The Revival

Founding in Hyde Park (2015)

The Revival was founded in 2015 by John Stoops, a theater producer and former advertising executive at Leo Burnett who encountered improv through a company benefit programme. Stoops chose 1160 E. 55th Street in Hyde Park for the theatre, placing it near the corner where the Compass Players had performed in 1955, widely regarded as the birthplace of American long-form improvisation. The location was a deliberate act of institutional memory, positioning the Revival as a continuation of the Hyde Park improv lineage on Chicago's South Side.

Hyde Park Years (2015–2024)

Over nine years in Hyde Park, the Revival developed a five-level improv curriculum (Foundations through Performance), a youth programme, and institutional partnerships with the University of Chicago, the Laboratory Schools, and Chicago Public Schools. The theatre became the primary improv venue serving the South Side, a geography largely absent from the city's improv landscape, which was concentrated on the North Side.

Relocation to the South Loop (2024)

In February 2024, the Revival announced a move from Hyde Park after nine years. On 9 May 2024, the theatre opened at 906 S. Wabash Avenue in Chicago's South Loop, a building historically associated with Chicago's 'Film Row,' which once housed distribution offices for MGM, Paramount, and Warner Bros. The new 150-seat space was approximately 50 per cent larger than the Hyde Park venue.

The Revival frames improv not simply as comedy training but as a civic and educational practice: 'more than comedy, a way of engaging with the world.' Operating on Chicago's South Side, the theatre built institutional partnerships with South Side schools, universities, and hospitals, positioning improv as a tool for community engagement. The deliberate choice of the Compass Players' original neighbourhood as the founding site reflects the Revival's commitment to the historical and geographic roots of American long-form improvisation, in contrast to the North Side institutional mainstream.

The Revival was founded in 2015 by John Stoops, a theater producer and former advertising executive at Leo Burnett who performed at ImprovOlympic and Second City before moving to Amsterdam to perform with the international ensemble Boom!, sharing stages with Seth Meyers, Jordan Peele, and Ike Barinholtz across five countries. Stoops opened The Revival at 1160 E. 55th Street in Hyde Park, one block from the corner where the Compass Players, whose members included Mike Nichols and Elaine May, invented improvisational comedy in 1955. The site was chosen deliberately to reconnect the South Side with the tradition it originated, addressing what Stoops described as a significant gap: south of Roosevelt Road had almost no comedy venues while the North Side had dozens. The University of Chicago was actively supportive of the project, providing the corner location. The 149-seat cabaret-style space was designed as a mixed-programming room, with improvised comedy as its core alongside music and other performance forms. After nine years in Hyde Park, The Revival relocated in May 2024 to 906 S. Wabash Avenue in the South Loop Film Row district, opening its new 150-seat venue on May 9, 2024. Faculty connected to The Revival include Allison Reese, a staff writer at The Second City and creator of the web series In-Indiana; Damon Royster, whose parody play Love, Factually played the Kennedy Center in 2018 and 2019; Derek Reid, who regularly portrays Barack Obama on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! and taught at The Groundlings and iO West; and Dionna Irons-Griffin, a producer and educator with faculty positions at DePaul University, Story Studio Chicago, and Chicago Dramatists. Erica Elam, who travels with the musical improv group Baby Wants Candy, has facilitated sessions at Google, JP Morgan Chase, and Kellogg's and holds a visiting faculty position at Princeton University. The Revival's programming has served corporate clients including the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and Harris Associates, and its youth programming, walking tours, and school programs have extended its South Side community presence across both its Hyde Park and South Loop locations.