Alex Prichodko

Logan Square Improv occupies a specific position in the geography of Chicago improv. The city's established improv institutions, including iO Theater, Second City, and The Annoyance, developed in the North Side corridor concentrated around Lincoln Park, Wrigleyville, and Lakeview. The neighborhoods further west, including Logan Square and Avondale, had no dedicated improv infrastructure despite growing populations of working performers who lived and socialized in those areas.

Prichodko and Lemna's decision to open in Avondale in 2018 extended Chicago's improv geography westward for the first time. The affordable ticket and class pricing model responded to conditions in Chicago's independent improv scene, where performers frequently supported multiple training fees and performance costs simultaneously. By setting a five-dollar ticket price and reducing class costs to $175, Logan Square Improv created a financially accessible point of entry for both audiences and students.

The guest-booking model, which rotated performers from across the city rather than building exclusive house ensembles, positioned the theatre as a resource for the broader Chicago improv community rather than as a competing institution with its own performer pipeline. This approach built relationships across the established training infrastructure rather than duplicating it.

Prichodko's approach to producing and teaching is grounded in disciplined preparation as the condition for free play. He has articulated the producing philosophy that underlies Logan Square Improv's model: producers who handle logistics rigorously, from room arrangement and team check-ins to running orders and audience introduction, create the conditions in which performers can concentrate entirely on the work of improvising. In his formulation, 'doing the small things shows you care,' and that care flows through to the quality and safety of the performance environment. The affordable class pricing at Logan Square Improv reflects a pedagogical stance that training should be financially accessible rather than a revenue maximization opportunity.

Logan Square Improv established Chicago's first dedicated improv venue west of the Lincoln Park corridor, extending the city's improv geography into neighborhoods where the art form had not previously had a fixed home. The theatre's five-dollar ticket model and reduced class pricing set a standard for accessible independent improv operation in a market where the established institutions priced their programs significantly higher.

The Chicago Reader's Best New Theater Company recognition in 2019 and the ongoing Best Venue for Improv nominations reflect the theatre's reception within Chicago's professional improv community, which is one of the most competitive and discerning in the world. The theatre's sustained operation through the COVID-19 shutdown and its sold-out reopening in July 2021 demonstrated organizational resilience rare among independent arts nonprofits of its size.

For the archive, Prichodko represents the generation of Chicago improvisers who built independent infrastructure alongside rather than inside the established major institutions, extending the city's improv ecosystem into new neighborhoods and developing alternative operating models based on community access and performer rotation rather than house team competition.

Prichodko grew up in Carmel, Indiana, and attended school in the Noblesville-Carmel area north of Indianapolis. He pursued extracurricular and athletic activities in high school before moving on to Purdue University in West Lafayette, where he began performing improv in independently produced shows alongside Andrew Lemna, who would become his long-term comedy collaborator and co-founder of Logan Square Improv.

Prichodko grew up in Carmel, Indiana, and relocated to Chicago in 2016. He has been based in Chicago since. His long-term professional collaboration with Andrew Lemna, which began at Purdue University and continued through the founding of Logan Square Improv, has been the primary constant of his Chicago career.