Brave New Workshop
Encyclopedia
The Brave New Workshop Comedy Theatre (BNW), located in Minneapolis, Minnesota
, has been writing, performing and producing live sketch comedy
and improvisation performances for 50 years – longer than any other theatre in the nation. The BNW, originally founded as the Instant Theater Company in New York City
, was established in Minneapolis in 1958 by Dudley Riggs
, with improvised help from Dick Guindon
, Irv Letofsky, and Dan Sullivan. (Riggs' parents were circus
and vaudeville
performers, and he regularly joked that he ran away from the circus to find a home.)
The BNW was named in honor of Aldous Huxley
's Brave New World
, and bills itself as the oldest ongoing satirical comedy theatre in the nation. More than 300 original productions have been mounted on Brave New Workshop stages for more than three million people. Improv and sketch comedy shows can be seen nearly every night of the week at the BNW’s storefront cabaret-style theatre. The BNW was the featured entertainment for Disney Cruise Lines for several years, and the resident comedy-writing team for NPR
's "All Things Considered
." Notable alumni of the BNW include Louie Anderson
, Mo Collins
, Tom Davis
(the comedian, not the politician), Al Franken
, Penn Jillette
, Carl Lumbly, Paul Menzel
, Pat Proft
, Annie Reirson, Nancy Steen
, Peter Tolan
, Linda Wallem
, Lizz Winstead
, Peter MacNicol
, Melissa Peterman
, and Cedric Yarbrough
.
In March 1997, Riggs sold the theatre to new owners John Sweeney
, Jenni Lilledahl, and Mark Bergren (Bergren left the BNW in 1999 to pursue other interests). The name of the theatre changed slightly to "The Brave New Workshop, founded by Dudley Riggs in 1958." The new owners continue to produce all-original sketch comedy and improvisation revues on a year-round basis, and have expanded the Brave New Institute (the BNW’s training center for improvisation) to comprise the most broad-based improv curriculum of any training center in the country, with more than 250 students and specific programming for performers, non-performers, youth, seniors, and corporations. Additionally, the theatre’s corporate services division, which applies the secrets of BNW culture to corporate innovation challenges, has grown quickly in recent years. In 2006, Sweeney and the BNW performed over 200 keynote speeches, training workshops, and custom entertainment productions for Fortune 500
clients.
The company briefly relocated to a larger facility in 1998, moved back to the current location in 2002, and operated a satellite location in neighboring Saint Paul, Minnesota
for five years beginning in 2001. Recent hit shows at the BNW have included Happiness For Dummies: An Idiot's Guide To The Soul, Prozac: It's What's For Dinner! or Let The Side Effects Begin, Martha Stewart: Prison Vixen; or It’s a Good Thing!, Saturday Night FEMA; or The Roof, The Roof, The Roof is Under Water, Shut Your American Pie-Hole; or Discount Family Values, and The Left, The Right, and The Ugly; or Blue State Blues.
The Brave New Workshop is also a host and supportive partner for Improv A Go Go
and the Twin Cities Improv Festival
.
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, has been writing, performing and producing live sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
and improvisation performances for 50 years – longer than any other theatre in the nation. The BNW, originally founded as the Instant Theater Company in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, was established in Minneapolis in 1958 by Dudley Riggs
Dudley Riggs
Dudley Riggs is a noted improvisational comedian who created the Instant Theater Company in New York, which later moved to Minneapolis to become the Brave New Workshop comedy troupe. Riggs was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and joined the circus when he was five years old. His family performed...
, with improvised help from Dick Guindon
Dick Guindon
Richard "Dick" Gordon Guindon is an American cartoonist best known for his gag panel, Guindon. Guindon's cartoons have appeared in the Minneapolis Tribune, The Realist and the Detroit Free Press...
, Irv Letofsky, and Dan Sullivan. (Riggs' parents were circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
and vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
performers, and he regularly joked that he ran away from the circus to find a home.)
The BNW was named in honor of Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
's Brave New World
Brave New World
Brave New World is Aldous Huxley's fifth novel, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Set in London of AD 2540 , the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology and sleep-learning that combine to change society. The future society is an embodiment of the ideals that form the basis of...
, and bills itself as the oldest ongoing satirical comedy theatre in the nation. More than 300 original productions have been mounted on Brave New Workshop stages for more than three million people. Improv and sketch comedy shows can be seen nearly every night of the week at the BNW’s storefront cabaret-style theatre. The BNW was the featured entertainment for Disney Cruise Lines for several years, and the resident comedy-writing team for NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
's "All Things Considered
All Things Considered
All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
." Notable alumni of the BNW include Louie Anderson
Louie Anderson
Louie Perry Anderson is an American stand-up comedian. Anderson created the cartoon series Life with Louie, has written three books, and was the initial host of the second revival of the game show Family Feud, from 1999 to 2002....
, Mo Collins
Mo Collins
Maureen "Mo" Ann Collins is an American actress and comedian. Collins is perhaps best known for being a member of the ensemble on FOX's sketch comedy series MADtv. She became well known for several characters during her tenure on the show...
