ColdTowne Theater

Founding (2007)

Brian Lazzaro and Mary Borsellino founded ColdTowne Theater in Austin, Texas in 2007. The company established itself in the East Austin arts corridor, building a community around long-form improv and sketch comedy training. ColdTowne differentiated itself from Austin's other primary improv venue (The Hideout Theatre) by emphasizing sketch comedy development alongside improv.

Community Model

ColdTowne developed a community-based model with open rehearsals, ensemble team programming, and accessible class offerings. The venue became a gathering point for Austin's comedy community, producing performers who went on to work in film, television, and other markets. ColdTowne's programming combined structured training tracks with experimental performance opportunities for developing ensembles.

Ongoing Operations

ColdTowne Theater continues to operate in Austin, offering classes, house team performances, and occasional special programming. It remains one of Austin's two primary dedicated improv institutions.

ColdTowne Theater presents long-form improv and sketch comedy with a community-based ethos. The company emphasizes ensemble development and accessible training, with class programs serving beginner through advanced students. Its house teams develop long-form work ranging from Harold-influenced formats to hybrid sketch-improv structures.

ColdTowne Theater presents Harold Night, its dedicated showcase for the longform Harold format that forms the backbone of its conservatory curriculum. Coldtowne Showdowne pits house teams against one another in a competitive evening. The Players features the theater's core ensemble in a rotating showcase format. TEMPTRESS and The Blade run as distinct ensemble-driven shows with individual artistic identities. Misterios: Family Matters offers a family-accessible improv production. Don't Panic! It's a Game Show packages improv games as audience-interactive television-style entertainment, while Spice Town operates as a separate game-show format. Story Starts pairs adults and children in collaborative narrative-building, and Excused Absence serves as the all-ages improv showcase for younger company members.

ColdTowne Theater traces its origins to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when improvisers Michael Jastroch, Arthur Simone, and Justin York evacuated from New Orleans to Austin in 2005. They launched a Chicago-style improv training operation on Austin's east side and opened the theater proper on October 28, 2006, alongside co-founding ensemble The Frank Mills, playing to a packed house on opening night. For fifteen years, ColdTowne operated seven days a week as a venue for improv, sketch, stand-up, film, and music. The COVID-19 pandemic severed both its live programming and its lease, forcing a relocation to 1700 East 2nd Street; the current building is slated for condominium development, leaving the theater's long-term home unresolved. The Austin Chronicle noted that Austin was getting funnier thanks to the ColdTowne team, and The Austinist named it the city's number one comedy theater, recognition that reflects its standing as the primary alternative comedy incubator in Austin.

ColdTowne has operated as a principal training ground for Austin's comedy community, offering conservatory-track classes in improv, sketch, and stand-up alongside UCB-curriculum programming. The theater operates as a Sponsored Project of the Austin Creative Alliance, a nonprofit structure that has allowed it to pursue community support through grants and donations as it seeks a permanent facility. Its emergence in the East Austin arts district made it a formative space for many performers who went on to careers in film, television, and touring comedy circuits, and its seven-night-a-week programming model, sustained for over a decade, established it as the most ambitious independent comedy operation in the Texas market.