Scott Adsit
| Current and former students from the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department will be featured in the 20th annual Chicago Improv Festival, running March 27-April 2 at multiple venues in Chicago. |
Cat Booty
Cat Booty, an improv group consisting of current and former students in the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department’s nationally lauded Comedy Writing & Performance BA program, opens the festival Monday, March 27, with a 7 PM set at Stage 773, located at 1225 W. Belmont, in Chicago’s Belmont Theatre District. And Scott Adsit, a former Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department student and a veteran of The Second City mainstage company, will be a headliner and honoree at the festival.
As reported previously in this blog, Cat Booty recently won the 10th annual College Improv Tournament (CIT10), a national competition for improv groups at colleges and universities. The team’s members are current Columbia College students Will Nicholson and Tom Spooner, both seniors in the Comedy Writing & Performance BA program with a Writing for Television Minor; Laura Mulcahy, a senior in the Comedy Writing & Performance BA program with an Arts in Healthcare Minor; Glo Chitwood, a senior in the Comedy Writing & Performance BA program with a Video Production Minor; and Comedy Writing & Performance BA senior Sydney Back. Also in the group is Columbia College alumnus Alan Giles ’16, who graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Comedy Writing & Performance and a Writing for Television Minor.
Scott Adsit hosted a memorial tribute to the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department’s late longtime chair Sheldon Patinkin in January 2015.
Adsit — best known from his role as Pete Hornberger on the NBC TV series 30 Rock — studied improvisation at the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department before joining The Second City’s mainstage cast in 1994. He appeared in several Second City revues, including Paradigm Lost, for which he won a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actor in a Comedy. The Second City, America’s premier comedy theatre and training center, is a partner with the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department in the college’s pioneering Comedy Writing & Performance BA program.
Adsit will receive a Spotlight Award at the Chicago Improv Festival and will also perform in two shows in the fest. On Thursday, March 30, he’ll join Susan Messing and Kevin Dorff for Messing with a Friend at 10:30 PM at the Annoyance Theatre, 851 W. Belmont, Chicago. On Friday, March 31, he’ll appear with the comedy group Mama’s Boy, featuring alumni of Second City Detroit, at 9 PM at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont.
For a complete schedule of Chicago Improv Festival shows, and to purchase tickets, click here.
