Something Wonderful Right Away: The Birth of Second City—America's Greatest Comedy Theater

By: Jeffrey Sweet

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Synopsis: Discover the behind-the-scenes story of how The Second City theater created a generation of world class great actors, directors, and writers. In the late Fifties and Sixties, iconoclastic young rebels in Chicago opened two tiny theaters—The Compass and The Second City—where they satirized politics, religion, and sex. Building scenes by improvising based on audience suggestions turned out to be a fine way to develop great actors, directors, and writers. Alumni went on to create such groundbreaking works as The Graduate, Groundhog Day, and Don&’t Look Up. Many of them also became stars on Saturday Night Live. Something Wonderful Right Away features the pioneers of the empire that transformed American comedy. This new edition tells even more of the story. Included for the first time is an interview with Viola Spolin, the genius who invented theater games that were the foundation of improvisational theater. Also included are dozens of follow-up stories about Mike Nichols, Barbara Harris, Del Close, Joan Rivers, Alan Arkin, and Gilda Radner, plus &“You Only Shoot the Ones You Love,&” the story of how this book&’s author, playwright Jeffrey Sweet, became so involved in the community he covered that he was captured by it.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
Book Size:: 456 Pages
ISBN-13:: 9781621538257
Publisher:: Allworth
Date of Addition:: 06/27/23
Copyrighted By:: Jeffrey Sweet
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Entertainment, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Biographies and Memoirs, Social Studies, Drama, Plays and Theater
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.