abound, but we rarely feel sidetracked. The entire six-man ensemble shines, but two folks warrant additional praise: Jake Schneider for his effortless comic timing as a wise old man, a narrator and a Ferryman and Director Swen for putting the show's most clever stretch of verse in its most seemingly random character: Benny the Rhymer. When a throwaway line about rhinoplasty kills, you know you're in the presence of greatness." - Justin Sondak, Centerstage Chicago

Upcoming shows:

Friday, June 01 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, June 01 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, June 08 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, June 08 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, June 15 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, June 15 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, June 22 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, June 22 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, June 29 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, June 29 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, July 06 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, July 06 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, July 13 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, July 13 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, July 20 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, July 20 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, July 27 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, July 27 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, August 03 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, August 03 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, August 10 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, August 10 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, August 17 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, August 17 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, August 24 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, August 24 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, August 31 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, August 31 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, September 07 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, September 07 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, September 14 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, September 14 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, September 21 @ 08:00 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

Friday, September 21 @ 10:30 PM in the Del Close Theater - tickets are $16 (FREE for iO students)

For tickets, call (773) 880-0199 or find this show on the iO Chicago page at Ticketweb