Yay! More Mother. I’m happy to announce that MOTHER will be doing three special shows at the Barrow Street Theatre next week as part of their Fortnight Festival. This awesome venue does such high-end improv shows as Baby Wants Candy and TJ & Dave, so we’re really honored to do these shows. We’ll be doing both the Soundtrack and the Sleepover forms.
Here’s the info:
Barrow Street Theatre
27 Barrow Street, NYC
Thursday, January 15th @ 10PM
Friday, January 16th @ 10PM
Saturday, January 17th @ 10PM
Saturday September 27th marked the end of an incredible run for my improv group Mother. Mother was formed in August of 1999 and had been doing its own show since September of 2001. That’s 9 years around, 7 years doing a weekly show. I was lucky enough to join them in 2005, having been on this team and that for the whole time that they were only on Mother.
That Mother was able to have such a run is a miracle on several counts. One, the UCB Theatre has grown exponentially, become hugely popular and is full of such tremendous talent. This means competition for stage time is at an all-time high. If Mother wasn’t such a force, it would have been sacked years ago. Two, most groups hate each other WAY before 9 years. And we still don’t! In fact, the saddest thing about the end of our run is really that I just love all those people so much. I love playing with them. It’s awesome to have sell-out crowds, but it’s not the main dish. I’ve been lucky enough to have a playdate every Saturday with this amazing bunch of people.
There’s been a lot of confusion on whether we ended our run or whether we were forced to end our run. Here’s the deal: the UCB had a discussion and decided to end our run. It’s their theater and thus their right to do that. That’s always been the deal at the UCBT. Basically, if we had our druthers we would have added new members and continued on Saturdays. After all, we have sold-out shows, talented improvisers still here in NYC and new blood would have been pretty interesting. But the UCB felt that with a number of our members in LA, and our run being so long, and with space being at a premium (see above) that it was a good time to end the run. I wish they had made a different decision, but I understand where they are coming from.
It’s a little lame to complain about ending a run as long as Mother’s, so I won’t do that. Suffice to say, I’ll miss it. And I’m confident there’ll be an Act Two for us as a whole or in parts. The UCBT has been totally welcoming about us continuing to be a presence at the theater and I still think of it as my home. I’m not sure what will be the next thing. Hopefully something exciting and interesting!
Ack. I fear this isn’t very eloquent of me. Luckily, I’ve had some nice people express themselves better about this team. Here’s some links:
This year is the 10th Del Close Marathon, a pile of improvised madness that goes all weekend. That’s easy math to do: it’ll be my 10th Marathon. Wow. I haven’t done anything for 10 years of my life, I don’t think. Well, besides that. And that. Okay, you know what I mean.
I’ll be performing in just one show: MOTHER! But it’ll be a fun one; Jon Daly’s back in town following a recent move to LA, so it’ll have that Classic Mother taste. It’s at 8:30pm at UCBT.
BUT: a show I directed, the wonderful THE SPIN will be performing politically motivated improv at 4:15am on Saturday. Did I mention that this is Improv Madness?
