A History: Exit 16

As told by Trish Berrong. This will all make sense by the end of the week, just enjoy the history for now loyal reader.

Rich Brown, theater teacher, started Libery High School's Exit 16 (pronounced one-six, not sixteen) in the fall of '97 to join the now-defunct Kansas City High School Improv League (which, not at all coincidentally, was run by current coach Trish Berrong).

Rich was a big believer in improv as a tool for "traditional" theater--but also as an art form on its own. He wanted to offer performance options for students who weren't interested in scripted theater.
The first group featured Cassie Ash, Mike Blodgett, Garrett Brown, Al Bush, Dara Knealey, Brandon Morgan, Steve Parrish, Channing Johnson and Tommy Todd. They played students from Winnetonka, Oak Park, Center, Shawnee Mission North and Hickman Mills, ultimately winning the KC High School Improv League Championship in the spring of 1998. (They also won the League Spirit Award.)

Exit 16 also began performing for standing-room-only crowds at the high school. The group's entire budget comes from ticket sales; profits have always gone back to the troupe for more training.

In 1999, Exit 16 started making annual trips to Chicago. They've studied with ImprovOlympic's Charna Halpern, Miles Stroth and Christina Gausas; Annoyance Productions' Mick Napier, Joe Bill, Susan Messing and Mark Sutton; Improv Inferno's Dan Izzo; Second City/IO's TJJagodowski; and Tim Mason, a former KC resident and member of the Second City E.T.C. Stage.

Exit 16's annual reunion show, held in December when recent alums are home from college, expanded last year to two shows and, for the first time, featured a second half directed by alum Tommy Todd.

EXIT 16 TRIVIA:
The logo was designed by BJ Snowpeck, and made its first appearance on T-shirts Rich presented to the group to wear in the Kansas City High School Improv League championship.

Below: A photo album of the performers and alum of Exit 16.

A History: Lighten Up

The history of Lighten up told by Trish Berrong.


I started as a performer at ComedySportz in 1990. I'd been playing about 5 months when Marc Garlett joined. We dated for a while, and both worked in the office at CSz--I took charge of PR efforts, with Clancy's permission, and Mark re-started high school leagues (where we met Dan Walsh and Tim Mason) and taught workshops.

Sometime that fall, Marc pissed off Clancy and got fired. I stuck around till the ComedySportz Invitational Tournament, then left as well. We considered moving to another city and trying to get a CSz license, but Chudnow was loyal to Clancy, and said he wouldn't intentionally start a new league with someone in a feud with an existing owner.

So we started Lighten Up, performing an improv game show with sketch commercials and news breaks (Play It By Ear) upstairs at Harry Starker's on the Plaza. Our auditions were in February '92; our first show was Friday, March 13. We had a mostly-new troupe to train in a month--we were lucky to have a couple of former CSz players with us, as well (including Doug McCann, Ria Stafre and Marc's brother Kyle).

We got kicked out of Starker's (audiences were too loud, apparently), so we created a non-formated show (sketch and improv) called Outside the Lines and moved to the Fine Arts.

We left the Fine Arts for a short run at Orlando's in the River Market. In an attempt to make money, they'd brought exotic dancers to the restaurant and caused a huge uproar; one of our members had a connection there and brought us in to take the heat off by doing family shows. We held a press conference, put in Play It By Ear and Outside the Lines (now sketch-free), and lasted exactly one weekend. Even then, we had to ask the bartender not to dress like a ho.

So. I wanted to rent a theater just for shows...Marc wanted to rent our own space. Our first theater was the current location of the Persona Day Spa at 74th and Wornall. We ripped up carpet, broke up tiles, built walls, installed bathrooms, put in air conditioning, covered thrift-store sofas with badly dyed sheets because we couldn't afford tables and chairs...all on my Hallmark salary, some credit cards and a couple of personal loans Marc and I took. We ran into codes issues, parking lot problems...I think we performed there for about 5-6 months before our landlords asked us to leave for making noise (a group that rented our space during the day put their speakers right up against the wall and blasted out the business next door). By then, we were happy to go.

