The Committee

Founding (1963)

Alan Myerson and Jessica Myerson (performing as Irene Riordan), both alumni of The Second City in Chicago, co-founded The Committee in San Francisco. The name was an explicit reference to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), announcing the company's political intentions from its founding. The Committee opened on 10 April 1963 at 622 Broadway in North Beach, a 300-seat cabaret that had previously been an indoor bocce ball court. The founding cast included Garry Goodrow, Hamilton Camp, Larry Hankin, Kathryn Ish, Scott Beach, and Ellsworth Milburn; Jessica Myerson joined in May 1963.

Operation (1963–1972)

The Committee presented politically satirical improvisation through the 1960s and into the 1970s. Del Close, Howard Hesseman (later known for WKRP in Cincinnati), and Peter Bonerz (The Bob Newhart Show) all performed with the company. In 1969, the company was the subject of the documentary film A Session with the Committee. Gary Austin, who would later found The Groundlings in Los Angeles, also performed with the group.

Dissolution and Successors (1972)

The Committee disbanded in 1972. Three successor companies formed directly from the membership: The Pitchel Players, The Wing (later The Wing-It Players), and Improvisation Inc., all of which continued the San Francisco improvisational tradition.

The Committee was politically satirical from its founding, using improvisation as a vehicle for commentary on American politics and culture during the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and the counterculture era. Operating in San Francisco's North Beach, it occupied a specific geographic and cultural position in the 1960s: intellectually adjacent to the Beat poetry and City Lights milieu while using comedy and improvisation as its primary mode. The company's name, its politics, and its North Beach address together positioned it as the West Coast counterpart to the ideologically engaged Second City tradition.

The Committee's nine-year run established the San Francisco improvisational tradition that continued through its three successor companies, The Pitchel Players, The Wing, and Improvisation Inc., and the subsequent Bay Area Theatresports and BATS Improv lineages. Gary Austin, who performed with The Committee, went on to found The Groundlings in Los Angeles in 1974.