Under the Gun Theater is a theater company located in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Founded by Angie McMahon and Kevin Mullaney, Under the Gun is a sketch and

improvisational comedy 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 ...

theater which opened in Chicago's Lake View community in 2014.Wachtler, Mar
Under Under The Gun Theater opening in Wrigleyville Oct 9
. Illinois Herald. Retrieved on January 16, 2015. The theater was known for its interactive show Comedy Against Humanity, which ended due to legal concerns, based on the game ''

Cards Against Humanity ''Cards Against Humanity'' is an adult party game in which players complete fill-in-the-blank statements, using words or phrases typically deemed offensive, risqué, or politically incorrect, printed on playing cards. It has been compared to th ...

''. In September 2017 Under the Gun Theater announced it would partner with the Chicago stand-up comedy institution Lincoln Lodge to focus on producing stand-up comedy shows.

History

Under the Gun Theater had its origins in 2013. Kevin Mullaney, former artistic director at the

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (shorter UCB Theatre) is an American improvisational theatre company and training center founded by the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe members Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh. Prior to ...

in New York, and Angie McMahon, founding director of Chemically Imbalanced Comedy and a faculty member of

The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre op ...

,Under the Gun Theater Holds Grand Opening Thursday
.

DNAinfo.com ''DNAinfo'' was an online newspaper that focused on neighborhood news in New York City and Chicago. It was closed down by CEO and owner Joe Ricketts in November 2017 after writers in its New York branch voted to unionize, a move to which Ricketts ...

. Retrieved on January 16, 2015. developed a partnership through a series

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

experiments they used to help set goals.Borcherts, Juli
Under the Gun Theater debuts Improv Classic
RedEye Chicago. Retrieved on January 16, 2015. As their friendship progressed, they decided to form a theater company. Initiating as an itinerant company, they created shows and produced them at various Chicago venues such as the

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a not ...

and

.DeMarest, Eric
Under 'Under the Gun' Launching Comedy Theater in Wrigleyville
. DNAinfo.com. Retrieved on January 16, 2015. Eventually McMahon and Mullaney settled on a building to create their own space. In an interview with DNAinfo Chicago, Mullaney shared that the goal of their theater was to create a comedy theater and not just an improv theater. He stated, "We're also going to do sketch and plays and musicals, storytelling, whatever we can think of. The common thread is comedy." Mullaney left the company in May 2015.

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...

critic, Justin Hayford, commented: "Under the Gun's 27-show schedule is no big deal (

Annoyance Annoyance is an unpleasant mental state that is characterized by irritation and distraction from one's conscious thinking. It can lead to emotions such as frustration and anger. The property of being easily annoyed is called irritability. Ps ...

and iO top that handily, but then, they've got multiple stages). What's beginning to set this relatively new company apart is its crafty

populism Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...

. These comics have a knack for identifying common yet resonant cultural experiences—family reunions, horror movies, drinking games,

porn Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

—ripe for improvisation."Hayford, Justi
Review: Not Suitable for Textbooks

. Retrieved on November 20, 2015. Cusp Magazine noted " he theaterhosts an ensemble of actors with expressive, out of the ordinary ideas, bringing a unique improv style to Chicago called 'party prov.' "Ianniello, Christia
Under the Gun Theater
Cusp Magazine. Retrieved on November 20, 2015. In February 2016, Under the Gun Theater was named one of the best comedy theaters in Chicago by ''

Time Out Chicago ''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 328 cities in 58 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition beca ...

''. ''Time Out'' ranked it in its top ten list amongst other notable Chicago theaters like The Second City, Annoyance Theater, and

Laugh Factory Laugh Factory is a chain of comedy clubs in the United States. The chain is owned by Laugh Factory Inc., and the founder and current chief executive is Jamie Masada. Endurance record The Laugh Factory keeps track of an endurance record fo ...

.Vire, Kri
The Best Chicago Comedy Clubs

Chicago. Retrieved on March 17, 2016. The current location of the theater is on the second floor of Links Hall located in

Wrigleyville Lakeview, also spelled Lake View, is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, Illinois. Lakeview is located in the city's North Side. It is bordered by West Diversey Parkway on the south, West Irving Park Road on the north, North Ravenswood A ...

