CHICAGO — Chicago’s Second City comedy theater, which has seen significant recent turnover in creative and administrative staff, will honor its illustrious roots and help its own future with a new artistic advisory board of illustrious former performers, as curated by alum Stephen Colbert.
The 15 members announced Tuesday include Steve Carell, Dwayne Colbert, Tina Fey, Keegan-Michael Key, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jane Lynch, Tim Meadows, Peter Murrieta, Suzy Nakamura, Catherine O’Hara, Sam Richardson, Jeff Richmond, Jason Sudeikis and Robin Thede with Colbert as chair.
Colbert, who is on the management board of directors of Second City’s current owner, Strauss Zelnick’s private equity firm ZMC, had previously announced his involvement in the curation of an artistic board to assist Second City. The roster now has been filled out.
The new board, which is unpaid, will offer support for artists on the theater’s stages and students at the training center, as their schedules allow, said Second City chief operating officer Parisa Jalili.
“Stephen has work incredibly hard to assemble this board,” Jalili said, noting that Carell already has stopped by the training center.
Second City has been without a staff artistic director since Jon Carr quietly left earlier this year after a brief tenure during which he did not speak publicly about his plans for theater, which was acquired by ZMC following a sale by longtime owner Andrew Alexander. Since then, Carly Heffernan has been functioning as creative director of both the Chicago and Toronto branches of Second City.
Jalili said that no decision had been made as to Carr’s replacement. “We are reassessing and re-evaluating what that role might look like,” she said.
Clearly, then, Colbert’s new board will be helpful when it comes to artistic direction, especially given the membership’s high profile and affection for the theater that started most of their careers.
“We all believe that comedy is better off with a vital Second City,” Colbert said in a statement.
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Second City has a new mainstage sketch revue in its theater in Piper’s Alley on Wells Street. The Second City 110th Revue officially opens May 19; more at www.secondcity.com.
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