Magnet Theater Blog: News and Ideas about Comedy, Improv Shows & Classes in NYC

That’s it…we’ve had it. Never again shall “improv” be “misspelled” by any spellcheck! Never again will improv be auto-corrected to improve! Never again will a paper clip tell us that what we do is “wrong”! We must stand to make a difference! We must come together, not as any individual comedy theaters or groups, but as brothers and sisters. This injustice will no longer be accepted by improvisers everywhere. The hours we’ve spent performing in noisy bars to audiences of 3 people makes this fight worth fighting! We must justify our life choices! We must YES AND…FIGHT FOR WHAT WE BELIEVE IN!

When is improv going to be accepted as a word into the English language? Band together with us and let’s MAKE IMPROV A REAL WORD.

Share this post. Believe in this movement. One day…one day we’ll be able to write improv without a red squiggly line popping up underneath it. One day, we’ll finally…

Thanks so much to NYC Tourist for this wonderful review of The Magnet Theater and of Trike featuring Ed Herbstman. If you’re interested in taking a Free Magnet Class or seeing an affordable show, check out our website! NYCTourist.com is a travel site dedicated to all the best things to do and places to stay in New York City, check them out!

“The Sleep Over” is the newest installment of The Director Series, a 4-week series of performances wherein a Director selects a cast and presents a different form. This month Kevin Cragg is directing “The Sleep Over.” We conducted an interview with director Kevin Cragg via email about the show.

1. What is The Sleep Over?
The Sleep Over is largely a mono-character improv form that was developed in the early 2000s by then Harold Team Mother. Over the duration of the current Sleep Over incarnation, Kevin Cobbs, Megan Gray, Will Quinn, Amie Roe, Jamaal Sedayao, Emily Shapiro, Caitlin Steitzer, and Kristy Wesolowski introduce us to eight characters and take us on a journey through the world they inhabit.

2. Why are you directing it?
My interest in the Sleep Over stems from the long history I have had with the form. I was lucky enough to be present to watch Mother workshop the form at a tiny storefront theater and it has been one of my favorite forms ever since. By directing it, I have a reason to gather eight of my favorite improvisers and let them loose on one of my favorite forms.

3. What is your favorite type of improv?
Since I have performed improv for quite some time and I have watched improv even longer, I would have to say the type of improv that is my favorite is that which surprises me. For four Thursdays in April, I will be watching my favorite improv.

4. What is the future of improv?
Another realm for product placement.

The Sleep Over performs every Thursday in April at 10pm at The Magnet Theater. The cast features Kevin Cobbs, Megan Gray, Will Quinn, Amie Roe, Jamaal Sedayao, Emily Shapiro, Caitlin Steitzer, and Kristy Wesolowski.

Magnet Theater will be holding auditions for the spring season of Megawatt. Auditions will be held Saturday, April 27th, with callbacks on Sunday, April 28th. To be eligible for the audition, performers need to have completed Magnet Level 6 Team Performance no earlier than January 2011, or to have performed on a Megawatt team within the last year. Please note that due to the limited number of slots auditions are not guaranteed.

To apply, please follow the link and fill out the availability form no later than April 19th.

MEGAWATT AUDITION SIGN UP

“The Kubler” is the newest installment of The Director Series, a 4-week series of performances wherein a Director selects a cast and presents a different form. This month Russ Armstrong is directing “The Kubler.”  We interviewed Russ via email to learn more about the show.

1.  What is The Kubler?  
The Kubler is a best-of-both-worlds improv show.  It allows great actors to chew up some big, intimate scenes and intersperses those with large group scenes from a strong ensemble.  It’s inspired by the Kubler-Ross model (umlaut, please!) which folks are more familiar with as “the five stages of grief.”  The Kubler-Ross is a hypothesis that humans process difficult news by progressing through these five stages in order; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance.   Starting with a suggestion of some bad news someone has received, we take the audience through the five stages and throw in large group games in between.  It rocks.  But mostly it rocks because of Rick Andrews, Laura Grey, Sean Taylor, Lauren Olson, Dru Johnston, Desiree Nash, Jordan Klepper, Jana Schmieding, Alex Marino and Chet Siegel.