The Improvised Shakespeare Company Comes to Anchorage

No script. No plot. No rehearsal. And no limits on laughter. The Improvised Shakespeare Company takes a suggested play title from the audience, and then improvises a two-act Shakespearean masterpiece before the audience's eyes. It's an on-the-spot, spot-on reinvention of old school ... as in the 17th century.

Using Elizabethan styles and The Bard's classic themes, the troupe fashions a careening story with musical interludes. Plots could feature star-crossed lovers, sprites, fools, sword-play, and plenty of witty insults. Each performance is both a world premiere and a closing night.

The New York Times praised The Improvised Shakespeare Company's "on-the-spot soliloquies and perfect pentameter" and called them "one of the most reliably clever and funny improv troupes in the country."

"Anyone who still needs convincing that improv can produce an independent piece of capital-A Art would do well to see The Improvised Shakespeare Company," adds The Onion. "Neither laughter nor amazement is short in supply."

While in Alaska, The Improvised Shakespeare Company will also visit Anchorage schools and give workshops to local improv performers.

So, attend ye, gaze yonder at the stage, and trust all's well that ends well. Anchorage Concert Association presents The Improvised Shakespeare Company 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11-12 in the Discovery Theatre. Tickets available at CenterTix box office (263-ARTS) and anchorageconcerts.org.

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