Friends, Nashvillians, countrymen, lend me your ears: The Improvised Shakespeare Company will be at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center for two performances on Nov. 10 and 11. It’s improvised theater — unscripted, unpredictable and funny — using the language and rhymes of Shakespeare.
The Improvised Shakespeare Company was founded 18 years ago in Chicago by Blaine Swen, actor and director, who is now based here in Nashville. He talked with WPLN’s LaTonya Turner about his twist on The Bard.
Swen: We like to say, ‘If you’re ever wondering where the story is going, so are we.’ We ask the audience to give us a suggestion of a title of a play that’s never been written. Then, we make up that play, as we go along, in the style of Shakespeare. And it should look like something that Shakespeare, or at least Monty Python, might have written!
Turner: When and how did you come up with this concept?
Swen: When I was in Chicago, going to grad school for philosophy, of all things, I was also studying at the Second City Conservatory, studying improv, comedy and sketch comedy. The student stage at Second City was a great place to experiment, and I thought, ‘I’m going to put together a Shakespearean improv group and perform here.’ And so I put together a group, and we performed five shows there. And it went great. Charna Halpern at the iO Theater heard that we were doing it, and she called and invited me to come over to the iO Theater. This was in 2006, and we’ve been running at the iO Theater in Chicago ever since.
Turner: That is a really long ride. You must be happy about that.
Swen: Yes. I hadn’t any idea it would go as long and grow as much as it did, and it’s been a wild and very fun ride.
Turner: Is it always a cast of five people?
Swen: We’ve performed with as few as three, but we generally perform with five people. When we started the show, it was an artistic choice to be an all-male group. But as we started to grow, it felt more like a deliberate exclusion than an artistic choice. So, we changed it, and now, new members that come in are many genders. The cast that’s coming to TPAC has been performing together for almost 18 years and happens to be all male.
Turner: Tell me how you and your classmates work together to improvise.
Swen: We tend to prepare for a show more like you would prepare for a sporting event than you would for a traditional play, because we don’t have any set choreography; we don’t have any memorized lines. We practice skills like active listening and support. We practice rhyming and speaking in Shakespearean language. Then, the way that we perform, one of the last things that we say before we go on stage is ‘I’ve got your back.’ And that means my goal on stage is to make you look as good as possible, and whatever you do, I’m going to support it, include it in the play and make it as brilliant as I can. And I know that you’re doing that for me. So, you really have to hold your own ideas very loosely and be ready to support whatever is thrown out on stage.
Turner: Is it literally a first come — or first shout — first served? Is everybody throwing stuff out and you pick? Or is it more organized than that?
Swen: It’s exactly like you said: Everybody’s shouting things out. I try to grab the first title that I can hear clearly. Sometimes, it becomes very difficult to hear because so many people are shouting out at once.
Blaine Swen (right) in a scene from a performance of Improvised Shakespeare.
Turner: What are a couple of the weirdest plots audiences have pitched for an improv show?
Swen: Sometimes, we get a title suggestion that is some sort of twist on an actual Shakespearean play. We’ve gotten ‘Midsummer Night’s Menopause.’ Somebody recently suggested ‘Goth Fellow.’ We’ve had ‘The Rocky Hamlet Picture Show.’ We’ve had people simply yell out things like ‘Febreze’ or ‘Justin Bieber,’ and we’ll perform that play. In that play, we had a King Justin, and he was usurped by three brothers from the House of Jonas. It was very exciting!
Turner: A lot of people are intimidated by Shakespeare’s works, or maybe they’re traumatized due to some memory of high school literature or something like that. So what do you say to people who aren’t sure about attending the show?
Swen: That’s a great question, because a lot of people hear Shakespeare and they think it’s going to be too highbrow. Then, some people hear improv, and they love Shakespeare and think it’s going to be blasphemous. To the people who love Shakespeare, I like to say that our show is more of a love letter to Shakespeare than it is of a spoof of Shakespeare. So, if you love Shakespeare, you’re really going to enjoy this show. But if you don’t love Shakespeare, you will absolutely recognize elements of contemporary comedy in our shows.
Turner: You’re traveling the country with this production, but you live right here in Nashville. Why is this your home base?
Swen: My wife and I, during the pandemic, were living in Los Angeles, and we found out that we were having twins. And we decided to move to be closer to family. She grew up in Nashville, so we decided to make Nashville our home to be to be near her family while we raised our children. The talent in Nashville is just fantastic, and that’s one of the reasons we were excited to move to Nashville. It’s just such a wonderful city full of a lot of art and, of course, music and comedy and live theater. And there’s just a ton to do.
Turner: To people who are coming to a performance, what do they need to know? What should be their mindset? Or etiquette, or even what should they wear?
Swen: Just come prepared to laugh! A lot of people who come to an improv show are afraid they’re going to be picked on, and we do not pick on the audience. You don’t have to worry about feeling like you’re going to be singled out. This is absolutely a theatrical experience. You could come and just watch and enjoy the show.
The Improvised Shakespeare Company will perform at TPAC on Friday, Nov. 10, and Saturday, Nov. 11. There will be two one-act shows each day at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. and no intermission. For more information, visit www.tpac.org.
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