CIC Theater

Establishment (2003)

CIC Theater was established in 2003 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation dedicated to the art of long-form improvisation. The theatre opened at 1422 W. Irving Park Road in the Irving Park neighbourhood, positioning itself as an independent training and performance venue separate from the established institutional programmes.

Irving Park Years (2003–c.2018)

For approximately fifteen years, CIC operated from W. Irving Park Road, developing its training curriculum, building a company of house teams, and maintaining a programme of regular performances. The theatre sustained a focus on the Chicago long-form tradition throughout this period.

Relocation to Lincoln Square

CIC Theater subsequently relocated to 4301 N. Western Avenue in the Lincoln Square/Ravenswood neighbourhood of Chicago's North Side, where it continues to operate as an active training centre and performing venue.

CIC Theater's stated mission is to deliver high-quality improvisational training while building a diverse artist community grounded in the Chicago long-form tradition. The theatre positions itself as a practitioner-governed independent alternative to the large institutional programmes, emphasising accessible training structures and maintaining a house team system that develops performers from its own curriculum.

THEMALL (veteran Sunday-night long-form house ensemble), fair dinkum, Flub, Phantom, and Tibula (house teams anchoring the weekly schedule at Irving Park Road and later Western Avenue), CODA (free recurring alumni showcase combining the most recent CIC graduating class with established CIC community performers), student showcase series (term-end graduation performances running through CIC's five-level long-form curriculum), and The Roast Beef All-Male Revue (recurring comedic revue produced from within the CIC community).

CIC Theater has operated as one of Chicago's primary independent long-form venues for over two decades, building a training pipeline distinct from the institutional circuits of iO and The Second City. Performers including Claire Favret, a regular at Second City, iO, and The Annoyance, and Mike Jimerson, a longtime iO Chicago ensemble member with credits in the sketch revues Trap and Undressed, developed work at CIC. The house team Rainbow Deli produced at least one founding member of iO Chicago's Harold team Revolver.

CIC's cohort-based five-level curriculum, combined with its diversity scholarship program and nonprofit structure, has channeled graduates into the broader Chicago improv ecosystem for over twenty years. By operating without the audition barriers of the major institutional theaters, CIC created an accessible on-ramp to long-form performance in a city where training costs at competing schools have historically been high.