The Future of Improv

First UCB, Now iO — What Will Improv Look Like in 5 Years?

1 of 4 stages at the newly shuttered iO. Photo: iO

In the last two months, two of the largest American improv theaters have announced they are closing, sort of. The Upright Citizens Brigade closed their doors in New York City in April (but remain open in Los Angeles), and now iO has closed its doors in Chicago (after closing their Los Angeles branch in 2018). Both theaters cited the financial pressure from the coronavirus shutdown as being too great to overcome. While they have closed their current theater spaces, they have not officially disbanded the companies — UCB still operates in LA — meaning they could re-emerge in New York and Chicago. Hopefully, with completely redesigned leadership and performance structures.

The Second City, the largest of all comedy theaters, is likewise facing a reckoning, with a massive administrative overhaul taking place after Andrew Alexander resigned in the face of decades of institutional racism. Both UCB and iO have likewise faced criticism over their own institutional racism, with whites making up the overwhelming majority of performers, teachers, and administrators at all three theaters. This makeup is not unique to these theaters — mainstream American comedy (and theatre) as a whole has been predominantly white.

Take a minute and read Angela Oliver’s “Systemic Racism in…