Events
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Fri 22nd Feb 8:00 PM 9:30 PM | IMPROVAGANZA 2013 Playhouse Theatre Group, Inc. and Hot Cocco Productions announce the 2013 Improvaganza! A rare alignment of improv is happening at Playhouse on Park! A smorgasbord of improv groups will be performing on the same day, at the same time, at the same place! The fun-filled evening will feature some of the area's best known improv groups as well as up and coming performers. Friday, February 22nd 8:00pm $10, general admission BYOB playhouseonpark.org/pop......html  Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford, CT |
Sun 24th Feb 7:00 PM 9:00 PM | Sea Tea Improv's FREE Comedy Show at City Steam Brewery! Eat, drink, laugh, and shout suggestions as Sea Tea Improv's team of professional comedians host an evening of improvised comedy at City Steam Brewery's Brew Ha Ha Comedy Club, 942 Main Street, in Hartford, CT. Their work has been featured on ESPN, NPR, WFSB, and more. Best of all, admission is FREE! See why the Hartford Advocate recognized Sea Tea Improv's monthly show as one of the top things to do in Hartford. Enjoy City Steam's dinner menu and locally brewed beers while performers take suggestions from you and weave them into comedic scenes. On Sunday, February 24th, the comedy club doors open at 6PM for seating and food. Improv begins at 7PM. Call ahead to City Steam at 860-525-1600 to reserve seats. All ages are welcome. Due to the sale of alcohol, those under the age of 21 must be accompanied by a legal guardian. City Steam Brewery, 942 Main St, Hartford, CT |
Thu 28th Feb 9:00 PM 10:00 PM | Hanging with Harold - Weekly Drop-In Jam Hanging with Harold is not a class or a workshop. It's not a show, either. It's a learn-by-doing drop-in jam where Sea Tea Improv and members of the improv community (that's you, just by showing up!) perform a kind of longform improv together known as the Harold. "You'll have to do about a hundred Harolds to start feeling comfortable with the form." - Matt Besser, founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade We will keep track of the cumulative number of Harolds done by each participant from week to week. Each week, we will do 1, 2 or 3 Harolds (time depending), and everyone who participates will add to their Harold total toward everyone's personal goal of 100 completed Harolds. Who will be first to reach 100 Harolds completed? $5 per person Sea Tea Improv Studio, 75 Pratt St., Suite 500, Hartford, CT |
Sun 3rd Mar 4:30 PM 6:30 PM | Sketch Writing Round Table (Twice-Monthly Drop-In) Join us for our drop-in writer's round table for sketch writing on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month! Come in with a sketch and your fellow writers will give it a read-through, and we'll discuss responses to make the sketches stronger. The roundtable will be gently lead by improviser and sketch writer Julia Pistell, who will offer guiding questions & things to think about for your writing. Julia has an MFA in Nonfiction Writing, was the recipient of a 2010 Writers Fellowship from the Greater Hartford Arts Council, and her writing has appeared in many varied publications. Join us at the Sea Tea Improv Studio, the place for comedy writers & actors of all ilks to come and hone their skills. $5 per person Sea Tea Improv Studio, 75 Pratt St., Suite 500, Hartford, CT |
Thu 7th Mar 9:00 PM 10:00 PM | Hanging with Harold - Weekly Drop-In Jam Hanging with Harold is not a class or a workshop. It's not a show, either. It's a learn-by-doing drop-in jam where Sea Tea Improv and members of the improv community (that's you, just by showing up!) perform a kind of longform improv together known as the Harold. "You'll have to do about a hundred Harolds to start feeling comfortable with the form." - Matt Besser, founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade We will keep track of the cumulative number of Harolds done by each participant from week to week. Each week, we will do 1, 2 or 3 Harolds (time depending), and everyone who participates will add to their Harold total toward everyone's personal goal of 100 completed Harolds. Who will be first to reach 100 Harolds completed? $5 per person Sea Tea Improv Studio, 75 Pratt St., Suite 500, Hartford, CT |
