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Storybox Improvisational Theatre: Archives
2008 Update: 12/17/08
Update: 12/11/08
Holiday Storybox's upcoming run has received positive preview press coverage in the Chicago area media. To read the Evanston Review article, please click: Evanston Review Holiday Storybox was also chosen by Crain's Chicago Business in their Crain's Picks for their best bets for the week of December 15, 2008. Holiday Storybox also received good notices in the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. Update: 11/28/08
A family friendly, 45-minute version of Storybox Theatre, called Holiday Storybox will be co-presented by Piven Theatre and CIF Productions on December 13-21, 2008. Showtimes are as follows:
Holiday Storybox is directed by Nick Johne and features Ravi Batista, Tusiime Jackson, Elise Lammers, Matt Klingler, Jonathan Pitts, Jenn SavaRyan, Jeremy Schaefer, and Kelly Williams. The production stage manager is Elizabeth Grantner and the assistant stage manager is Emeila Zuckerman.
To buy tickets, call the Piven box office at: 847.866.8049 or click: Piven Update: 11/9/08
Storybox creator Jonathan Pitts will teach a Storybox Weekend Intensive at Piven Theatre Workshop. The two-day class will take place on Saturday, December 6, from 12:30pm-5:30pm, and Sunday, December 7, from 12:30pm-5:30pm. The cost for the Storybox Weekend Intensive is $125. To register for the workshop, plese click: Piven Theatre Workshop Update: 10/28/08
To see photos of Storybox Theatre performing at the Montreal Improv Festival, please click: Montreal Improv Festival Update: 9/29/08
CIF Productions' touring improv show Storybox Theatre is scheduled to have three performances at the upcoming 3rd annual Montreal Improv Festival, September 30-October 4, 2008. Storybox is the only show from the United States that was invited to perform in the Canadian festival. Performing in the Montreal shows will be Kat Barker, Marla Caceres, Jonathan Pitts, Jeremy Schaefer and Jonathan Wagner Update: 9/1/08
In the summer of 2009, Piven Theatre will co-produce Storybox for a month long run as part of their Performance Lab series. The show will run July 10-August 2, 2009. Performances will be Fridays @ 7:30pm, Saturdays @ 7:30pm, and Sundays @ 2:30pm. This will be the second year in a row that Storybox Theatre has been part of Piven's season. The director will be Jonathan Pitts, and the cast will be Ravi Batista, Marla Caceres, John Hildreth, Nick Johne, Matt Klingler, Jonathan Pitts, Jenn SavaRyan, Jeremy Schaefer, Kelly Williams, and Joe Yau. The musical director will be Jonathan Wagner and the stage manager will be DeJuan Pritchett Update: 8/3/08
On Saturday, August 2, Storybox creator Jonathan Pitts taught a 90-minute Storybox workshop to 22 directors from across North America as part of the 2008 Directors Lab Chicago held at the Chicago Cultural Center. Pitts spoke for about 75 minutes as he took the directors through the process of doing Storybox. Then for the final 15 minutes he took several enthusiastic questions from the directors. The DLC co-producer Elizabeth Margolis said "The Storybox workshop was certainly one of the big hits of this year DLC. The directors were still talking about it even later in the day. Jonathan and his workshop helped make this year's DCL a success." An interesting coincidence was that Erica Mott, an alumni of Storybox, was one of the 22 directors in the workshop. Update: 7/24/08
After six weeks of meeting twice a week for two hours each time, the Storybox summer workshop for teens at Piven Theatre Workshop concluded with a flourish as the class of 8 teens performed Storybox in front on an audience of 30 to 35 family and friends. The workshop was taught by Jonathan Pitts and he guided the class in their inagural performance. Following the show, the teens as well as their families and friends were very excited with what the teens had accomplished for themselves in performing their own 25 minute version of Storybox. Pitts said, "They learned a lot in a short time period and the show they did was as good as the Storybox 3.0 shows we did at The Second City Skybox". Teen student Emelia Lawrence said, "I love Storybox! I can't wait to do more!" Pitts' assistant teacher was Piven Theatre Workshop's Jordan Seigel. Storybox History Storybox has performed over 225 shows to over 27,500 people. This is the story of Storybox: "In the beginning..." June, 2002: Stir-Friday Night During the summer of 2002, Jonathan Pitts was leading the sketch comedy ensemble Stir-Friday Night in a series of open-ended improv workshops. During one workshop, Pitts got an idea of