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Theatre Momentum

Chicago’s only theatre dedicated to dramatic improv

 
 
 
 
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Latest Happenings

Auditions

Come audition for our first production of 2025! Lies, Damned Lies, & Statistics is an improvised one act play, grounded in dramatic improvisation. Join us!

Dramatic Improv Festival

4 DAYS • 20 SHOWS • 18 WORKSHOPS •
100+ PERFORMERS • 1 Insta-team

Now accepting submissions for instructors and performers!


Come train at the ONLY theater
dedicated to dramatic improvisation.

Dramatic improv is not just useful for dramatic improvisors. It is incredibly helpful for scripted actors, to find intense, immediate moments, to be able to respond to directions without judgment, and to stay focused in the moment. It will also help your comedic improv. Get deeper, more layered characters and 3-dimensional stories that feel like a play. These are unique classes that will change your improv world. Learn from Theatre Momentum's Head Instructor, 30-year improv veteran, Tony Rielage. These classes focus on 2-person scenework and acting from an inside-out, psychological/neurological approach.


 

“Improv is acting. Improv is writing. Improv is theatre.”


Tony Rielage  |  Artistic Director, Head Instructor

 
 
 
 
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Our Story…

In September 2005, now-Artistic Director Tony Rielage began Work(shop)-in-Progress, a weekly improv theatre lab designed to flesh out and polish a variety of improv show concepts he had brainstormed over the previous 10+ years. The workshop quickly evolved to bring in other performers’ concepts, and the brainstorming/polishing process was honed, with the help of Nick Kanel in the early months, Don Hall for over two years, and a variety of new coaches after that.

In early 2006, WiP spawned a handful of shows that ran briefly at the Playground Theater and the Apollo Studio Theater, under the banner ersatz theatre. After this period, Theatre Momentum began to evolve, and a new batch of shows began in 2007 under the TM name. TM has created over 40 shows since our inception, and in in 2019 opened our Dramatic Improv Training Center.

In addition to our latest shows, we have produced our signature day-long event, The 15 Hour Project, several times over the past 15 years. In October 2019, we launched the first Dramatic Improv festival. The best is yet to come. Theatre Momentum is always moving forward…

 
 


What is Dramatic Improv?

The Dramatic Improv Training Center

 
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