What is Improv?

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   Carnegie Improv was the brainchild of Ron Jordan & Kevin Norman, our past president and board member. They suggested a series of events held on stage, with a day of prep preceding it. Audience participation and improv games being the hallmarks of the show.

   Sadly Ron passed away before his dream was realized, however Kevin got the chance to see our first live event, dodging in to catch bits of the show in-between his snow-plowing responsibilities. We planned shows on three consecutive Thursdays, at the local one-room historic theater in town.  The first and the last of the first three shows were completely snowed out. The middle show however was a smashing success, selling as many tickets as our normal musicals. 

   We decided to revisit the idea that fall. But had minimal turnout, do to our scheduling running afoul of football games. After the massive success of that previous February, we thought maybe timing was our issue. So we planned another event for February, this time at the local high school. Unfortunately bad weather would strike again, landing us on the rain dates of both a local basketball game, and prom. During this performance however we doubled the amount of people on-stage who wanted to participate. Making this the first event where the players out numbered the audience. In-spite of these setbacks we had developed a core group of a dozen people who loved improv, and wanted to keep pushing through no matter what. So we decided to switch our focus. Improv is not a sideline sport. Everyone needed to be involved! So when we were invited to perform in a park amongst crowds and craft booths, we thought what better place to get people involved!? In spite of our insisting during the show that there, "Were No Audience Members!" a few people were content to sit and watch while we convinced people from the crowd to join us in our spontaneous antics. This led to the most audience participation we have ever had, and a few new dedicated Improv  fans! We plan on continuing these free events, and hope once we have a meeting place, to start a Improv club that meets on a regular basis to  stretch our brains and just plain have fun with theater.