Saturday night, October 5th, Theatre 99 proved to be the perfect solution to last minute plans with a visiting friend!  The 8:00pm show of the night was the recurring “Improv Riot,” where a selected 5 or 6 of the 18 member performing cast feed off of audience suggestions in hilarious off-the-cuff skits.  In the intimate theatre, presenting to a full house, the show began with a warm-up for the audience.  This twist was especially helpful for the unsure first timers of the audience.  It established a relationship between the audience and the performers, as well as the atmosphere of the rest of the show.  The cast had great energy and quickly responded to unpredictable audience suggestions.  If the onstage action didn’t have you laughing-out-loud, the underhanded comments from the announcer were sure to have you rolling.

As we have learned in class, one of the most important qualities of an arts manager is to be able to adapt to changing environments.  In a unique way, improvisational acts, such as the “Improv Riot,” are a representation of adaptations to the economic, political, social, demographic, technological, and educational external environments.  Audience involved improv is almost entirely based on the impacts of these external environments.  For example, Theatre 99 is able to evaluate their expected local demographic by maintaining relationships through their Facebook page.  Aside from that, however, the performers most likely use the audience warm-up as an immediate demographic evaluation to get a feel of how the night will play out.  Another example is a sketch where the cast asks for audience members to volunteer their phones to be involved.  This technological adaptation uses real text messages from audience phones in the hilarious improvised skit.

Because of the unpredictable nature of improv, shows are likely to be hit or miss, but this night was definitely a hit!  I will without a doubt return to Theatre 99 for future performances, and so should you! Especially with prices averaging $5-$10, Theatre 99 is can’t-miss-entertainment  in Charleston.