Melanie PennStaff

Thursday, March 12, 2026

Happy 314 Day aka Pi Day aka St. Louis Day, Improv Shop! And happy birthdays to Patrick Smith, Katie Killeen, and everybody celebrating birthdays this week! 🎂🎂 Here's some need-to-knows in and around the theater: CLASS REGISTRATION - Heads-up: class registration for the March-May session closes end-of-day this Wednesday March 18th. 😱 Couple of things to note: 1️⃣ For core classes, register soon or else I'll spam you with an additional followup email next week. 😈 2️⃣ For electives, there's some room left in Introduction to Sketch Writing, Yoga for Improvisers, and Poetry for Improvisers*. 3️⃣ *PFI has updated its prerequisite to completion of Level 4 (instead of Teams Level 2) and changed its cap to 10 people (instead of 14). If you're someone who has or will have completed Level 4 by the end of this session, and are considering taking this really lovely, insightful workshop, sign up soon! 4️⃣ HMU for a coupon code if you'd like to set up a payment plan, or if you'd like to retake any class for a discount. 🤑 5️⃣ Due to an influx of requests, we've opened an additional section of Level 1 on Sundays 4:30-6:30 and there's a few spots left, so tell your friends! 6️⃣ The aforementioned Level 1 class could use a Friendo, as could our upcoming Wednesday night Level 0 class. If you're a grad interested in participating in Friendo program, email back for more information! THURSDAY PROGRAMMING - Tonight, Thursday March 12th, is a real team extravaganza. A teamaganza. House Team Night at 7:00 in mainstage with D.I.C.K., Moist (this is not lost on me), and Sophie Tucker The Menagerie at 7:00 in sidestage with Late Night Diner, Wagon Wheel Watusi, A Music Man, and Bedraggled The Jam at 9:00 in mainstage with you 🫵 and all your compatriots The Merry-Go-Round at 9:00 in sidestage with Is This Seat Taken, Loosifer Goosifer, Junk Drawer, and Airplane Bathroom FRIDAY PROGRAMMING - Tomorrow, go get Friday the 13th flash tattoos (seriously) and then report back at the theater to show them off before the following shows: An Evening with Kevin McDonald at 7:00 in mainstage ~ this is a special one-off event where our friend Kevin McDonald of Kids in the Hall tells stories in the first act, then improvises with The Asterisk cast in the second act. Cagematch at 9:00 in mainstage ~ this'll be returning champion Manifesto vs. new challenger I. Coli (that's Isa + Colin) 🥊 Shirts and Skins with Comic Strip and Friends at 9:00 in sidestage with the tasteful stripping improv team Comic Strip opened by a fully clothed guest team I'm Telling Jesus 👚 KNOTTY BY NATURE returns this Saturday March 14th between 10:00-2:00. 🧶 Knotty By Nature is a [generally] biweekly fiber arts crafts club that rotates locations for participants to meet up and work on craft projects together. This week's location is a private residence, so if you'd like to join in, contact the group's coordinator Cassie Ema - crepn2@gmail.com - for information! MUSICAL IMPROV JAM - It's the second Saturday of the month, so time for another musical improv jam! The musical jam is a free drop-in workshop this Saturday March 14th at 5:00-6:15 in sidestage, and is open to anyone - no experience required, musically or otherwise. The extremely talented Rinn Netherton will be accompanying, and participants will play a variety of musical improv games in a supportive environment. 🎶 SATURDAY PROGRAMMING - This Saturday March 14th is another heavily musical night: Kevin McDonald Superstar (a rock opera) at 7:00 in mainstage ~ this'll be a non-improvised table reading of a rock opera Kevin wrote and has performed a bunch, featuring some I.S. performers that you might've seen and I hope you like. 🎸 2zin Presents: Improvised Rock Opera at 7:00 in sidestage ~ this'll be an improvised show produced by 2zin Tarandon and a musical cast KARAOKEDOKIE at 9:00 in sidestage 🎤 Kitsune Dojo: The Shifting Spirit at 9:00 in mainstage RUNNING CLUB is location-TDB as of now but still planning on meeting this Sunday March 15th (The Ides omg) around 10:15-10:30. If you're considering joining this informal movement meetup and would like location updates, just HMU Saturday. 🤳 Sunday'll feel like full-on winter again, so good weather to hustle outside with pals. 🏃🏃🏃 All paces welcome and encouraged! MONDAY JAMS - This Monday March 16th, more miniworkshops to get excited about, both 6:00-6:55: Student Jam with Kevin Puetz in sidestage! 🤸 Grad Jam with Austyn Konarcik in mainstage! 🤸 Come play, meet people, and party. Big thanks to Kevin and Austyn for facilitating! MONDAY PROGRAMMING - This Monday March 16 is a real special one: ✴️ Our two Teams Level 2 classes, Nine Kids in a Trenchcoat and World Moves Tonight, have their penultimate showcase at 7:00 in mainstage before next Monday's graduation show! 🎓 ✴️ Following Teams Level 2, students of Boo and Darrell's Musical Improv Workshop have our first of two special showcases where we'll play musical games we learned in class and be singing publicly as a group for the first time. 🗣️ ✴️ Our two Teams Level 1 classes have their seventh student showcases at 7:00 in sidestage. ✴️ The Gift will follow at 9:00 in sidestage, featuring host team Whatever This Is and two guest teams: Heavy Meadow and the Teams Level 1 class TrustFall. ✴️ D.I.C.K. and 80085 4 U hits mainstage at 9:00 ~ a show that celebrates confessions, solidarity, and vulnerability. THE REP FIRST LOOK - The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis is giving out more free First Look tickets for their next new show, Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash. First Look performances are next Wednesday and Thursday March 18th and 19th at 7:00, and free tickets can be redeemed using the coupon code MANINBLACK2026 at checkout. Thanks Andy Sloey for the hookup and for our partnership with The Rep! 🎭 7 THINGS STUDENT SPOTLIGHT - This week we're celebrating Shannon Russell, recent grad from The Odd Throuple, teammate on Bumblefuck and Going Down?, current Friendo in Level 1, and about to join the ranks of Scenework Lab. Here's 7 things about Shannon: 1. I was born with six wisdom teeth, but have had two removed, making me semi-normal. 2. I served 13 years in Catholic School and was released for bad behavior. 3. After I graduated high school, I went hitchhiking for Jesus starting at Mizzou, going down to Dallas, then over to Orlando, then up to West Point, then down to Virginia, and back to St. Louis. 4. I had a brief career as the Sports and Leisure Editor for the Fort Leonard Wood Guidon before being fired on orders from the Commanding General for sharing a link to a celebrity mugshot website with a bawdy joke about Hugh Grant. 5. I've recorded interviews with the entire cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (minus Jim Mallon), as well as some of the directors they riffed, including Roger Corman, Sandy Frank, and Tony Cardoza. 6. For YEARS, I've had people assume I'm in IT because I look like an IT stereotype, which has vexed me significantly; then, as of three years ago, I actually became an IT person, which continues to vex me. 7. The Improv Shop and its neuropositive culture has had a profoundly beneficial impact on my mental health and wellbeing, and I feel lucky to have this amazing resource in our fair (but historically unjust) city. That's 7 things about Shannon! Big thanks to Shannon for sharing. 💛 And big thanks to everyone for another exciting week. Stay warm, be cool. 😎 See you soon,