The Improvised Shakespeare Company

Founded 14 years ago in Chicago in 2005 by Blaine Swen, The Improvised Shakespeare Company is an improv troupe with a unique hook. While many improv groups depend on the audience to help with a theme or a catch phrase for each of a variety of skits, The Improvised Shakespeare Company does an entire improvised 80 minute play, using elements from Shakespeare's plays based on a few words thrown out from the audience. The Company is composed of 7 cast members, five of whom are on stage in any production. Although every production is different because it is based on the words that the audience has given for the title, there will be similarities in all. Every show begins with a cast member reciting a prologue in rhyming couplets. Sometimes there will be songs in rhyme. Throughout the play there will be elements of Elizabethan Shakespeare. Characters might speak with “thee’s” and “thou’s”. There may be star-crossed lovers, a king, or a witch, some character or characters which can be readily identified as existing in a Shakespearean play. All the actors have performed Shakespeare on stage and have studied his language.  When asked how the  group has grown over the 14 years it has been together, Blaine replied that the productions were more of a parody in the beginning but members of the group began studying Shakespeare more seriously, working with professors, and taking vocabulary quizzes. All of this has made the metaphors they speak richer and more fun and their productions have become “ a love letter to Shakespeare.” Now based in La., the troupe is  on a national tour, and has performed in several venues, among them, the Denver Center for The Performing Arts Center, The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and in SoHo London before their scheduled appearance in Philadelphia at the Perelman Theatre on Friday June 7 and Saturday June 8, 2019. For more information or tickets, call 215-893-1999 or visit www.kimmelcenter.org.