Hyde Park lore includes not only the
atomic bomb’s invention in the basement of what became the
Regenstein Library, but also the birth of
The Second City as a comedy troupe of
University of Chicago students. To separate truth from fiction in the telling of this second tale, join
Anne Libera, executive artistic director of The Second City
Training Centers, and
Sheldon Patinkin, founding member of The Second City and chair emeritus of the
Columbia College Chicago Theater Department. They will transport us from the early 1950s and the Playwrights Theater Club, through the
Compass Players of
Alan Arkin,
Elaine May, and
Mike Nichols fame, to the present-day Chicago institution, revealing how improvisational theater forms pioneered in Hyde Park changed the course of comedy.
Presented in partnership with The Second City and International House Global Voices Performing Arts Program.
Above: Photograph of Promontory Point in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.