, Tom Davis
Tom Davis (comedian)
Tom Davis is an American writer and comedian. He is an Emmy Award winner, and is best known for his former partnership with Al Franken, as half of the comedy duo "Franken & Davis" on Saturday Night Live.-Life and career:...
(the comedian, not the politician), Al Franken
Al Franken
Alan Stuart "Al" Franken is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party....
, Penn Jillette
Penn Jillette
Penn Fraser Jillette is an American magician, comedian, illusionist, juggler, bassist and a best-selling author known for his work with fellow illusionist Teller in the team Penn & Teller, and advocacy of atheism, libertarian philosophy, free-market economics, and scientific skepticism.-Early...
, Carl Lumbly, Paul Menzel
Paul Menzel
Paul Menzel is an actor, writer, producer, and business consultant in Houston, Texas.He began his career by organizing a comedy troupe while a student at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. After graduation, he was performer and writer at Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop in...
, Pat Proft
Pat Proft
Patrick "Pat" Proft is an American comedy writer and actor.Proft was born in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, the son of Marguerite and Bob Proft. He began his career at Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis. In the mid-1970s, he began writing for television and films...
, Annie Reirson, Nancy Steen
Nancy Steen
Nancy Steen American television producer, writer and actress.Steen began her career as an actress at Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She then began appearing the television series Charlie's Angels, Taxi, Mork & Mindy and M*A*S*H.Her television producing and writing...
, Peter Tolan
Peter Tolan
Peter James Tolan III is an American television producer, director, and screenwriter.-Early life and career:Tolan was born in Scituate, Massachusetts where he was a perrenial favorite in the high school's dramatic productions. Before leaving to pursue a career in Hollywood, Tolan founded a theater...
, Linda Wallem
Linda Wallem
-Background:Wallem was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and raised in Rockford, Illinois. She is also the sister of actor Stephen Wallem - who co-stars on her show Nurse Jackie, as a male nurse named Thor.-Early career:...
, Lizz Winstead
Lizz Winstead
Lizz Winstead is an American comedienne, radio and television personality, and blogger. A native of Minnesota, Winstead was co-creator of The Daily Show along with Madeleine Smithberg, and served as head writer....
, Peter MacNicol
Peter MacNicol
Peter MacNicol is an American actor. He may be best known in films for his roles of Janosz Poha in Ghostbusters II, Stingo in Sophie's Choice, Thomas Renfield in Dracula: Dead and Loving It and David Langley in Bean...
, Melissa Peterman
Melissa Peterman
Melissa Margaret Peterman is an American actress and comedienne who is best known for her role as Barbara Jean in the television comedy series Reba...
, and Cedric Yarbrough
Cedric Yarbrough
Cedric Yarbrough is an American comedian and actor.Yarbrough was born in Burnsville, Minnesota. Yarbrough attended Burnsville Senior High School and later Minnesota State University, Mankato. He is also an alumnus of Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis.Yarbrough starred on the Comedy...
.
In March 1997, Riggs sold the theatre to new owners John Sweeney
John J. Sweeney (professional speaker)
John Sweeney is an American keynote speaker, author, and owner of the Brave New Workshop Comedy Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota.-Career Life:...
, Jenni Lilledahl, and Mark Bergren (Bergren left the BNW in 1999 to pursue other interests). The name of the theatre changed slightly to "The Brave New Workshop, founded by Dudley Riggs in 1958." The new owners continue to produce all-original sketch comedy and improvisation revues on a year-round basis, and have expanded the Brave New Institute (the BNW’s training center for improvisation) to comprise the most broad-based improv curriculum of any training center in the country, with more than 250 students and specific programming for performers, non-performers, youth, seniors, and corporations. Additionally, the theatre’s corporate services division, which applies the secrets of BNW culture to corporate innovation challenges, has grown quickly in recent years. In 2006, Sweeney and the BNW performed over 200 keynote speeches, training workshops, and custom entertainment productions for Fortune 500
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
clients.
The company briefly relocated to a larger facility in 1998, moved back to the current location in 2002, and operated a satellite location in neighboring Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
for five years beginning in 2001. Recent hit shows at the BNW have included Happiness For Dummies: An Idiot's Guide To The Soul, Prozac: It's What's For Dinner! or Let The Side Effects Begin, Martha Stewart: Prison Vixen; or It’s a Good Thing!, Saturday Night FEMA; or The Roof, The Roof, The Roof is Under Water, Shut Your American Pie-Hole; or Discount Family Values, and The Left, The Right, and The Ugly; or Blue State Blues.
The Brave New Workshop is also a host and supportive partner for Improv A Go Go
Improv A Go Go
Improv A Go-Go is a weekly showcase for local improvisational theatre groups in the Twin Cities. Produced by Five Man Job and hosted by HUGE Theater, it runs most Sundays during the year....
and the Twin Cities Improv Festival
Twin Cities Improv Festival
The Twin Cities Improv Festival is a four-day improvisational festival held at the new HUGE Improv Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Started in 2007, the annual festival showcases improv from around the world....
.