Improvise It!

When Matt Kemple organized the first annualMilwaukee Sketch and Improv Festival in 2006, he wasn’t thinking about it as anannual event. He assembled nine groups from around the area to perform for anaudience. It was an opportunity for groups with distinct audiences to pooltheir patrons.

However, some people involved in the festivalspoke to him in passing about “next year,” so he decided to do it again. Thesecond annual Sketch and Improv fest featured no less than a dozen groups fromaround the country, including places as far away as Portland, Ore.Now in its third year, the festival is beginning to take on a life of itsown.

Last year’s festival had a crazy, rough-hewnedge to it. Held at the historic Times Cinema in WashingtonHeights,sketch and improvisational comedy groups from around the country milled aboutthe lobby, stage and clearly visible backstage area. Talented groups gentlytumbled about the space in a way that invited the unexpected. It was a fun, highlykinetic atmosphere inhabited largely by strange Midwesterners.

It should come as no surprise that Chicago, birthplace of TheSecond City, one of the country’s most famous improv troupes, is home to agreat number of comedy groups. With Chicagobeing as close as it is, many of these groups are coming here for the festival.Truth be told, there simply aren’t enough Milwaukeeacts to comfortably fill a three days.

Local participants in the festival will includeall-female Broadminded, The Gentleman’s Hour, Track Jacket Review, TravelingArt Circus, Organized Chaos and The Show, which replaced late withdrawal of Portland’s Al Gore Jr.High School. The Portland group had planned toattend the Milwaukeefestival as part of a larger summer tour, which never materialized. Kemple hadasked The Show to be a part of the festival a number of times, and his persistencefinally paid off.

This year, Kemple has moved the festival tothe smaller Off-Broadway Theatre on

North Water Street

. The 100-plus people in attendance ateach show last year should have no difficulty filling the space. Plus, Kemplehas worked hard to rein in the colorful disorder of last year’s festival andpresent a more polished event this year.

Unlike the hazily defined rehearsal areas thefestival used at the Times, space is at a rigidly defined premium in theOff-Broadway. Two entrances, one in the theater’s lobby, lead to a small set ofrooms backstage. Kemple has worked out a system that gives each of thefestival’s 20-plus groups some time backstage before their respectiveperformances. The crowd may end up being the same size as last year’s, butthings will be packed much tighter, inviting the unexpected in a whole newway.

The MilwaukeeSketch and Improv Festival runs Aug. 7 to 9 at the Off-Broadway Theatre,

342 N. Water St

.