Theatre By The Seat of Their Pants

By Marcus Gilmer in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 18, 2008 5:45PM

We've heralded the unique events of the Museum of Contemporary Art's Literary Gangs of Chicago before and now we're going to do it again. We've always been fans of "Saturday Night Live" and not just because of the numerous Chicago connections via Second City. We've always been interested by the concept of creating a show from scratch, writing, rehearsing and performing it live within a week.

Tonight, the Literary Gangs of Chicago will be presenting something similar with a performance by the Instant Theatre troupe. The project, produced by local playwrights/actors Chris de Paola and Aaron Carter under the umbrella of Chicago Dramatists, will present 10 short three-to-five minute sketches. The intriguing part? All of the sketches are based on a theme Chris and Aaron presented to the playwrights one week ago, have been written within the last seven days, and are rehearsed for only one hour right before the performance. Tonight's theme is "cavernous." As an added bonus for tonight, each sketch must involve a prop made entirely from scratch. All of the playwrights involved are from the Chicago Dramatists network and Chris says the sketches won't necessarily be all comic, so expect a good variety as well as some improv.

Shake off that St. Patrick's Day weekend hangover and head out to the Museum of Contemporary Art to support some talented local playwrights and actors. If you like what you see tonight, be sure check out the Instant Theatre blog for future dates.

The Literary Gangs of Chicago present Instant Theatre, Tuesday, March 18th, 6:30 – 8:00 PM - The Museum of Contemporary Art, Puck's Restaurant, 220 E. Chicago Ave., Admission is free

Image courtesy of Instant Theatre.