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Comedy and Improvisation

This section contains essays and videos about writing and performing comedy and improvisation. A great introduction to the topic is Matthew McMahan’s essay “Laughing Matters: How Comedy Tells Us Who We Are.”

The Latest

Essay
Clowning Around and Leaving an Impact at ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
by Melissa Lin Sturges
11 December 2024
Essay
On Between Two Knees, or About Other Futures
by Sebastián Eddowes-Vargas
17 April 2024
Video
NO SUMMARY: Comedy as a Form of Solidarity and Resistance
A Conversation with Artists and Students of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago
Friday 14 April 2023
United States
Essay

Anthony Atamanuik’s Take on Trump, The Election, and Where It All Went Wrong

31 March 2017

Allison Raynor interviews Anthony Atamanuik, a Donald Trump impersonator who critiques both the president and audiences in his latest solo piece.

Essay

When farce meets satire

28 February 2017

Anđela Vidović critiques the relevance of a Croatian adaptation of Richard Bean's One Man, Two Guvnors.

Essay
3 November 2016

Patricia Davis on Keegan Theatre’s production of What We’re Up Against by Theresa Rebeck, directed by Susan Marie Rhea.

Essay
29 September 2016

Ricky Young-Howze writes about Neil Simon’s influence on pop culture comedic tropes.

Essay

Noah Diamond and the First Marx Brothers Musical

9 July 2016

David Levy discusses Noah Diamond’s adaptation and revival of I’ll Say She Is, the musical debut of the Marx Brothers. 

Essay
6 May 2016

David Dudley interviews members of the creative team behind the Goodman Theatre’s recent production of Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker.

Essay
19 April 2016

Ellen Mareneck on David Lindsay-Abaire’s Ripcord, directed by David Hyde Pierce at Manhattan Theatre Club in New York. 

Essay
6 February 2016

Andrew Bailes describes the unlikely link between the Gainesville, Florida and Chicago, Illinois improv communities.

Logo for Dramatists Guild.
Video
Thursday 13 November 2014
New York City, NY, United States

The Dramatists Guild of America in association with Harvardwood presented Joe Toplyn on Comedy Writing for Late Night TV, moderated by Jane Condon,  livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 13 November at 3:30 p.m. PST (Los Angeles) / 5:30 p.m. CST (Chicago) / 6:30 p.m. EST (New York) / 23:30 GMT (London). 

Logo for the Torch Theatre Book Club.
Essay
25 July 2013

Alice Stanley Jr. describes her experince at The Toch Theatre's "Improvised Book Club" and writes about how an audiences' preparation affects their involvement.

Logo for Dramatists Guild.
Video
Tuesday 23 October 2012
New York, NY, United States

Dramatist Guild of America presented a workshop on improv techniques with Jeffrey Sweet livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 23 October at 2:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco)/ 4:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 5:30 p.m. EDT (New York) / 21:30 GMT / 10:30 p.m. BST (London).

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