Review: TO BE CONTINUED...AN IMPROVISED SOAP OPERA MEDICAL DRAMA at Contemporary Theater Company

Comtemporary Theater Company is my family's go-to Improv theater and considering I have three teens, having a go-to anything is pretty impressive for kids who hate everything.

To Be Continued...An Improvised Soap Opera Medical Drama, which continues every Thursday night at 8 p.m to August 15 combines the excitement of live improv with an evolving narrative as the story continues each week, "creating a unique and immersive experience for theatergoers", according CTC General Manager Maggie Cady. She said the show promises a captivating journey through the ups and downs of a fictional medical setting, where the plot will develop and transform each week, keeping audiences eagerly
anticipating the next episode.

The performance starts with the writers of the drama, played by Seth Acton and Sami Avignor, as one senior writer is mentoring the other as they move along the plot of their medical drama with little precision and a ton of humor. 

In this third of nine total episodes from week one, Hospital Administrator Beth Blood, played by Veronica Blackwell decides to fire the hospital social worker Melanie Flowers, played by humorus Miriam Giles but it's all a part of the plot to fake the firing to allow Flowers to spy on other employees at the hospital.  

Owen Gilmartin plays dramatic EMT Finn Tourniquet while Neal Leaheey plays Russian janitor Yevgeni Andropov, who informs Finn that their relation is more family then friend thanks to revelations that go on throughout the 100-minute show with one intermission.

Terry Simpson, who played Chief of Surgery Graham "Grey" Day, finds himself immersed in a number of affairs as a good hospital doctor would, but none of them would be this funny in real life.  Valerie VanZandt Tarantino plays one of Day's squeezes as the ditzy nurse Daisy Rhineheart, who gets little respect in the hospital, delivering babies alone with no doctor in site. "I saved everyone and the baby" Rhineheart announces. Rounding out this week's great cast includes Edwin O'Connor as Psychiatrist Harvey Lippitt, Sophia Pearson as pregnant Infectious disease specialist Chloe Serpentine and Jess Leclair as the mystifying Natasha Badagain.

It's amazing to see a continuing improv show, which definitely makes you want to pop back in to see the next chapter each week.  CTC just knows how to produce Improv shows and my family laughed the whole night through, no easy task with teens.  “You can jump in any week and you’ll be able to have fun and follow the story and characters,” said Cady. “Or you can come throughout the summer and watch the story develop over time! The last time we did this show, audiences got really invested in the characters and got a real kick out of seeing what would happen each week.”

You've got another six shows to see of To Be Continued..An Improvised Soap Opera Medical Drama (no show July 4), six original, seat-of-their pants, hysterical shows.  It's worth the trip as we could all use a little more laughter in our lives these days.  Or a lot of laughter that you will get out of this awesome show.  

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