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part 2

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Posted 24 April 2006 - 06:32 AM

Chris Scholtens
Staszak Swope
Am Studies
10 Apr.2006
History of Second City Theatre in Chicago

Chicago has always been rich with the arts and culture, but one of the most famous form of entertainment is often forgotten. Yes, in a small hotel, Chicago theatre was born. This theatre known as Second city was one of the theatres that brought life to the Chicago stage. Second City was used by many people to help get them into show business. Second city taught improve comedy in a new and innovative way. Paul shills was one person who mostly helped the development in second city theatre.

Second city had lent a hand on the improvement in Chicago theatre. Satire was the main focus that second city theater. Often using political topics made watching second city enlightening and forming ideas about what the current situation was. Second city was also about comedy. Comedy wasn’t done anywhere in Chicago, and often was made up on the spot (Whelchel 78). Participating in theatrical improvisation is like jumping out of a plane without a parachute. Actors find themselves on stage with no script or stage directions, gatekeepers to the emotional response of an audience that is eager at best, hostile at worst. Actor games were then formed to help the actors prepare themselves to what the audience was into. Second city taught actors to get the appeal of the audience, and keep their attention instead of telling a story that a person might of heard once or twice. Second city was a great program for Chicago, because those who went to the school were often hired for more theatrical plays, and movies.

Famous people used second city as a steeping stone to help boost their career. People form the Second City alumni, such as Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Dan Aykroyd, and Tim Meadows used the theatre to further their movie careers (Christiansen 189). Several Chicago alumni, including John Belushi and Bill Murray, became stars of television's Saturday Night Live. These beginning actors learned things such as how to appease the audience and actor games. Participating in theatrical improvisation is like jumping out of a plane without a parachute. Actors find themselves on stage with no script or stage directions, gatekeepers to the emotional response of an audience that is eager at best, hostile at worst. The man most capable of throwing the actor a parachute, although he probably would decline to, is Paul Sills, co-founder of Chicago's renowned Compass Players and The Second City. Sills helped change the very nature of theater and what we know as comedy by teaching techniques of improvisation formulated by his mother. While he has preferred to stay out of the spotlight. Former Second City director Sheldon Patinkin remarked of Sills, "He's a genius, and there isn't anybody from all of this who doesn't know that he is a painter and teacher” (Patinkin 184).

The Second City cabaret theater was founded by a group of bright young artists, including many University of Chicago alumni. They had worked in such earlier, folded Chicago companies as the Playwright's Theatre Club and Compass Players.
Slyly named after a series of derisive New Yorker articles by A. J. Liebling, their theater quickly became a Chicago institution. The improvisational theater techniques of the original artistic director, Paul Sills, fueled its satirical comedy revues. Second City's success became a key factor in establishing the legitimacy of homegrown talent in Chicago theater and prepared the way for the major 1970s expansion of resident theater in the city. Its reputation expanded with engagements in New York and London, extensive tours, training and touring companies, a permanent Toronto base, and a new Chicago home at Wells Street in 1967. Second City's ownership shifted from cofounder Bernard Sahlins to Canadian Andrew Alexander in 1985. Its early hip, urban satire replaced by a broader base of humor references, the theater still uses a bare stage and a cast of five or six performers for each edition.

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It takes about 142.18 licks to reach the center of a tootsie pop.

Falling stars, Rising Tides
Looking inside, as my heart hides
From the world and all its pains
Battered bruised, scared and stained

From town to town, state to state
Alone I stood, alone I wait
Until the day, you touched my life
To end my suffering, seize my strife

Over the hills, across the seas
Although your far away from me
When I awake I feel your breath
So if I have to, I'll wait till death

We'll lie together, side by side
No longer now, will my heart hide
Whether far away, or high above
I know at least, we have our love

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