stories within stories, the cast leading the story, using Story Theater's self-narrative techniques, and the usage of transformation. Under his guidance, they spent a week working on these ideas. Ultimately, he and the cast decided to go in another direction as they created a different show (Lucky Red Dragon Karokee Night), and Pitts saved his new concept for another time. Participating in the workshop were Stir-Friday Night cast members Danny Bernardo, Daisy Castro, Jennifer Liu, Rasika Mathurs, Ron Mok, Dani Pudi, Maria Robles, Ranjit Souri, and Joe Yau. * * * * * * * * * June, 2003: The Second City Training Center These shows had a cast of Second City Training Center students directed by Jonathan Pitts and assistant directed by Sean Monahan. The 25-minute shows shared a bill with two other SCTC students shows. Also notable was that the cast wore all white clothes, instead of the all black clothes the casts have worn ever since. Jokingly, Pitts sometimes refers to this run as Storybox's Paleolithic period. * * * * * * * * * August, 2003: The Second City Training Center
As in June, these shows were also on a shared bill with two other SCTC student shows. The cast was SCTC students directed by Jonathan Pitts and assistant directed by Jill Bernard. The notable differences about these 25-minute shows was the addition of Bernard and Pitts playing onstage with the SCTC student cast and the switch to all black clothes. Besides Bernard and Pitts, the cast featured Raymond Chao, Jarrod Dambo, Jessica Hardy, Geoff Plitt, and Meghan Pressman. * * * * * * * * * September, 2003: The Spontaniety Shop While in London teaching improv workshops, Jonathan Pitts taught a workshop on Storybox to The Spontaneity Shop at the Royal Academy for the Arts. It was during this experience, while working with professional actors that Pitts realized that if he was going to get his ideas on Storybox to grow, he had to start working with professional actors and improvisers. * * * * * * * * * January-February, 2004: The Second City Skybox
Storybox had its semi-professional debut as its own show at The Second City Skybox. It ran as a 45-minute one-act show every Saturday night at 8pm for two months. These were the first shows that incorporated a musical director and the first ones to consistently run around 45 minutes. The cast was a 50/50 mix of Second City teachers and students. The shows were directed by Jonathan Pitts and assistant directed by Jill Bernard. The cast featured Jill Bernard, Larry Gimm, Nick Johne, Robbio Kaufield, Jesica Kivnik, Erica Mott, Jonathan Pitts, Geoff Plitt, and Meghan Pressman. The musical director was Mike Descoteaux and the stage manager was Jason Flowers. * * * * * * * * * May, 2004: Chicago Improv Festival
The performance was Storybox's festival debut and it was a 45-minute performance as part of Chicago Improv Festival's Fringe stage at The Playground. They performed on the same bill with a Hothouse STC ensemble who improvised a show without words. The cast featured Jill Bernard, Larry Gimm, Nick Johne, Jessica Kivnik, Erica Mott, Geoff Plitt, Meghan Pressman and the musical director was Mike Descoteaux. * * * * * * * * * August, 2004: Toronto Improv Festival
The 30-minute performance at the Toronto Improv Festival was the first time Storybox played to an international audience. The show was directed by Jonathan Pitts. The cast featured Jill Bernard, Nick Johne, Jessica Kivnik, Erica Mott, Jonathan Pitts, Geoff Plitt, Meghan Pressman and the musical director was Mike Descoteax. * * * * * * * * * October 2004-June 2005: Urban Gateways
Storybox Theatre had its first year touring Storybox for Kids to Chicago area public schools through their partner Urban Gateways. The 45-minute long show was performed to grammar school students, kindergarten through 8th grade. The show was directed by Jonathan Pitts. The company included Marla Caceres, Roni Geva, Tusiime Jackson, Nick Johne, Erica Mott, Vayram Nyadroh, Jonathan Pitts, Kristala Pouncy, Rance Rizzutto, and Ronnel Taylor. The musical directors were Mike Descoteaux and Jonathan Wagner. * * * * * * * * * May, 2005: San Fransico Improv Festival
These three performances at the San Francisco Improv Festival was a new high water mark for Storybox Theatre. It was the first time the company had performed three nights in a row, the shows were as dramatic and touching as they were funny and they ran around 60 minutes in length. The last night of the short run was especially notable, as during the show's sad and troubling ending, several audience members cried. That was a new accomplishment for any Storybox show. The shows were directed by Jonathan Pitts. The cast featured Marla Caceres, Roni Geva, Tusiime Jackson, Nick Johne, Erica Mott, Vayram Nyadroh, Jonathan Pitts, Kristala Pouncy, and Rance Rizzutto. The musical director was Jonathan Wagner. * * * * * * * * * October, 2005-June 2006: Chicago Park District; Urban Gateways
