Under the Gun Theater is a theater company located in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by Angie McMahon and Kevin Mullaney, Under the Gun is a sketch and an improvised comedy theater that opened in the community of Lake View Chicago in 2014. The theater is famous for the Comedy Against Humanity interactive show, which ended in legal trouble, based on the game Card Against Humanity . In September 2017 Under the Gun Theater announced it will partner with a stand-up comedy institution Chicago Lincoln Lodge to focus on producing stand-up comedy shows.
Video Under the Gun Theater
History
Under the Gun Theater comes from 2013. Kevin Mullaney, former artistic director at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York, and Angie McMahon, founding director of the Chemical Imbalance Comedy and teaching staff of The Second City, developed a partnership through a series of Skype experiments they used to help set goals. As their friendship developed, they decided to form a theater company. Started as a traveling company, they made shows and produced them in various Chicago venues such as the Apollo Theater and the Second City.
Eventually McMahon and Mullaney settled in a building to create their own space. In an interview with DNAinfo Chicago, Mullaney shared that the purpose of their theater was to create a comedy theater and not just an improvised theater. He stated, "We will also make sketches and dramas and musicals, telling stories, whatever we can think of.The red thread is comedy."
Mullaney left the company in May 2015.
The Chicago Reader critic, Justin Hayford, commented: "Under the Gun's 27-show schedule is not a big deal (Annoyance and iO top that are easy, but then, they have many stages.) What started to make this relatively new company different was populism "The magazines have a knack for identifying common cultural experiences but family resonances, horror movies, drinking games, porn - ripe for improvisation." Cusp magazine noted "[theater] to host expressive actors, from ordinary ideas, bringing a unique improvis style to Chicago called 'party prov'. "
In February 2016, Under the Gun Theater was named one of Chicago's best comedy theaters by
The location of the theater is currently on the second floor of the Links Hall located in Wrigleyville.
Maps Under the Gun Theater
Ensemble
Under the Gun is an ensemble theater. Usually an ensemble based company is formed by a group of artists (actors, directors, designers, scriptwriters, etc.) who work collaboratively to create every production. The theater holds an annual audition to find members of the new ensemble. The members of the directors and the ensemble have created several original written shows at the beginning of the theater: The Last Mall Santa , Halloween Hell House , and The Zombie Diaries .
When asked about the difference between a theater in Chicago and Under the Gun's ensemble, the artistic director of the theater explained: "I think what makes us different is our ensemble.Our idea about the ensemble is that we will bring a large group of people we like, and we try to empowering them to do the best job they can do and we give them many chances to fail with the only consequence of failure is that the show is closed and they can try another event... It's a very different mindset than any other theater. I have to have a mindset if someone is struggling in the show, can I help them perform better because I'm stuck with them Unless I can trick them into punching me in the face, I can not cut it. "
Previous production
Comedy Against Humanity, an improvised show inspired by Cards Against Humanity party games, is one of the more successful Under the Gun Theater shows. According to Drew Wancket of the Chicago Stage Standard, he took it, "very funny, and the audience ate it." Wancket went on to write, "With iO moving south, Under The Gun is positioning itself to be a new power for comedy on the North Side." But the show was finally closed for fear of litigation from the Card Against Humanity. In response to the closing of their event, the theater created a different interactive event inspired by Never Has I Ever drinking.
In April 2015, Under the Gun Theater created Swarm of Spoilers , a parody based on the George R.R series. Martin Game of Thrones . This comedy drama recounted the previous four seasons of the television show and aired on Friday before HBO broadcast the first episode of the fifth season. Kevin Mullaney, who directs Swarm of Spoilers, stated: "I'm a very sensitive person about spoilers, so I want to make sure it's very clear from the title." The final production includes 45 of the series characters, and is played by the 18-person ensemble.
Theater develops a Saturday night series called Porn Minus Porn , in which the ensemble will lampoon pornographic writing by reading a cold script script. A critic of Newcity Stage wrote: "I admit that getting into this event at Under The Gun Theater, I am less optimistic about the possibility of sexless pornography... Under the Gun Ensemble has followed" Life on Top ", an actual adult script, skipped sex to focus on 'rich characters and plot development in pornography', as host Ben Bowman dryly says it.The ensemble on stage perfectly capitalizes on the idiot structure, the non-sequitur and the dirty clichés that enjoy porn like bedbugs, occupy New York City ".
See also
- Theater in Chicago
References
External links
- Official website
- Porn Minus Porn Sites
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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