Facebook photo from Go Comedy! Improv Theater in Ferndale
Facebook photo from Go Comedy! Improv Theater in Ferndale.
The mid-’90s was the Golden Age of improv in Detroit, writes Stephanie Steinberg of The Detroit News. Second City ran out of what’s now the City Theatre in Hockeytown Cafe and attracted world-class directors and writers from Toronto, Chicago and New York, who trained the Detroit performers.
Then it closed in 2004. It's Novi location closed five years later.
“There was a huge exodus when Second City finally closed in Detroit,” Mike McGettigan, a Planet Ant improv instructor, tells the News. “A lot of friends of mine left to Chicago, Los Angeles or New York. There was so many going away parties, it was just ridiculous and sad.”
But Detroit is seeing a resurgence in the craft, with hundreds of improvisers who perform at theaters around southeast Michigan, Steinberg writes:
Since Second City left Detroit in 2004 and closed its Novi location in 2009, Planet Ant, Go Comedy! Improv Theater in Ferndale and the Pointless Brewery & Theatre that opened in January in Ann Arbor have become the main hubs for Metro Detroiters who want to perform or watch improv. Over the last few years, the theaters have seen a resurgence in interest — with Planet Ant selling out its $5 Monday night shows and Go Comedy! enrolling about 160 improv students a semester.
This week, improv will be on display, Wednesday- Sunday at the Detroit Improv Festival at the Boll Family YMCA in downtown Detroit, Go Comedy! Improv Theater in Ferndale, Ringwald Theater in Ferndale and the Magic Bag Theater in Ferndale.
Learn more here.
