Sunday, September 4th

7pm @ The State Theater

Tickets

Cast:Deb Downing-Grosz, Jean Villepique, Rebecca Sohn

Switchboard

Chicago

Switchboard is a long-form improvised surprise. The cast of 3 women begins by creating a space object phone switchboard. The lights come up as they chatter away and connect people on the board. From this stylized opening they organically get a suggestion from the audience: a word in the English language. Then' they begin.
The form is inspired by the improv show FourSquare. It moves fluidly from one scene to the next without a break. Sometimes scenes and characters morph into new scenes and characters, other times the edit is more abrupt. All the scenes involve the skills these veteran improvisers have learned over the years, the scenes being sometimes rhythmic and dance-like. They often improvise songs a cappella and while some of the character work is stylized, some tends to be more emotion-based and serious. Other times, it is just plain old silly good times. Plus sometimes they like to dress up real fancy.

Jean Villepique is from Bernardsville, NJ. Then she went to Northwestern University and began studying improvisation. She did that at the iO in Chicago, with Charna, with Matt Besser, with Del Close. Then she worked for The Second City touring, and on stages in Las Vegas and Chicago, writing 5 reviews. Then she moved to NY. Then she moved to LA. Here are some work credits: The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30 Rock, My Boys , The Goods: the Don Ready Story, and I Love You, Man. Also, Jean plays music in a duo called The Artists with Kit Pongetti. That should do it. Have a nice day.

Rebecca Sohn is a Chicago-based actor where she is an ensemble member of The Annoyance Theater. You can see her there in The Invension Show, Grabass and Bad Touch. She's an alumna of The Second City, where she wrote and performed 2 reviews and currently writes and performs for the Theatricals and the Communications divisions. As an actress in Chicago, recent shows include An Immigrant Class at Remy Bumppo and The Butcher of Baraboo at The Steppenwolf Theatre. She tours internationally with Deb Downing-Grosz and Jean Villepique in their improvised show, Switchboard.

Debra Downing-Grosz is an actor, writer and designer living in Brooklyn, New York. Recent shows include; The Steve Miller Band and Other Annoying Monsters or Oceanquake! at the UCB Theater, Tiny Spectacular at the Magnet Theater, and Switchboard, a three woman improvised show with Rebecca Sohn and Jean Villepique which performs all over the country. Debra is an alumnae of the Chicago Second City Mainstage, ETC, and National Touring Company. Other credits include Chicagoland at the Annoyance Theater (a live show as well as a pilot), the Claudia and Deb Show with Claudia Wallace, and many shows The Improv Olympic such as PLAY, an improvised play in two acts; Under the Influence, and improvised show inspired by a poet who reads his work; and Baby Wants Candy, an improvised musical. Deb was a founding member of The Catepillars, a post feminist rock band, and has been featured at many stand-up shows at The Elevated and Lincoln Lodge in Chicago.


Cast:Greg Proops, Jill Bernard, Shana Merlin, Jeremy Lamb

Greg Proops in Gorilla Improv

Los Angeles

Greg Proops is a stand-up comic, actor, activist, voice-over actor, and improviser from San Francisco. He is best known for his unpredictable appearances on the English and American versions of 'Whose Line is it Anyway?' Greg is a frequent guest on 'The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson', and has also appeared on 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon', 'Chelsea Lately' on E!, The View, 'The Bonnie Hunt Show', 'The Benson Interruption' on Comedy Central, and 'Red Eye' on Fox News.

At Out of Bounds this year, Greg will be performing in an improv show on Sunday, a stand-up show on Saturday, an 'Inside the Actor's Studio style show on Saturday and he'll be doing a special live recording of his podcast on Sunday afternoon.

Proops has sold out his Edinburgh Fringe Festival shows 28 years running; won 'The Weakest Link', 'Ben Stein's Money', and 'Rock n' Roll Jeopardy'; and performs stand-up comedy all over the world, having performed live in Paris, Turkey, Milan, Montreal, Scotland, Ireland, Norway, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates.

He has lent his voice-over talent projects like 'Bob the Builder' and 'The Clone Wars', hosted 'Head Games' on the Science Channel, and is currently enjoying his second season on the hit comedy 'True Jackson, VP', on Nickelodeon.

Mr. Prooples regularly hosts his own live comedy chat show at the perilously hip Hollywood rock joint Largo. Guests have included Flight of the Conchords, Jason Schwartzman, Russell Brand, Jack Black, Dave Grohl, Patton Oswalt, Sarah Silverman, Joe Walsh, Janeane Garofalo, David Cross, Margaret Cho, Dave Eggers, Joan Rivers, Andy Richter, Jeff Goldblum, Kathy Griffin, Lewis Black, Eddie Izzard and John C. Reilly.

He hosts a new podcast on iTunes called 'The Smartest Man in the World' and his new stand-up CD, 'Proops Digs In', is available on iTunes and at aspecialthing.com