HUGE Improv Theater, a fixture in Minnesota’s improvisational comedy scene for nearly two decades, will close at the end of October due to mounting financial challenges. The announcement comes just over a year after the Minneapolis nonprofit relocated to a new $2.4 million home on Lyndale Avenue.
John Gebretatose, an improv artist and the theater’s diversity, equity, and inclusion director, attributed the closure to unexpected expenses, including $250,000 to relocate its heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system as mandated by the city of Minneapolis, as well as the sudden loss of a tenant.
“When the city charges $200,000 to get a claim just to repair the HVAC, we didn’t expect that,” Gebretatose said. “It just came down to numbers and that’s what you have to expect, unfortunately, when you’re dealing with theater. To make a profit and make it sustainable, you have to constantly be adapting and I don’t think we were doing that.”
Gebretatose, a co-founder of Blackout Improv and co-director of the Black and Funny Improv Festival, brought the monthly BIPOC Improv Jams to the theater after being inspired by the diverse improv scene in Toronto. He saw a need for spaces where Black and brown performers could feel welcomed and supported in the Twin Cities improv community.
“Something that’s fundamental to Black and brown people as they exist in the United States is improv,” he said. “It’s natural to our being and the spirit of making it work. I just never saw it packaged or framed as real art. I always saw it as something that we just did as a function of life or as a result of oppressive structures put in place that make it incredibly difficult for us to just exist.”
Through the monthly jams, Gebretatose created an environment where local performers of color could “play” without conforming to white-dominated spaces.
“When you put a bunch of Black and brown people together to just play, guess what? It’s all love,” he said. “It’s like hanging out with your cousins or your favorite family members – you’re laughing and who knows what time it is, but you don’t want it to end.”
The theater has also offered specialized improv classes catered to women, nonbinary, trans and queer individuals, as well as exclusive classes for Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Despite the theater’s closure, Gebretatose said that the programs he’s helped build are driven by the people, not the building.
“You don’t have to wait for somebody to make spaces that you actually want to be a part of – you can just make them,” he said. “I want that limiting thought to be challenged as HUGE closes. I encourage people to continue to use their voice, continue to be creative and continue to be storytellers. That’s what I’m going to do.”
The theater said it plans to run its final shows and fall term classes through October. The next BIPOC Improv Jam will be held on Sunday, September 29, from 4 - 5 p.m., followed by a pay-what-you-can live show from 5 - 6 p.m.
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