Improvised Jane Austen
Since 2008, Improvised Jane Austen has graced the stages of the Chicago comedy landscape. The feminist venture started at The Playground Theater on Belmont Avenue in Chicago, IL, in October of 2008. Being an independent team, they have performed at Chemically Imbalanced Comedy, The Annoyance, Donny’s Skybox, The de Maat Studio Theater, The Blackout Cabaret, Bughouse Theater, and Stage 773, among others. They’ve been performing weekly at the iO Theater (formerly Improv Olympic) since 2018 (minus some pandemic time) and have now been performing for over a year at 8:00 PM on Saturdays on the Weed Stage at iO! They recently headlined The Detroit Women of Comedy Festival! IJA performed 5 years at the famed (now retired) Chicago Improv Festival. Other festivals include the Chicago Women’s Funny Festival (multiple years), Nerd Fest (multiple years), Chicago Sketchfest (multiple Years), the Dallas Comedy Festival, C2E2 in Chicago, The Del Close Marathon in NYC, The Dallas Comedy Festival, and the Abby Hoffman Festival, to name what we can remember from our diary. In our spare time, we’ve played historical societies, libraries, schools, and even bridal showers.
In January 2024, the troupe will be heading to Williamsburg, VA to headline the inaugural year of The Last Word Comedy Festival.
A rotating cast of some of Chicago’s finest improv talent creates a completely original “novel” based on audience suggestion. The story is inspired by the works of legendary author, Jane Austen, who is famous for her novels on romance, love, class, feminism, and personal growth. Her characters are complex, fully formed, often silly, awkward, quirky, cringy, boisterous, and, of course, beautiful, honest, witty, intelligent, and capable of change. All qualities that are ripe to be seen (or read) and improvised over and over again. Each improvised tale told by the troupe will have new characters ready to be run through the gauntlet that is Regency England (1811 - 1820).