Fri 8th Mar 6:30 PM 8:00 PM | I’ll Be There For You - Improv Workshop for Friends Instructors: Laura Manasewich and Stephanie “Sproffee” Rice $30 per person Have you ever wanted to try something new, but didn't want to do it alone? Did you ever think "I could totally do that!" but wanted to have some support before you gave it a chance? This is a perfect opportunity for you! Come to Sea Tea Improv's workshop, specifically created for friends! You two (or three, four...) are already scene partners in real life, why not strengthen the skills you're already using and have some fun doing it? Make your partner look good by saying YES and sign up for this workshop today! Come try something different and exciting in this low-risk, high-energy environment. Register via PayPal: bit.ly/FriendsImprov Another workshop in our Relationships Workshops Series: Enemies (Improv Stage Combat) on 3/20. seateaimprov.com/educat.....ries/ Sea Tea Improv Studio, 75 Pratt St., Suite 500, Hartford, CT |
Sat 9th Mar 6:00 PM 9:00 PM | Get a Clue Tours! Solve a murder mystery in the Mark Twain House with Sea Tea Improv! WHO KILLED PAP FINN IN THE MARK TWAIN HOUSE? Was it Becky Thatcher in the Library with the Lead Pipe? Tom Sawyer in the Billiards Room with the wrench? Perhaps it was Huck in the Dining Room with the revolver! A live action parody of the classic 1949 board game CLUE, we invite you to crack the case using deductive reasoning and a detective’s skill! SEA TEA IMPROV become the classic suspects as you play a live action game in The Mark Twain House itself! Saturday, March 9 – Tours starting at 6 p.m. $20 / $16 Members / $13 Children 16 and under Hour-long tours step off every 20 minutes. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED! (860) 280-3130 The Mark Twain House & Museum, 351 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, CT |
Thu 14th Mar 9:00 PM 10:00 PM | Hanging with Harold - Weekly Drop-In Jam Hanging with Harold is not a class or a workshop. It's not a show, either. It's a learn-by-doing drop-in jam where Sea Tea Improv and members of the improv community (that's you, just by showing up!) perform a kind of longform improv together known as the Harold. "You'll have to do about a hundred Harolds to start feeling comfortable with the form." - Matt Besser, founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade We will keep track of the cumulative number of Harolds done by each participant from week to week. Each week, we will do 1, 2 or 3 Harolds (time depending), and everyone who participates will add to their Harold total toward everyone's personal goal of 100 completed Harolds. Who will be first to reach 100 Harolds completed? $5 per person Sea Tea Improv Studio, 75 Pratt St., Suite 500, Hartford, CT |
Fri 15th Mar 8:00 PM 9:30 PM | Sea Tea Improv's Longform Comedy Showcase Watch Sea Tea Improv and guest groups perform different kinds of *longform* improv comedy! See the styles of improv comedy made popular in Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, and New York! Watch improvised scenes created right before your eyes, based on your suggestions! Tickets are just $9 online ahead of time, $10 online on the day of the show, or $10 at the door! Buy tickets online: seateaimprovlongform.eventbrite.com/ Each installment will feature Sea Tea Improv and a superb guest group from Connecticut, Boston, New York, or elsewhere pushing the boundaries of what improv can be. Our improv shows are different every time! The Studio at Billings Forge, 563 Broad St, Hartford, CT |
Sun 17th Mar 4:30 PM 6:30 PM | Sketch Writing Round Table (Twice-Monthly Drop-In) Join us for our drop-in writer's round table for sketch writing on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month! Come in with a sketch and your fellow writers will give it a read-through, and we'll discuss responses to make the sketches stronger. The roundtable will be gently lead by improviser and sketch writer Julia Pistell, who will offer guiding questions & things to think about for your writing. Julia has an MFA in Nonfiction Writing, was the recipient of a 2010 Writers Fellowship from the Greater Hartford Arts Council, and her writing has appeared in many varied publications. Join us at the Sea Tea Improv Studio, the place for comedy writers & actors of all ilks to come and hone their skills. $5 per person Sea Tea Improv Studio, 75 Pratt St., Suite 500, Hartford, CT |
Sea Tea Improv Events/Shows Google Calendar
Public Performances:
Sea Tea Improv performs at public events regularly, and we have a monthly show at City Steam’s Brew-Ha-Ha Comedy Club. Check our calendar for our next public performance. We hope to see you there!
