Washington Improv Theater (WIT) is an

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 company in Washington, D.C., specializing in long-form improv. It was founded in 1986 by Carole Douglis. Its shows are based at

Studio Theatre A black box theater is a simple performance space, typically a square room with black walls and a flat floor. The simplicity of the space allows it to be used to create a variety of configurations of stage and audience interaction. The black ...

on the 14th Street corridor, although its teams also use several other venues. Roughly 20,000 people attend WIT shows annually.

History

Source Theater Washington D C 2013 02 1-

WIT was founded in 1986 by Carole Douglis, but it went dormant in 1992. It was revived by Douglis and several others as a consensus-based collective in 1998, and performed initially in the basement of the

Universalist National Memorial Church Universalist National Memorial Church (UNMC) is a Unitarian Universalist church located at 1810 16th Street, Northwest in the Dupont Circle vicinage of Washington, D.C. Theologically, the church describes itself as "both liberal Christian and ...

, and soon after other venues around D.C. It began offering its own improv training program in 2000. In 2004, it hired its first full-time artistic and executive director, Mark Chalfant. In 2008, it began performing at the 150-seat

black box In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer characteristics), without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black). The te ...

at Source Theater on 14th Street, the former venue of Source Theatre Company now operated by CultureDC. It continued expanding, and in FY2019 hosted 325 performances with an estimated 20,590 attendees. In 2022–2023, it took up a one-year residency at

Activities

WIT hosts over 300 performances annually featuring a number of different in-house ensembles and visiting teams. Its performances have received favorable reviews from critics. They vary in form — for instance, iMusical is an improvised musical. WIT's Tuesday evening pay-what-you-can Harold Night performances, begun in April 2010, feature four teams each performing half-hour

harold Harold may refer to: People * Harold (given name), including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name * Harold (surname), surname in the English language * András Arató, known in meme culture as "Hide the Pain Harold" Arts a ...

sets. WIT also hosts an annual improv marathon festival, Improvalooza, a March madness-style competition, dubbed the Fighting Improv Smackdown Tournament, and performances or lessons at various other venues, such as local schools and the

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

. WIT's improv classes enrolled 1,728 students in FY2019 across a five-level curriculum. WIT runs a program for corporate clients, "WIT at Work". In 2019, the program worked with 79 clients with a total of 2900 participants.

Notable performers

Natasha Rothwell Natasha Rothwell (born October 18, 1980) is an American writer, actress, teacher and comedian. Career Rothwell taught for KIPP NYC and went on to work at ''Saturday Night Live'' ''(SNL)''. She first garnered attention as a writer on ''SNL'' in ...

Aparna Nancherla Aparna Nancherla (born August 22, 1982) is an American comedian and actress of Indian descent. She has appeared on '' Inside Amy Schumer'' and has written for ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'' and '' Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell''. Nancherla ...

References

External links

* {{authority control Arts organizations established in 1986 Theatre companies in Washington, D.C. 1986 establishments in Washington, D.C. Theatres in Washington, D.C. League of Washington Theatres Improvisational theatre Members of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington