Improv Theatre Sydney

Founding (2014)

Carlo Ritchie and Steen Raskopoulos founded Improv Theatre Sydney in 2014. The two are also known as comedy duo The Bear Pack, one of Australia's most recognised improv and sketch pairings. From 16 students in their first class, enrolments grew to over 200, establishing ITS as Sydney's primary improv training institution.

Early Years: Giant Dwarf (2014-2021)

From its 2014 founding through to around 2019, ITS hosted shows at Giant Dwarf on Cleveland Street in Redfern. Classes ran at various inner-west Sydney locations during this period. Giant Dwarf closed in 2021.

Dedicated Venue in Redfern (2019)

ITS opened its first purpose-built dedicated venue at 44-54 Botany Road, Redfern in 2019. The venue includes two classrooms, a bar, and a 50-seat theatre. Sydney's Broadsheet described it as the city's first dedicated improv theatre at the time of opening.

Programs and Community

Alongside classes and shows, ITS runs corporate workshops (with clients including Google and Sydney Thunder), a schools program, a scholarship program, and outreach to the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre. The school published a Bill of Rights as an inclusion charter for its community.

Improv Theatre Sydney is Sydney's dedicated improv theatre, built from 16 first students to 200+ enrolments by founders Carlo Ritchie and Steen Raskopoulos since 2014, with its own Redfern venue since 2019.

ITS Big House is a monthly Friday showcase featuring house ensemble teams in long-form sets. Speakerbox brings rotating performers to the main stage in character-driven scenes. TINYPROV offers a late-night short-form format. 100 Things and Congratulations! are recurring Saturday ensemble shows. The Morning Show... Up Late! parodies broadcast formats through improvised comedy. ITS also stages occasional festival-framed events including the ITS Comedy Festival and the Schools Smackdown, a competitive program for high school students across New South Wales, and produced the Sydney Fringe show A Streetcar Named Hot Tin Menagerie in 2019.

Improv Theatre Sydney was established in 2014 by Carlo Ritchie and Steen Raskopoulos, who first performed together in 2009 at an improv night at the Roxbury Hotel in Glebe. The two had met at Sydney University, where Raskopoulos taught Ritchie to improvise. After five years of itinerant operation across inner-west venues, the company opened a purpose-built home at 44-54 Botany Road in Redfern in 2019, housing two classrooms, a bar, and a 50-seat main theatre. ITS describes itself as Sydney's first and only dedicated improv theatre, and has trained more than 840 students across its class curriculum, which runs from entry-level to Harold and ensemble performance levels. Founders Ritchie and Raskopoulos perform as the internationally touring duo The Bear Pack, whose two-person long-form shows have sold out at the Sydney, Melbourne, and Edinburgh Fringe festivals, the Cat Laughs Festival in Kilkenny, and venues in London. Raskopoulos has appeared on BBC Three's Top Coppers, Netflix productions Feel Good and The Duchess, and Australian series including The Office (Australia), Utopia, and Whose Line Is It Anyway? Australia. Ritchie has appeared on Thank God You're Here, Cheap Seats, and ABC's Mikki Versus the World, and won Best Comedy Podcast at the 2024 New Zealand Podcast Awards. Susie Youssef, who trained at iO Chicago before joining the ITS ensemble, became known through The Project, Rosehaven, and Whose Line Is It Anyway? Australia, and made her Sydney Theatre Company debut at the Sydney Opera House in 2018. ITS has expanded into school holiday programs, in-school workshops, and corporate training, while sustaining a weekly public performance calendar that gives student performers regular stage time.