ImprovBoston

Let me tell you the story of ImprovBoston's rise to fame. In the summer of 1982 (I'm not actually sure it was the summer but sounds cooler) Ellen Holbrook, former student of The Second City and producer of Chicago Improv Olympic, brought the sizzle of the Chicago comedy to Boston! With the help of David Shepherd (founder of the Compass Players and the Improv Olympic) and members of The Proposition, an earlier improv comedy group, Holbrook assembled and trained several loosely knit bands of improvisers into teams that competed in the legendary Boston "Improv Olympics" at Reilly's Beef and Pub.

Holbrook arranged for David Shepherd and Second City's Michael Gellman to come to Boston to teach improv workshops to local performers. In 1983, Holbrook, along with Nicholas Emanuel and Katy Bolger, co-founded ImprovBoston. They relocated to Satch's, owned by the one and only Satch Sanders - former Boston Celtics star - where they continued to grow the ImprovBoston brand of comedy.

The ImprovBoston brand evolved rapidly and became an official not-for-profit corporation in 1984, eventually finding a new home at Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge. From there, the group would flex their funny bones with improv games, sketches, musical numbers, and song parodies all inspired by that night's crowd. The 80's in Boston, what a time for comedy.

The story does not end there. In 1993, when Nancy Howland Walker took charge, ImprovBostoon landed their very first dedicated theatre space at the Back Alley Theater in Inman Square. They started with late night shows but soon captivated audiences with their prime time performances, and even got their hands on the New England franchise of Theatersports. With Walker's guidance, the cast grew from five little performers to an outstanding 20 members and developed an ImprovBoston Mainstage cast. Larry Pizza took over as artistic director in 1995, and Ron Jones followed in 1997. Jones brought innovation to the theater by creating new formats and shows that went beyond the traditional shortform game format used for their Friday and Saturday night shows. ImprovBoston's journey continued.

The story heightens! ImprovBoston welcomed Will Luera as the new artistic director. He brought with him some cool ideas from his previous improv theater (Bluescreen Productions, a different Improv theater he had established in Davis Square for those keeping score). This partnership added a third cast to ImprovBoston's line-up and even gained them the rights to Keith Johnstone's Micetro format. Luera had big plans for the theater, in 2005 the ensemble "Wrong Kind of Funny" was establish eventually forming the ImprovBostoon Family Show. Then in 2008, ImprovBoston found a home in Central Square where it is still based. This allowed ImprovBoston to expand their show offerings to include The Hump, The Great and Secret Comedy Show, Bi-monthly Showcase Shows, and the Sgt. Culpepper Improvisational Jamboree, short shows featuring independent college groups from the area followed by an audience participation 'open jam', which eventually became the ImprovBoston JAM. Not to mention annual productions like GoreFest, a scripted horror musical because who doesn't love copious amounts of fake blood?, The ImprovBoston Holiday Spectacular, and the College Comedy Beanpot tournament.

ImprovBoston has also hosted some pretty awesome events in the past, like The Women in Comedy Festival,[1] Queer Comedy Night, Geekweek, and more. In 2010, they even created an audio department with the intention of producing weekly free podcasts among other audio-only endeavors under the banner of "ImprovBoston Radio". This resulted in the flagship, and also Fireside Improv, a more instruction-oriented look at the comedic form with a panel of improv pupil, professor and philosopher. ImprovBoston was pretty ambitious, huh.

Then a bunch of stuff happened between 2008 and 2020. ImprovBoston had shows, tournaments, and festivals. They had famous people perform on their stages, they had people you have never heard of that are absolutely hilarious perform in their space. They had the best of times, they had the worst of times, just your classic not-for-profit comedy theater living its dreams.

(que dramatic music)

In 2020, good old COVID-19 paid a visit and created some major rent struggles. Just like most art spaces during this time, it caused the ImprovBoston crew to take a little nap for a little bit, shutting down its operations and saying goodbye to its long time home in 40 Prospect Street, Cambridge.

But wipe those tears little one, A small but mighty team of comedy heroes returned in 2021 to revive the theater and bring it back to the post-pandemic Boston Comedy scene. Though without its home theater, the theater continued to host classes in improv, stand up, and sketch writing, weekly, as well as perform on the road in local theaters and performance spaces around Boston. In 2023, ImprovBoston rebranded itself, updated its website, and renovated an office space to be a new experimental black box theater space called Studio 620 (named after its location at 620 Massachusetts Ave in Cambridge.)

ImprovBoston now exists as a The ImprovBoston Theater Company and comedic playground. The artists and creatives who have helped shaped the name continue to bring the teachings of comedy to the greater Boston community through regular residency shows in theaters all across Boston and beyond. The instructors, who are some of the most talented comedians in our city, continue to teach weekly in our Studio 620 space for people looking to craft their comedic voice and develop improv, stand up, or sketch writing skills. Lastly, ImprovBoston theater company offers a playground for comedians to practice and grow their performance skills in a comfortable environment through hosted weekly JAM sessions.

ImprovBoston Theater Company is changing and building up from the 2020 shutdowns and becoming, once again, one of Boston's finest comedy theaters.