COLDTOWNE THEATER
proudly presents
MAIN STAGE, FESTIVALS & SPECIAL EVENTS
SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT JANUARY – MAY 2024
“Love, Laugh, LIVE”
JANUARY
SEXTET
Directed by Kevin Anderson (Old Love), Produced by Abby Lincoln
Sextet is an improvised romantic comedy about three couples exploring the unique love the characters have for each other, and the platonic love (and lust) they feel for their friends outside their respective partnership. Sextet is based on the “Dinner for Six” format originally directed by the late Jason Chin at Chicago’s iO theater in 2001.
Starring Kayla Lane Freeman, Clifton Highfield, Lisa Jackson, Abby Lincoln, Stephanie Vasquez-Fonseca and Kat Williams. With Brian Bonnet and Somer Lawrence.
Saturdays January 06 – February 17 8:30pm
TJ & DAVE
World famous improv duo TJ Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi perform a fully improvised two person show that runs close to an hour and often resembles a one act play, but might be funnier. Unless you’ve seen really funny one act plays.
“This is an impressive feat of mental athletics, but the results are also observant, complex and frequently enormously funny.- The New York Times
“BRILLIANT, HEARTBREAKING, MIND-BLOWING, INSPIRING!
The best 50 minutes of improv comedy that we’ve ever seen. Drink their Kool-Aid.”- Time Out New York
“Two of the world’s finest practitioners of the art of long-form improv, They’re both great actors and have amazing improv chops, but it’s always hard to notice these kinds of things when you’re peeing your pants laughing.”- Time Out Chicago
Though the vast majority of the public will know TJ Jagodowski from the improvised Sonic commercials, he’s been called “the best improviser in Chicago” by the Chicago Improv Festival and performs around the city non-stop.
You will recognize Dave Pasquesi from film (Strangers With Candy, The Ice Harvest, Stuart Saves His Family, Natural Born Killers, The Fugitive, Groundhog Day, Father Of The Bride)
or TV: (She Hulk, Book Of Boba Fett, Lodge 49, At Home With Amy Sedaris, Veep, Chicago Fire, According To Jim, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Undeclared, Strangers With Candy).
Friday January 26 & Saturday January 27 7:00pm
A VERY SPECIAL EPISODE presents SEASON FINALES
Our B. Iden Payne and Austin Chronicle “Best Of” nominated house troupe headlines Fridays. Come check out why they have developed such critical and popular success over the past year. Will this be their series finale or willi it just be a good ol’ fashioned cliffhanger?!?!?!?
Starring Johnny Anzollitto, Kayla Lane Freeman, Kyle Irion, Amy Knop, Shannon Mullery, Preston Pentecost and Jami Reetz with special guests!
Fridays January through March 8:00pm
FEBRUARY
MEET CUTE
Directed by Jenn Rosario (This is Your SIgn)
Meet Cute is an improvised romantic comedy starring a cast of all Black all star improvisers. Meet Cute uses the movie format and incorporates tried and true tropes from your favorite rom-com classics to take characters from their meet cute to their happily ever after.
Starring Rudy Armstrong, Mykel Jewel, Tauri Laws-Phillips, Christian Lewis, Lex Okeke, Rochelle McConico, Irielle Wesley and Terrence Yon.
Saturdays February 03 – February 24 7:00pm
RICH TALARICO & THE FRANK MILLS
Rich is an established writer/producer best known for his work as a writer for Key & Peele. Rich wrote K&P favorites like Substitute Teacher, Racist Zombies, Karim and Jahar, Hatz, Teaching Center, Obama Greets, Black Ice and more. Rich wrote and produced on MADtv, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Saturday Night Live, and the critically acclaimed Review. He also wrote and performed in five original sketch comedy revues for The Second City. He served as an improv coach on the first Anchorman film and did punch-ups on Mean Girls and the Oscar-winning Get Out. Rich co-created the long-form improv shows “Strap Heads,” “Trio,” “Close Quarters,” and “Dasariski,“ and played with the early casts of Chicago’s longest-running improv show, “The Armando Diaz Experience”.
Rich will also be performing stand-up in Yola Lu’s Oops, All Headliners! as well as Improvising with ColdTowne legends, The Frank Mills and some special guests on Feb 10th, and then paneling at Austin Sketch Fest’s 48-Hour Sketch Competition ShowDowne on Sunday night after the SuperBowl.
February 10
AUSTIN SKETCH FEST PRESENTS:
THE 48-HOUR SKETCH SHOWDOWNE SUPER BOWL POST SHOW
THE CHALLENGE:On Friday February 9th, at ColdTowne Theater 4 sketch teams will be given the same prompts and the same time frame to create a wholly original 12-minute sketch show. A writing room will be reserved for teams to start collaborating for that night Over the next two days, those four teams will write, rehearse, (film and edit?), and then perform live for a voting audience. On Friday Feb 11th, teams will assemble and a present what they have. A panel of judges made up of SketchFest Producers and Legendary sketch writer Rich Talarico (Key & Peele, Second City, SNL, MADtv) will give feedback and vote (along with the audience) who will win. One vote for each judge and one vote for the audience as a whole. THE PRIZE The Winning Troupe will be given a showcase at this year’s ASF sponsored Sketch Cover Night as well as a free waived submission to submit to this years Austin Sketch Fest, May 23-26
SUBMISSION FORM https://forms.gle/9cYFJegztRUgF8Xh8 CLOSES ON JANUARY 26th
SELECTED TROUPES WILL BE NOTIFIED BY FEB 1st.