Private Performances:
Our team of professional improvisers can customize a show of just about any length and theme to entertain your guests through made-up on-the-spot stories, characters, and games entirely based on audience suggestions. We’ve performed for fund-raisers, birthday parties, graduation parties, opening ceremonies, holidays, and more. Contact us for options, rates, and references.
Corporate Entertainment:
Whether you’re entertaining employees or customers, our team of professional improvisers will customize a show of just about any length and theme to entertain your audience using their own suggestions. We’ve performed for insurance companies, law firms, financial companies, non-profits, and more. Contact us for options, rates, and references.
What to Expect:
Short-form improvisation usually takes the form of playfully competitive games and scenes based on a large amount of audience suggestions and participation. Popularized by Drew Carey’s “Whose Line Is It Anyway,” short-form is where you might see us perform a Beastie Boys rap about your crappy Thursday, or do a 2- minute film noir about the struggles of an elevator operator. Sea Tea loves short-form because it is a raucous, physical embodiment of both popular culture and traditional stagework. Plus, the audience gets to abuse us quite a lot, which they seem to love.
Long-form improvisation is a series of related scenes and games based off a single audience suggestion. In long-form, players use the single word to get down to the bottom of all of its associations and implications, and build off of those and each other. The product is sometimes a completely improvised three-act play, a complete story, or a series of increasingly brilliant scenes. Sea Tea loves long-form because of the time available to develop complex plotlines, relationships, and patterns. Long-form is not always funny but it is very often mind-blowing. Many of the greatest comedians of our time began by doing long-form: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Fred Willard, Steve Carrell, Stephen Colbert, Mike Meyers, Chris Farley, Vince Vaughn, and so many more. Long-form has more of a tendency to be strange and uncomfortable, but come along for the ride and we promise you’ll never see anything like it again!
Improv Groups, Bands, and other acts we’ve performed with:
Horse Lincoln, UCB TourCo, String Theorie, The Sticks Improv, Tick Tick BOOM, Home Brew, The Awkward Handshakes, Franklin’s Peaches, BenTopher, Colin McEnroe, Fake Fake Monkey, The Men in Black Barbershop Quartet, The Moveable Joints, Moebius, The Purple Crayon of Yale, Free Lunch, Standish Arms
Some Places We’ve Performed:
Theaters:
The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts (as part of The Connecticut Forum), Hartford Children’s Theatre, Hartford Stage, The Hole in the Wall Theater, Lucid Stage (as part of the Portland Improv Festival), Perishable Theater (as part of the Providence Improv Festival), Playhouse on Park, Trinity on Main.
Comedy Clubs, Bars, and Cafes:
City Steam Brewery Cafe’s Brew Ha Ha Comedy Club, City Steam Brewery & Cafe’s Richardson Room, Cloud 9 Lounge, Hartford Funny Bone, Jitters Coffeehouse, Joker’s Wild Comedy Club, La Paloma Sabanera, The Speakeasy at Local 121 (as part of the Providence Improv Festival), Zen Bar.
Companies and Organizations:
Accenture, ESPN, Greater Hartford Arts Council, The Phoenix, Public Allies, Toastmasters, United Healthcare, United Way
Schools, Museums, Heritage, and Community Venues:
Bulkeley High School, Butler McCook House, The Buttonwood Tree, Central Baptist Church (as part of First Night Hartford), Hartford City Hall, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, ConnectiCon, Connecticut Science Center, CT Business Expo, Hartford Law and Government High School, Holyoke Public Library, Lyceum Resource & Conference Center, The Mark Twain House & Museum, Middletown Elk’s Club (for Gilead Community Services), PSC Partners Conference, Odyssey of the Mind, The Studio at Billings Forge, The University of Connecticut’s Student Union Theater, Wadsworth Atheneum
Media Studios:
ESPN Studios, WFSB Studios, WNPR Studios, WTNH Studios, WWLP Studios
