Unscrewed Theater, a nonprofit community theater that offers educational and performance opportunities, is recognized for embracing diverse styles of improv and various communities.
The organization hosts monthly shows and, on Saturday, June 28, it’s “Laugh With Pride,” in honor of Pride Month.
Unscrewed has shows on Friday and Saturday nights; its 7:30 p.m. shows are for all ages, while 9 p.m. is uncensored.
The performances are offered in person and are streamed online. Virtual audience members can type suggestions for the troupe.
During the Pride show, four special guests from the LGBTQ+ community will share their stories, and improvisers will respond accordingly.
“After they’re done telling the stories, we will create scenes that are based on that story or use those stories as inspiration for our improv scenes,” said Chris Seidman, executive director for Unscrewed Theater. “The Pride show is not necessarily a style of improv that we do on a regular basis. It just really seems like a good way to allow members of the community to tell their stories and incorporate those into what we do.”
The improvisers will not be aware of the stories beforehand.
“The performers are going to be hearing the stories the same time the audience does, so everyone is going to discover what happens together,” Seidman said.
“Most likely the performers will know who is telling the stories because we will probably have a rehearsal a couple days before, but that will be completely different from what happens during the show. Every improv performance is different because it’s unscripted.”
Sometimes, for the Pride shows, they hire storytellers with previous performance experience, such as stand-up comedy.
“One of our storytellers is well-versed in stand-up comedy,” Seidman said.
“What we suggest to them, however, is we don’t necessarily want to have a stand-up comedy routine be their inspiration. We just want someone to tell a story from their life.”
Seidman said that for this show, they will have members from different house teams.
“Usually for these themed shows, we put the call out to everyone who is in our performance group, on any house team,” Seidman said.
“We usually come up with a cast of about eight to 10 improvisers. They work together on whatever the theme of the show is or the style of the show is.”
The Pride show is uncensored.
“It gives the storytellers and the performers additional freedom to go to places we can’t go in an all-ages show,” said Seidman.
Seidman, who is also a board member of the Tucson LGBT Chamber of Commerce, used those connections to find storytellers for the show.
Various shows
Unscrewed Theater offers weekend performances and those with the four house teams.
The founding house team, known as “Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed,” performs short-form improv similar to the TV show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”
“That group started in 2002,” Seidman said.
“That was even before there was an Unscrewed Theater. We opened Unscrewed Theater in 2014… I joined that troop in 2005, so I’m celebrating 20 years with that troupe. We have a few people in that group who have been performing for around 20 years, and we’ve just brought on four new performers who haven’t been doing improv for very long at all. There’s a very diverse group in regard to experience-level and tenure.”
Another group called “From the Top” does improvised, Broadway-style musicals with live piano and percussion accompaniment. They get suggestions at the beginning of the show and develop the musical.
“Everyone works together to create the story, the characters, the songs,” Seidman said.
This team started about 10 years ago.
“There are a few original members of that troupe who have been performing with them once a month for 10 years,” Seidman said.
“We definitely have a mix of lengths of time that our performers have been with us. As a volunteer organization, we’ve experienced turnover. People have come and gone. We do have those core members, those long-term members who have been with us for a very long time.”
One of the teams, called “Comic Chaos,” performs a family-friendly form of improv in the style of comic books.
A comedy duo called “The Big Daddies” does uncensored shows.
“They get a suggestion, and usually their suggestion is either the best, worst or most memorable advice you’ve ever gotten from a father or father figure,” Seidman said.
Seidman said the performers within the teams come from a plethora of backgrounds.
“Because our performers are volunteers, everyone has a day job. We have a wide variety of occupations,” Seidman said.
“We have some teachers. We have an astrophysicist. We have a blackjack dealer. One of our performers is an IT specialist at the university. We have a wide spectrum of performers, who come from all walks of life.”
Often, people who become part of their troupes have had some form of performance experience, whether it be with improv, standup comedy or theater.
Seidman said that personally, he had some onstage experience before doing improv.
“When I was in high school, I was in drama all four years,” Seidman said.
“After that, there were a couple of community theater productions that I was in. I let it go by the wayside, and then I moved to Tucson from Southern California in 2004. When I moved here, I didn’t really have any kind of a social outlet, so I was looking for something to do. At that time, ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ was on TV all the time. I got inspired to look for an improv group. That is how I found ‘Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed,’” Seidman said.
Along with shows, Unscrewed offers beginning-, intermediate- and advanced-level classes through their training center.
Newcomers can try improv from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Mondays as part of their drop-in classes.
Sometimes, people begin taking improv classes and later audition for and join house teams.
Some house teams have annual auditions, while others do them twice a year.
The theater regularly offers opportunities for young people to learn and perform through camps and workshops.
As part of the camps, students participate in showcases for friends and family at the end of each day.
The next teen improv day camp is on Sunday, June 29.
Unscrewed also reaches out to high schools that have their own improv teams and hosts them.
Laugh with Pride
WHEN: 9 p.m. Saturday, June 28
WHERE: Unscrewed Theater, 4500 E. Speedway Boulevard, Tucson
COST: $10 for in-person and online; 17 and older
INFO: unscrewedtheater.org