During this time period, Storybox for Kids expanded its audience base by performing 30 to 45 minute shows to children and teens, pre-school through high school, through partnerships with the Chicago Park District, Chicago Public Library, and Urban Gateways. This also included a 12 show tour to different Chicago area park districts. The shows were directed by Jonathan Pitts. The cast featured Marla Caceres, Ricky Gamboa, Roni Geva, Tusiime Jackson, Nick Johne, Elise Lammers, Veronica Lynn, Vayram Nyadroh, Sean Monahan, Jonathan Pitts, Kristala Pouncy, Meghan Pressman, Amy Roeder, Jeremy Schaefer, and Ronnel Taylor. The musical directors were Sarah Pappalardo and Jonathan Wagner. * * * * * * * * * March, 2006: CIF Preview
Storybox did a 20 minute show at part of Chicago Improv Festival's CIF Preview which was held at The Second City, ETC. The show was directed by Jonathan Pitts. The cast featured Marla Caceres, Roni Geva, Tusiime Jackson, Vayram Nyadroh, Amy Roeder, Jeremy Schaefer, and Ronnel Taylor. The musical director was Jonathan Wagner. * * * * * * * * * July, 2006: Skald Storytelling Festival The 45-minute show was part of WNEP Theatre's Skald Storytelling Festival, its annual storytelling festival. The performance took place at the Chicago Cultural Center. The show was directed by Jonathan Pitts. The cast featured Marla Caceres, Ricky Gamboa, Elise Lammers, Vayram Nyadroh, Tusiime Jackson, Erica Mott, Meghan Pressman, Jeremy Schaefer and the musical director was Sarah Papalardo. * * * * * * * * * September, 2006: Around The Coyote Arts Festival Storybox Theatre performed for two nights as part of the Around The Coyote Arts Festival. The experimental aim of the run was to make one show created over two nights, in a continuing two-act play. The cast began the second night performing a rehearsed recap of act-one before moving on with the creation of act-two. Several people who saw both nights felt that the recap was the run's most interesting new element. The shows were directed by Jonathan Pitts. The cast featured Roni Geva, Robert Hines, Tusiime Jackson, Elise Lammers, Nick Johne, Jonathan Pitts, Kristala Pouncy, Jeremy Schaefer, and Ronnel Taylor. The musical director was Mike Descoteaux. * * * * * * * * * October, 2006-June, 2007: Urban Gatways
This was the third year Storybox for Kids toured its 45 minute show to Chicago area schools with it's partner Urban Gateways. The shows were directed by Jonathan Pitts. The cast featured Marla Caceres, Brittany Davis, Roni Geva, Tusiime Jackson, Elise Lammers, Vayram Nyadroh, Jonathan Pitts, Kristala Pouncy, Jenn SavaRyan, Jeremy Schaefer, Megan Schutt, Ronnel Taylor, Jonathan Wagner, and Kelly Williams. * * * * * * * * * Mid-October, 2006: Storybox Glossary After years of developing Storybox as a show and of training incoming actors and improvisers how to perform Storybox, Jonathan Pitts writes a 25 page glossary of Storybox concepts, terms and vocabulary. * * * * * * * * * Late-October, 2006: The Improv Playhouse
This show occured a few days before Halloween at The Improv Playhouse in Libertyville. The show's aimed theme was horror, which was a new genre for Storybox. It was this show that proved that Storybox could do any style or genre. The show was also notable for two other reasons: 1) Japanese improviser, and CIF artistic associate, Naomi Ikegami was videotaping the show in the audience. Later in Tokyo, she and her company utilized Storybox in their rehearsal process. 2)This was the first Storybox show since San Francisco that an audience member cried. The show's cast featured Marla Caceres, Elise Lammers, Vayram Nyadroh, Jonathan Pitts, Kristala Pouncy, and Jeremy Schaefer. * * * * * * * * * February, 2007-March, 2007: Live Bait Theatre
