Jet City Improv is an

Improvisational theatre Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, a ...

troupe from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington, United States. The troupe was founded in 1992 and is operated by Wing-It Productions, a

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

company, from their theater located at 55th Avenue and

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NE in Seattle's U-District.

History

Jet City Improv was founded in 1992 by Mike Christensen and Andrew McMasters and debuted with a free show on March 18, 1992, at the Second Story Studios in Seattle. In July 1993, Jet City Improv began performing every Friday night at the Northwest Actors Studio, moving to the Belltown Theater Center in October 1994, where they performed on Fridays and Saturdays at 10:30pm, a tradition that Jet City maintains until the present day. In December 1994 Christensen and McMasters founded Wing-It Productions, a 501c3 Non-profit organization, to take on the production of Jet City Improv's activities. Jet City Improv's performances were relocated to the Ethnic Cultural Theater on the University of Washington campus in 1997. In October 1997, Jet City debuted the first Twisted Flick, an improvised re-dubbing of ''

Creature from the Black Lagoon ''Creature from the Black Lagoon'' is a 1954 American black-and-white 3D monster horror film produced by William Alland and directed by Jack Arnold, from a screenplay by Harry Essex and Arthur Ross and a story by Maurice Zimm. It stars ...

''. Jet City produced the inaugural Jet City Improv New Year's Eve show on December 31, 1999, entitled the "Y2K Bash" . In June 2000 Twisted Flicks began performing for the Fremont Outdoor Movies. In January 2001, Jet City Improv moved performances to the University Heights Center for approximately one year. Twisted Flicks moved into the Paradox Theater in September 2001. ''The Lost Folio'', Jet City's first longform show, premiered in April 2002. In February 2003 Jet City Improv took over the lease to the former Paradox Theater, thus bringing all performances into one venue. It was renamed the Historic University Theater. In February 2003 Jet City Improv co-produced the first annual Seattle Festival of Improv Theater (SFIT).

Programming

Jet City primarily produces three shows: Jet City Improv, Twisted Flicks, and the Jet City Presents Series. Jet City Improv is a 90-minute improv show performed three times a week. Twisted Flicks consists of a

B-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...

played with the sound turned off, with improvised dialogue and sound effects over the top based on suggestions from the audience, as well as an improvised score from a musician. Jet City Presents is a rotating improvised longform show, performed on Thursdays and Fridays. Jet City also runs improv courses and drop-in classes for the public, as well as educational products for school students and corporate team-building and communication workshops. The company began an outreach program in early 1998 providing free performances for events, children's camps and fundraisers. This program performs annual performances for the NW Burn Foundation,

American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. Established in 1913, the society is organized into six geographical regions of both medical and lay volunteers operating in more than ...

and other children's camps. The program was expanded in 2001 to provide free workshops for at risk and incarcerated youth in the Seattle Area, with classes running weekly at the Seattle Juvenile Detention facility and the Sanctuary Arts Center.

References

*Evening Magazine. "The Best of Western Washington 2013". www.best.king5.com. Retrieved 8 November 2013.

External links

*
Wing-It Productions

Seattle Festival of Improv Theater
{{authority control Culture of Seattle American comedy troupes Performing groups established in 1992