February 11 after the Super Bowl
MARCH
BIG FART and MOTHERWOUND
It’s Women’s History Month and our resident all-women powerhouse troupes Big Fart and Motherwound each headline their own weekend show.
Big Fart is a troupe of experienced performers who are also incredibly great friends. Realistic fake farts aren’t the only thing they bring to the table; they have chemistry and a love of improv that makes every show feel special. They are recent winners of ColdTowne ThrowDowne and are excited to ride this victory high for as long as they can.
Mother Wound storms each stage they take on with all the drama, reckless behavior and profound introspection into a hurt only a mother can provide. They recently were nominated for best New Troupe at the 2023 B. Iden Paynes and you should make a point to come see why.
Fridays and Saturdays in March
TRANSPLANTIC CITY
Written by and starring Bryan Roberts (The Floor is Lava, famiLIES)
Directed by Dave Buckman (The Second City, Boom Chicago, famiLIES, Deep in The Heartless Texas)
Tech Direction by Alyssa Tucker (Deep in The Heartless Texas, Sextet)
Over the past decade, beloved improviser, sketch comedy icon, O.G. rapper and Austin’s most eligible bachelor, Bryan “Lubu” Roberts has been recovering and readjusting to life after a double lung transplant after a lifetime living with the possible death sentence of cystic fibrosis. Bryan is now healthy, “happy” and much much wiser about the whole experience and has written a brand new autobiographical sketch revue based on his illness, his recovery, his physical therapy, getting back to life, and yes – the mysterious origins of the donor of his new lungs.
Starring Syd Goin and Bryan Roberts. Featuring: Ashley Ellis,John Gholson, Steve Guntli, Ashley Park and Cecily Phillips,
Saturdays March 02 – March 29 and
March 15 will be masked-only show.
APRIL
THE RENDEZVOUS
Our champion house troupe (of ThrowDowne 2023 victory) headlines on Fridays, moving into the 8pm slot. Come check out why they have developed such a buzzy following over the past year.
Fridays April, now at 8pm
THE AUSTIN COMEDY FILM FESTIVAL
ColdTowne is co-sponsoring the inaugural year of the new Comedy Film Festival and will be hosting panel workshops and afterparties. The Comedy Film Festival was started by Eric Alan Rousseau. After submitting his movie, Lucky Doug, to over 50 film festivals between 2020-2021, he then took the same movie around the festival circuit between 2021-2023. Eric visited a dozen film festivals around the United States and the film won a number of awards. All the while, both in attending festivals, and talking to fellow filmmakers at festivals and at home, he found that comedy films were not a genre well represented in the festival circuit, and were instead usually shoehorned into a film festival somewhere. Be the first to see this inaugural fest!
Submit your film here: https://filmfreeway.com/TheComedyFilmFestival
April 05-06
THE LYSISTRATA COMEDY FESTIVAL
Lysistrata was able to gather women together and use unconventional means to stop war. Well, we posit that we can change anything for the better with a little female ingenuity. Join us as we celebrate women and the power of our collective work, and take over Austin for four days of nonstop comedy! ColdTowne will be hosting festival shows for the second year.
See the full lineup here: https://www.lyscomedyfest.com/
April 04 – April 07
GIGGLEPANTS 20th ANNIVERSARY
Gigglepants is UT’s oldest short-form improv comedy troupe. Gigglepants was founded in the fall of 2003. On April 26 Alumni from the past 20 years will converge from all over the United States onto ColdTowne Theater for a slate of shows celebrating their continued success on campus and the heights their alumni have achieved in the “biz”.
Current Members: Ben, Noelle, Jill, Fitz, Madison, Sylvia, Frank, Katrina, Jared, Yazmin, Bella, Tejas, Arlinne, Hannah, Mina, Grant, Adara, Ellie, Ben, Jake, Mia, Caden, Ethan, Daniela, Gloria, Kate, Moriah, Jaden
Also Appearing Austin improv legends and Gigglepants Alum: Bryan Roberts, Kristen Drenning, Rebecca East, Bryan Cruz, Michael Bird and so many more
EXCUSED ABSENCE COMEDY FESTIVAL
Excused Absence Comedy Festival, held yearly in Austin, Texas, is two days of original improv, sketch and stand-up comedy performed for an all-ages audience. And this year, the festival will kick off a teenage-focused main stage run that will run through May the 4th directed by Artistic Director Will Cleveland.
April 12-14
EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACY*
(*BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK)
Written and Directed by Ryan Darbonne & Carina Hinajosa
A sketch comedy show that explores power dynamics, punching up and the demise of the n-word. Need we say more? We do? Oh, erm…stay tuned for audition announcements and more!
Saturdays April 13 – May 18
This project has been financed in part by the City of Austin’s Elevate Grant Program.
MAY
15TH ANNUAL AUSTIN SKETCH FEST
ColdTowne Theater is proud to produce ASF’s return to Memorial Day weekend. Bringing top tier sketch shows from around the country and Austin together to highlight the best in sketch comedy, info about the fest including how to participate at https://www.atxsketchfest.com/
May 23-26
This project has been financed in part by the City of Austin’s Elevate Grant Program.
To submit a Main Stage to the Summer/Fall 2024 season visit https://coldtownetheater.com/submissions-auditions/