Best Improv Group: Improvised Shakespeare Company
Best Improv Group
The Reader’s Choice: Improvised Shakespeare Company
Doing funny improv is hard enough. The men of the Improvised Shakespeare Company do it using the language and themes of the Bard. In rhymed couplets and swashbuckler blouses, they’re consistently hilarious. But the preparation that goes into their spontaneous two-act show is no joke. Director-performer Blaine Swen, a PhD candidate in philosophy at Loyola University, steeps his players in Elizabethan drama through plays and films, Renaissance Faires, seminars with local scholars, and even quizzes. He also leads a Shakespeare improv workshop that produces many of the new cast members. The group is up to 16 now, with six or seven going onstage each week—and it features some of the finest talent around, including Swen, Steve Waltien, and Ross Bryant, whose cerebral comedy is a perfect fit for the form. 
Open run: Fri 8 PM, iO, 3541 N. Clark, 773-880-0199, chicago.ioimprov.com, $14. —Ryan Hubbard
Our readers’ choice: Second City
The current main-stage show, America: All Better!, is in an open run: Tue-Thu 8 PM, Fri-Sat 8 and 11 PM, Sun 7 PM, 1616 N. Wells, 312-337-3992, secondcity.com, $20-$25
