The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (shorter UCB Theatre) is an American

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 ...

company and training center founded by the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe members

Matt Besser Matthew Gregory Besser (born September 22, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, director, producer, and writer, best known as one of the four founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, who had their own show on Comedy ...

Amy Poehler Amy Poehler (; born September 16, 1971) is an American comedian, actress, writer, producer, and director. After studying improv at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, Poehler co-founded the improvisational-comedy tro ...

, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh. Prior to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, UCB had locations in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

neighborhoods of

Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the ea ...

and the East Village, and on

Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades east to Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in ...

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. UCB was located in Chelsea West 26th Street location from April 2003 until November 2017, after which it moved to Hell's Kitchen, 555 West 42nd Street in December 2017. The second NYC theatre located in the East Village opened in 2011, and the Los Angeles expansion started in 2014. Members of the Upright Citizens Brigade originally trained with

Del Close Del Close (March 9, 1934 – March 4, 1999) was an American actor, writer, and teacher who coached many of the best-known comedians and comic actors of the late twentieth century. In addition to an acting career in television and film, he was ...

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

ImprovOlympic iO, or iO Chicago, (formerly known as "ImprovOlympic") is an improv theater and training center in central Chicago, with a former branch in Los Angeles, called iO West and in Raleigh, North Carolina called iO South. The theater taught and hosted ...

where they created their signature ''ASSSSCAT'' show, the success of which led to the troupe founding the UCB Theatre in New York City.

Philosophy

The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre Training Center teaches long form improv, sketch, writing, parts of directing, and various other comedy skills. The training center's philosophy of improv is based largely on the teachings of

, with a strong emphasis on the "game" of the scene. In 2013, they co-authored a manual titled ''The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual''. The primary improvisational form is "The Harold", and the theater in all its incarnations has had a group of "Harold Teams", house teams that perform regularly.

History

New York

Prior to opening their own theatre, the Upright Citizens Brigade performed their signature improv show, ASSSSCAT, first at KGB Bar, and then later at Solo Arts. Solo Arts was the first semi-permanent home to the Upright Citizens Brigade's Harold Teams and is considered by some to be the group's first theatre. The troupe's first permanent space was at 161 West 22nd Street, a 75-seat auditorium that used to be the Harmony Burlesque Theater, an all-nude lap-dancing club—essentially a storefront. The original theatre was closed on November 18, 2002, after a building inspector ordered the theater to be shut down due to fire code violations. In the months that followed, the theater found a temporary home at the Access Theater on lower Broadway, then moved to the Chelsea Playhouse for a short time before finding a permanent space. On April 1, 2003, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre moved to its second official space in Chelsea, a 150-seat theater at 307 West 26th Street in NYC in the former Maverick Theater. The new venue had several advantages over the previous theater on 22nd Street, such as double capacity, a more professional tech booth, larger green room with a greater separation from the stage area, two dressing rooms, storage rooms, twice the number of bathrooms, and a "chill out room". In September 2011, UCB opened a second theater on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, at 153 E 3rd St. This theater features 124 seats, two lobbies, and a full bar known as the "Hot Chicks Room" in reference to an episode of the '' Upright Citizens Brigade'' TV show. Often referred to as "Beast", the theater was initially opened in hopes of showcasing more stand-up comedy. However, it primarily featured improv and sketch shows. In January 2019 it was announced that UCB East would close in February 2019, following financial issues. At the start of 2017, ticket prices increased (the first in ten years). In October 2017, it was announced that the UCB Chelsea location would close. The last show in Chelsea was Wednesday, November 28, 2017. The next UCB space was at 555 42nd Street in Hell's Kitchen, the former home to the Pearl Theatre Company. Due to the

, this location and the New York training center were closed on Tuesday, April 21, 2020, leaving no NYC locations of UCB, with no confirmed plans for revival.

Los Angeles

In 2005, the Los Angeles branch of the theater opened at 5919 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, offering up improv, sketch and stand-up comedy shows nightly with a 120-seat capacity. Soon after, ''

Comedy Bang! Bang! ''Comedy Bang! Bang!'' (formerly ''Comedy Death-Ray Radio'') is a weekly comedy audio podcast, which originally began airing as a radio show on May 1, 2009.A Special Thing Forums:Comedy Death-Ray Radio starts today! Popularly known as ''Humani ...

'' (formerly Comedy Death-Ray), a Los Angeles alternative comedy show moved from its former home at the M Bar to join the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, appearing on Tuesday nights. In 2014, UCB announced the opening of UCB Theatre Sunset located at 5419

for November 1. The venue played home to Upright Citizens Brigade's training center, an 85-seat theatre, cafe/performance space called Inner Sanctum, video production offices, and even retail stores on street level. This location was sold in December 2020, leaving the Franklin theater as the only space owned by UCB. In March 2022, former owner and CEO of The Onion, Mike McAvoy, and co-founder of Mosaic talent management, Jimmy Miller, acquired UCB and its lone remaining theater with the backing of venture capitalist, Elysian Park. They plan to reopen UCB comedy theaters and training centers “in the coming months” in both Los Angeles and New York. No specific dates have been announced.

Notable performers

Aziz Ansari Aziz Ismail Ansari (; born February 23, 1983) is an American actor and stand-up comedian. He is known for his role as Tom Haverford on the NBC series '' Parks and Recreation'' (2009–2015) and as creator and star of the Netflix series '' Mas ...

- founder * Ilana Glazer * Donald Glover * Ed Helms * Abbi Jacobson * Ellie Kemper *

Nick Kroll Nicholas Kroll (born June 5, 1978) is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is known for creating and starring in the Comedy Central series '' Kroll Show'', ''The Oh, Hello Show'', the FX comedy series ''The L ...

Kate McKinnon Kate McKinnon Berthold (born January 6, 1984) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She is known for her character work and celebrity impressions on the sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' (2012–2022), of which she was a cas ...

Ego Nwodim Egobunma Kelechi Nwodim (; born March 10, 1988) is a Nigerian-American actress and comedian. Nwodim has been a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' since 2018, beginning with the show's 44th season. Life and career ...

Aubrey Plaza Aubrey Christina Plaza (born June 26, 1984) is an American actress, comedian, and producer. She began her career performing improv and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. She starred as April Ludgate on the NBC sitcom ''Pa ...

- founder * Rob Riggle * Ian Roberts - founder * Ben Schwartz * Matt Walsh - founder * Zach Woods D’Arcy Carden

References

External links

* {{coord, 40.7475, -73.9976, display=title Former theatres in Manhattan Performance art in New York City Improvisational theatre Chelsea, Manhattan East Village, Manhattan 2000s in comedy 2010s in comedy 2003 establishments in New York City 2014 establishments in California Improv Theatre companies in New York City