The Improvised Shakesepeare Company will perform at 8 p.m. Sept. 28 and 5 and 9 p.m. Sept. 29 at the Touhill.
No two productions by The Improvised Shakespeare Company are exactly alike.
For example, they performed their on-the-spot original production of “The Cupboard of Lost Dreams; or, the Taming of Lady Macbeth” on a spring swing through Des Moines, Iowa. The audience suggested the faux production that night. And the company cobbled together on the fly its hilarious improvisational take on fake Shakespeare.
The Improvised Shakespeare Company will perform at 8 p.m. Sept. 28 and 5 and 9 p.m. Sept. 29 at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.
All performances will be brimming with “thee’s” and “thou’s” and off-the-cuff comedy using the language and themes of Shakespeare. Any of the three UMSL performances could be filled with power struggles, star-crossed lovers, sprites, kings, queens, princesses, sword play, rhyming couplets, asides, insults and persons in disguise. But all performances will be completely original as the company members follow the audiences’ lead to reveal an unplanned and unrehearsed revelation of tragedy, comedy or history.
The Chicago Tribune raved about the company’s performance and wrote “the show channels Monty Python as often as the bard, and frequently with sly-witted results.” Time Out New York called them “one of Chicago’s most-lauded pieces of live comedy.”
Tickets for The Improvised Shakespeare Company’s performances are $30.
Or want to step on stage and learn from the pros? The company will share the how-to’s of improvised comedy during a master class at 3 p.m. Sept. 28 at the Touhill. The class is open to all levels of experience, from seasoned performers to someone who has never been onstage. Tickets for the class are $20.
Visit touhill.org or call 314-516-4949 to order tickets.
Click here or below to watch a skit performed by The Improvised Shakespeare Company.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KLeeWYND_c&feature=player_embedded