These shows at Live Bait Theater were set-up as an experimental eight-week run on Tuesday nights to explore the different possible ways of performing and presenting Storybox. This was the hardest run in Storybox's history. Each show had a different company of cast members, 5 of the 7 shows had different formats, and the shows played in 2 different theatre spaces (Live Bait's main stage and studio). The only constant was change. Among the different versions explored were a two-act play created in one show (this time, the act-two recaps were improvised); two one-act plays in one show; and one-act plays with a minor character from the first one-act chosen by the audience to be the lead character for the second one-act. On the final night, a break-through occured when the Storybox ran as a 70-minute long dramatic one-act performed without an intermission. This final format worked the best for both the actors and the audience. It was also the longest run time that a single Storybox show had ever done without an intermission. The shows were directed by Jonathan Pitts and assisted directed by Jay Skelton. The cast featured Marla Caceres, Roni Geva, Robert Hines, John Hildreth, Nick Johne, Elise Lammers, Vayram Nyadroh, Tony Sancho, Jenn SavaRyan, Jeremy Schaefer, and Joe Yau. The musical directors were Mike Descoteaux, Boaz Riseman and Jonathan Wagner. The stage manager was Lucinda Alipio. * * * * * * * * * October, 2007-June, 2008: Urban Gateways
This was the fourth year that Storybox for Kids toured its 45 minute show to Chicago area schools through Urban Gateways. This time period also featured the debut of World Tales, a 45-minute show using Storybox techniques to perform three inernational folk-tales. The shows were directed by Jonathan Pitts. The cast featured Kat Barker, Ravi Batista, Marla Caceres, Brittany Davis, Tusiime Jackson, Eddie Jordan, Matt Klingler, Elise Lammers, Britt Lower, Jonathan Pitts, Kristala Pouncy, Andrea Salloum, Jenn SavaRyan, Jeremy Schaefer, Megan Schutt, Jonathan Wagner, and Kelly Williams. * * * * * * * * * Janaury, 2008-February, 2008: Piven Theatre
This month-long run was co-produced by Piven Theatre and CIF Productions. It marked the first time in years that a Chicago area Equity theatre presented a fully improvised theatre production as part of its season. This also marked the first time that the prestigous Piven Theatre expanded its theatrical season from two shows to three. The new partnership between Piven & CIF Productions made a lot of sense. Piven Theatre is the artistic home of Story Theater in the Chicago area and it is used in their artistic adapations, performance styles, and workshop training. Piven Theatre's co-founders Byrne Piven & Joyce Piven were both company members of the original Story Theater under the direction of Story Theater creator Paul Sills (also the co-founder of The Compass, The Second City and a recipent of CIF's Lifetime Achievement Award). This was Storybox Theatre's debut as a proper theatre production. This was the first time that Storybox Theatre performed in a venue where the lights and set were designed exclusively for Storybox's performance. This was the first time where Storybox Theatre had a traditional run of 4 shows a week, with shows Thursday-Saturday at 7:30pm, and Sunday at 3pm. In performance, the one-act shows ran an average of 85 minutes and featured a variety of casting, styles and tones. Impressed, Piven Theatre's Artistic Director Jen Green said "One weekend of Storybox Theatre is another theatre company's season". Moving from laughter to tears and back again, during the run audiences cried at two shows, and for the first time in Storybox's history, actors cried on stage during two shows. Interestingly enough, the shows were the audience cried were not the same two shows were the actors cried. In order to make sure the show was a full evening of theatre, during the rehearsals, director Jonathan Pitts developed an additional version of Storybox that deconstructed and reconstructed existing fair-tales that could be used by the cast if they did a show that ran under 70 minutes. This additional version ran from 15 to 20 minutes and tended to be quite bawdy in content, imagery, and tone. After the first week, the shows were running 75 minutes and up, so the additional version was never used for the final three weeks. The run's longest show went 100 minutes and was a drama. The show received positive previews and reviews from the Chicago area media. The audiences were happy with what they saw, as several audience members attended two to four shows each and filling out rave remarks on Piven Theatre's audience survey cards. Over-all, a new high water mark had been achieved, far surpassing what had been done in San Francisco. Now, Storybox Theatre had a new performance definition of what it could be and what it was.
The shows were directed by Jonathan Pitts. The cast featured Marla Carces, Elise Lammers, John Hildreth, Jonathan Pitts, Jenn SavaRyan, Jeremy Schaefer, Kelly Williams, and Joe Yau. The understudy was Nick Johne. The musical director was Jonathan Wagner, and the stage manager was DeJuan Pritchett. The light designer and set designer was Jonathan Pitts. |
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