We moved to a space right next door to the old ComedySportz stage at 323 West 8th Street and were there from...oh, 94-97 or 8 or so. While there, we:
--Performed Play It By Ear and Outside the Lines weekly.
--Started Spontaneous Combustion: The US Improv Festival.
--Taught Flying Leap improv workshops.
--Got a license to do Theatresports, which we used to create an "anybody can play" competitive league (where we met Jared & Ed and the rest of the Trip Fives).
--Started the KC High School Theatresports League.
--Brought in out-of-town directors like Joe Bill and Rob Reese.
--Directed some short-run shows with other local improvisers.
--Rented space to Caught in the Act, Renegade Theatre (from Lawrence), Out on a Limb, and whatever the name of Matt Rapport's group was (actually, I think that was in the Wornall space).
--Let Marc's girlfriend direct a REALLY awful Halloween show called "Blood Clot Bingo," in which they threw a ramen-noodle-gelatin-kidney-bean mixture at the audience, and it later turned to cement. (I was thankful to have talked Marc out of his original idea: using animal parts from a butcher.)

Lighten Up came to an end when Marc and I decided to part ways. The company had taken on some debt as a result of paying directors for improv festivals and getting the space up to code for an unprofitable coffee shop. We were starting to dig our way out, as a result of growing crowds for our game shows, regular sell-outs for the improvised musical in Outside the Lines, and a hugely successful high school program (which made money for us AND the school theater departments).

Over the years, Marc and I realized we had very different philosophies about the way the business should be run, and they came to a head over the debt issues. We decided to split. I left, as did the cast. He kept the theater, which closed within weeks.

It was kind of a sucky way for things to end...but man, it was fun while it lasted.

Who is Trish Berrong?

Only the person who organizes the Kansas City Improv Festival, Teaches the longest running High School Improv Troupe Exit 16, and performs in numerous groups around town. On top of that, her improv teaching, training, and performing resume is sure to make anyone else salivate with jealousy. The only way to describe her is to say that she is the Indian Chief to the improv tribe here in Kansas City. She has had a hand in training at least one member from every group in town. She is Kansas City Improv. This week, we will be focusing on her history with Improv in Kansas City. Let's face it, if it wasn't for her, we wouldn't even be here today.


Teaser, Trish started doing Improv at Comedy City, but no need to put a date here as to when...Soon after, she started her own Improv group/theater/company. More to come tomorrow.

Improv Blogger Topic for April

"What makes a good improv troupe?" was the topic this month.

Overall consensus: Be a nice person and know your basic improv $#!%.

Scroll through some of the improv bloggers on the right to find out what they think makes a good Kansas City improv troupe.

Want to learn more about Kansas City Improv? Visit the links below:



Myspace
Facebook
City3.org

Joint Shows Are The Future

2 years ago, there was one improv theater and a handful of groups performing at least once a month. Today there are two improv theaters and a dozen groups performing at least once a month. Of course, this prompted Improv Thunderdome, but something else has bubbled up.

In Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, there are improv theaters that have training centers. Within those training centers are hundreds of students forming teams. They have to have 3-4 teams perform each night so that everyone gets equal stage time.

Here in Kansas City, we don't have a training center, but each group is understanding, that in order to build up a decent audience to perform to, you should play together. Improv Thunderdome uses this theory as well. The three teams performing bring their audience, resulting in sold out shows.

This weekend, two fantastic teams are sharing the stage in what should be a fantastic improv show.

The Trip Fives & Babel Fish
April 26th, 8pm
Westport Coffeehouse Theater

Babel Fish is one of Kansas City's newest improv comedy troupes, impressing everyone that attended round two of Improv Thunderdome last February. They will present the first 30 minutes with the best short-form improv in Kansas City.

Then the two troupes will combine their powers and together perform a variation of monologues and scenes.

In the second half, The Trip Fives (Named Kansas City's "Best Improv Group" in 2006 by the Pitch) will perform a piece surrounding one single character created by the audience.

Those People

A new improv group out of Lawrence, made up of mostly Kansas University students, are putting up a show at The Granada. Some of the students have ties to some well known Kansas City improv groups as well.

The fun starts at 9 pm, Thursday April 24th at The Granada. Tickets are only $2!

Featuring:
Doug Altman
Shawn Bowers
Ryan Klamen
Spencer Lott
Tosin Morohunfola
Alex Nichols
Director: Jeff List

Video: Improv-Abilities

Inspired by Improv Everywhere, Improv-Abilities has dabbled in some Guerrilla Improv in areas of Kansas City, and for the heck of it, recorded them. Soon after there first two successful missions, KCWE asked if they could film some of the missions and use them as commercial spots. Here is a brief recap of what they have done:













For more pictures and information about Improv-Abilities Guerrilla Improv Missions go to kcimprov.com.