The Un-Scripted Theater Company
The Un-Scripted Theater Company is an improv theater company based out of San Francisco, California. Unlike most improv troupes, The Un-Scripted Theater Company does not perform just one kind of improv format, but rather 4 to 7 runs of uniquely different improv formats each year. Each season is set up like a "normal" theater season with 4 to 8 week runs of shows, each with its own Director, format, and vision.
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[edit] History
The Un-Scripted Theater Company was founded in 2002 when the Thursday night performance group, The Belfry, was cut from the line up at San Francisco's BATS Improv. Determined to continue their performance work, 8 of the original 20 improvisors of The Belfry left and started The Un-Scripted Theater Company in January 2003. Since then, the Un-Scripted Theater Company has performed hundreds of shows all over the Bay Area, throughout California and across the United States.
[edit] Organizational Structure
The Un-Scripted Theater Company has a permanent Ensemble who also function as the company's professional staff, and each show brings in two or more Guest performers to make up the cast that performs in any given show. Ensemble members choose the shows they wish to perform in throughout the year. Each run of shows has performance slots reserved for improvisors who aren't part of the Un-Scripted Theater Company. These slots are filled with Guest improvisors chosen by the Director of the show at improv auditions held before the start of the show's rehearsal period. The rehearsal period and performance schedule can be more rigorous than that of a regular improv troupe. The Un-Scripted Guest Program allows improvisors to come work with the Un-Scripted Theater Company for a few months and then go back to their regular lives without committing to the theater company full time.
Each show has a larger cast size than the number of play slots in any given night's performance, so the cast changes each night depending on who is scheduled.
[edit] Improv Style
The Un-Scripted Theater Company performs both Shortform and Longform improv shows. San Francisco has a distinctly different style of improv than much of the rest of the country. Unlike Chicago where one venue will host three 30-45 minute shows in one evening, most San Francisco improv shows are 2 hours long, complete with their own intermission. And while Chicago and New York are full of improv companies who perform formats based on the Harold (with multiple storylines going on at the same time), San Francisco is full of improv shows with single-story formats. Often referred to as play-length improv shows, these improv shows are rooted in the idea that if someone can perform something scripted (like a play, movie, or musical) then it can also be improvised just as well.
[edit] Show History
The shows that the Un-Scripted Theater Company has performed to date are:
[edit] 2011
A Tale of Two Genres: An Improvised Dickens Musical
Fear
Act 1: Scene 2
Secret Identity Crisis
[edit] 2010
Un-Scripted: un-scripted
In A World
A Tale of Two Genres: An Improvised Dickens Musical
[edit] 2009
Let it Snow!
Shakespeare: The Musical
Un-Scripted: un-scripted
[edit] 2008
The Great Puppet Bollywood Extravaganza
Un-Scripted: un-scripted
San Francisco Improv Festival
Theater: The Musical
Three
[edit] 2007
The Great Puppet Musical
You Bet Your Improvisor
The Love Show
Shakespeare: Un-Scripted
Let it Snow!
[edit] 2006
Supertrain
The Impossible Film Project
Theatresports RAW
Two Man Longform at the The Bay Area Comedy Festival
You Bet Your Improvisor
The Short & the Long of It (Abridged) at the Chicago Improv Festival Nine
Love at First Sight
[edit] 2005
Let it Snow!
The Impossible Film Project
The Short & the Long of It!
Love at First Sight
You Bet Your Improvisor
[edit] 2004
Let It Snow!
Fear
The Short & the Long of It!
Improvised Bawdy Shakespeare
Aussie Rules Theatersports
"Three"
Bawdy Shakespeare at BATS Improv
Improv Survivor
[edit] 2003
The Cafe Sappore series
FEAR. reborn
The Amazing Improvised Musical!
Improvised Bawdy Shakespeare
Impro Bingo
The Short & the Long Of It!
Spring Sing and Improv Carnival Gala
[edit] Founding Members
- Alan Goy
- Brian McBride
- Christian Utzman
- Cort Worthington
- Glenn Etter
- Jennifer Kah
- Susan Snyder
- Tara McDonough
[edit] Press
- "Spicy & Cheap: New, improv'd Shakespeare" by Lisa Drostova and Kelly Vance - East Bay Express, July 21, 2004
- "Act Scared: Horror on the spot" by Anneli Rufus, Stefanie Kalem, and Annika Dukes - East Bay Express, October 27, 2004
- "The 'Snow' must go on" by Tiffany Maleshefski - San Francisco Examiner, December 7, 2004 (review of Let It Snow!)
- "Playing the Short and the Long of It, Un-Scripted" by Betsy M. Hunton - Berkeley Daily Planet, June 10, 2005 (review of The Short and the Long of It)
- "Stage Fog: The Making It Up As We Go Along Edition" - SFist.com, February 25, 2005 (review of You Bet Your Improvisor)
- "The Theater: Comedy Cohabitation Off Union Square" by Michael Katz - Berkeley Daily Planet, October 27, 2006 (review of Supertrain)
- "The audience's input keeps 'Puppet' lively" by Pat Craig - Contra Costa Times, May 7, 2007 (review of The Great Puppet Musical)
- "The humans are okay, but the puppets are the real stars" By Molly Rhodes - SF Weekly, May 23, 2007 (review of The Great Puppet Musical)
- "Improv making up for lost time" by Sam Hurwitt - San Francisco Chronicle, July 15, 2007
- "Top Picks" (Shakespeare: Un-Scripted) - SFWeekly.com, August 29, 2007
- "Your Show Will Be Different" By Paul Sinasohn - San Francisco Bay Times, August 30, 2007 (Review of Shakespeare: Un-Scripted)
- "What the hell did I get myself into?" (audio review of Let it Snow) - The Cool as Hell Theater Show, November 28th, 2007
- "Best of the Bay: Nightlife and Entertainment" - SF Bay Guardian, 2008
- "'Let It Snow!' is musical that's made to order" By Sam Hurwitt - Marin Independent Journal, December 2, 2009