Ensemble

Under the Gun is an ensemble theater. Typically an ensemble-based company is formed by a group of artists (

actors An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lite ...

directors Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

designers A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

playwrights A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, etc.) who work collaboratively to create each production. The theater holds annual auditions to discover new ensemble members. The directors and ensemble members had created several original written shows at the theater's inception: ''The Last Mall Santa'',Riley, Chlo
Review: Last Mall Santa

. Retrieved on January 16, 2015. ''Halloween Hell House'', and ''The Zombie Diaries''. When asked about the differences amongst theaters in Chicago and Under the Gun's ensemble, the theater's artistic director explained: "I think what makes us different is our ensemble. Our idea of the ensemble is we are going to bring in a large group of people that we like, and we try to empower them to do the best work they can do. And we give them plenty of chances to fail with the only consequence of failing being that the show closes and they get to try another show... That's a very different mindset than other theaters. I have to have the mindset of if a person is struggling in the show, is there anyway I can help them perform better? Because I am stuck with them. Unless I can trick them into punching me in the face, I can't cut them."

Past productions

Comedy Against Humanity, which was an improvisational show inspired by the party game ''

'', was one of Under the Gun Theater's more successful shows. According to Drew Wancket of the Chicago Stage Standard, he considered it, "enormously funny, and the audience ate it up." Wancket went on to write, "With iO moving south, Under The Gun is positioning itself to be the new force for comedy on the North Side."Wancket, Dre
Comedy Against Humanity at Under the Gun
. Chicago Stage Standard. Retrieved on January 16, 2015. The show, however, eventually closed due to fear of litigation from Cards Against Humanity. In response to the closing of their show, the theater created a different interactive show inspired by the

drinking game Drinking games are games which involve the consumption of alcoholic beverages and often enduring the subsequent intoxication resulting from them. Evidence of the existence of drinking games dates back to antiquity. Drinking games have been banned ...

Never Have I Ever "Never have I ever", also known as "I've never..." or "ten fingers", is a drinking game in which players take turns asking other players about things they have not done. Other players who have done this thing respond by taking a drink. A vers ...

.Bauer, Kell
Cards Against Humanity Puts the Kibosh on Under the Gun's Show: Theater
. DNAinfo.com. Retrieved on June 12, 2015.Gillard, Carolin

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

. Retrieved on June 12, 2015. In April 2015, the Under the Gun Theater created ''Swarm of Spoilers'', a parody show based on George R.R. Martin's ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first ...

'' series. The comedic play recaps the previous four seasons of television show and premiered the Friday before

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

aired the first episode of its fifth season. Kevin Mullaney, who directed ''Swarm of Spoilers'', stated: "I'm somebody who's very sensitive about spoilers, so I wanted to make sure it was very clear from the title." The final production included 45 of the series' characters, and was played by an 18-person ensemble.Purdom, Gwendoly
Under the Gun Theater produces on 'Game of Thrones' parody show
RedEye Chicago. Retrieved on January 16, 2015. The theater developed a Saturday night series called ''Porn Minus Porn'', where the ensemble would lampoon the writing of pornographic films by cold reading transcribed scripts. A Newcity Stage critic wrote: "I admit that going into this show at Under The Gun Theater, I was less than optimistic about the possibilities of pornography without sex... the Under The Gun Ensemble has been following "

Life on Top ''Life on Top'' was an American softcore drama series based on the novel of the same name by Clara Darling. It aired on Cinemax from October 3, 2009 to April 1, 2011 with 26 episodes focusing on young corporate professionals with four women as t ...

", an actual adult script, skipping over the sex to focus on the 'rich character and plot development in porn', as host Ben Bowman dryly puts it. The ensemble on stage capitalizes perfectly on the idiotic structures, non-sequiturs and gross clichés that infest porn like bedbugs infest New York City".Miller, Jo
Review: Porn Minus Porn/Under the Gun Theater
Newcity Stage. Retrieved on November 20, 2015.

References

External links

Official websitePorn Minus Porn website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Under the Gun Theatres completed in 2014 Theatre in Chicago American comedy troupes Sketch comedy troupes Improvisational theatre Improvisational troupes Theatre companies in Chicago Regional theatre in the United States Comedy clubs in the United States Comedy collectives 2014 establishments in Illinois

History

Ensemble

Past productions

See also

References

External links