The Purple Crayon on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Purple Crayon of Yale, or the Purple Crayon, is an improvisational theater group at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. The group specializes in longform improv, such as the Harold. The Purple Crayon is Yale's second-oldest improv group, after the Ex!t Players, and the oldest collegiate longform group in the country.
The Purple Crayon was founded in 1985 by Eric Berg, class of 1987, and a bunch of theater friends, among them Ian Jacobs '87. Berg had taken a semester off during his sophomore year to study improv at ImprovOlympic in Chicago, Illinois, where he learned the Harold, a long-form improv format developed by Del Close and Charna Halpern. The group named itself after the popular children's book '' Harold and the Purple Crayon'' by Crockett Johnson, whose protagonist, Harold, uses a purple crayon to draw his imagination into reality.
The Purple Crayon official website
The unofficial Purple Crayon website, featuring a list of former members
The Purple Crayon's YouTube channel, featuring videos of recent shows
{{authority control American comedy troupes Improvisational troupes Student comedy troupes Theatre companies in Connecticut Yale University
The Purple Crayon of Yale, or the Purple Crayon, is an improvisational theater group at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. The group specializes in longform improv, such as the Harold. The Purple Crayon is Yale's second-oldest improv group, after the Ex!t Players, and the oldest collegiate longform group in the country.
The Purple Crayon was founded in 1985 by Eric Berg, class of 1987, and a bunch of theater friends, among them Ian Jacobs '87. Berg had taken a semester off during his sophomore year to study improv at ImprovOlympic in Chicago, Illinois, where he learned the Harold, a long-form improv format developed by Del Close and Charna Halpern. The group named itself after the popular children's book '' Harold and the Purple Crayon'' by Crockett Johnson, whose protagonist, Harold, uses a purple crayon to draw his imagination into reality.
Performances
The group performs several shows each year on campus, appears at various comedy festivals, performs at (usually local) events and locations, and tours each spring and fall. Performances mostly consist of one or two 25-minute Harold sets, though the group often experiments with various styles and forms. Among the improvisation, theater, and comedy festivals in which The Purple Crayon has appeared are the National College Comedy Festival at Skidmore College, on and off since its inception in 1990 by ''30 Rock
''30 Rock'' is an American satirical sitcom television series created by Tina Fey that originally aired on NBC from October 11, 2006, to January 31, 2013. The series, based on Fey's experiences as head writer for ''Saturday Night Live'', takes ...
'' producer David Miner; the Bellwether Improv Festival at Ohio State University; Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
's College Hill Longform Improv Festival; the Slate Comedy Festival at The George Washington University; the Out of the Loop Festival at the WaterTower Theatre
WaterTower Theatre, formed in 1996, is the resident theatre company of the Addison Theatre Centre, Addison, Texas, in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.
History
Founded in 1996, WaterTower Theatre (WTT) is one of Texas' leading professional theatr ...
in Texas; and the annual Del Close Marathon run by the UCB Theatre in New York City.
In 2010 and 2011, the Crayon advanced to the finals of the East Coast Regionals of the College Improv Tournament, a national competition hosted by the Chicago Improv Festival
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, losing to Seriously Bent, Suffolk University's improv troupe, and the Otter Nonsense Players, Middlebury College's improv troupe.http://www.chicagoimprovfestival.org/web/ccc_matches.php
Alumni
* Phil LaMarr - actor. * Greg Pak - film director and comic book writer. *Alex Rubens
Alex Rubens is an American writer. He is best known for his work on ''Key & Peele'', ''Community'', and ''Rick and Morty''.
Life and career
Rubens attended Yale University, where he was a member of the improv-comedy group the Purple Crayon. He r ...
- writer.
See also
* Yale University * Improvisational TheaterNotes
External links
The Purple Crayon official website
The unofficial Purple Crayon website, featuring a list of former members
The Purple Crayon's YouTube channel, featuring videos of recent shows
{{authority control American comedy troupes Improvisational troupes Student comedy troupes Theatre companies in Connecticut Yale University