Flying Pig Improv

Founding (2019)

Jessie Gray, a Wichita native who had spent over 35 years in the San Francisco Bay Area improv scene performing with groups including Awkward Face at Pan Theater (Oakland) and Flash Mob Musical Improv at End Games (San Francisco), founded Flying Pig Improv on April 20, 2019. The name references the improbability of succeeding with the venture. Gray designed the school around an education-first philosophy, emphasizing confidence-building alongside improv craft.

Growth and New Location (2024)

By 2023-2024 Flying Pig had hosted over 300 shows for more than 7,000 audience members and graduated over 600 students from its class programs. In 2024 Gray and creative partner John Penny relocated the school to a new vintage-style building at 2320 E Douglas Ave when the previous lease expired, giving the growing institution an improved permanent home.

Ongoing Operations

Flying Pig Improv continues to operate at 2320 E Douglas Ave in Wichita as Kansas's primary dedicated improv school and performance space.

Flying Pig Improv is an education-first improv school built around an explicit confidence-building philosophy alongside craft development. Gray's decades of Bay Area performance and teaching experience inform a curriculum designed to develop students holistically rather than purely technically. The school serves as both a training center and a performance venue for Wichita's developing improv community.