Andrew Lemna

Logan Square Improv's founding in Avondale in 2018 extended Chicago's improv geography into the neighborhoods west of the Lincoln Park and Lakeview corridor where the established institutions had been concentrated since the 1970s and 1980s. Lemna and Prichodko's choice to locate in a neighborhood that had no dedicated improv infrastructure responded to the demographics of Chicago's working improv community, many of whom lived in Logan Square, Avondale, and neighboring areas while training and performing in the North Side improv cluster.

Lemna's trajectory from Purdue Agribusiness student to Chicago improv theatre co-founder, without a background in theatre education or a prior connection to the established improv institutions, represents a pattern common in Chicago improv's independent sector: performers who trained in the major institutions and subsequently built their own organizations with different structural priorities than those institutions, particularly around ticket pricing and performer access.

Lemna has described his approach to improv as fundamentally accessible and egalitarian: 'Everyone is really good and can be really good. It's for everybody.' This is not a beginner reassurance but a structural position: Logan Square Improv's class program charges $175 for eight-week sessions, with accessibility scholarships available, specifically because Lemna and Prichodko believe that price should not determine who has access to ensemble performance training.

His producing philosophy is organized around operational discipline as a form of respect for performers. He has articulated the principle that producers who handle logistics well, starting on time, communicating clearly with teams, managing the running order, allow performers to arrive at the stage already in a state of readiness rather than spending performance energy on organizational uncertainty. This principle shapes how Logan Square Improv runs its shows on a practical level and reflects Lemna's view that good producing is itself a form of improv support rather than an administrative burden separate from the art.

Lemna is a co-architect of Logan Square Improv, the theatre that extended Chicago's improv geography westward into Avondale and became one of the city's most recognized independent venues, earning a Chicago Reader Best New Theater Company award in 2019 and consistent recognition as a finalist for Best Venue for Improv in subsequent years. The theatre's five-dollar ticket prices, $175 class sessions, and rotating guest booking model established a distinct alternative institutional model within Chicago's improv ecosystem.

For the archive, Lemna represents the generation of Chicago improvisers who built independent infrastructure in underserved neighborhoods, creating access points for both audiences and performers who found the established institutions' geography, pricing, or culture limiting.

Lemna grew up in Noblesville, Indiana, in the Indianapolis area, and graduated from Noblesville High School in 2011. He studied Agribusiness at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he met Alex Prichodko and began performing improv in independently produced shows. His introduction to improv came through INDYPROV, an Indianapolis-based improv community, during his college years.

Lemna grew up in Noblesville, Indiana, and has been based in Chicago since relocating there after college. His long-term professional partnership with Alex Prichodko, which began at Purdue University and continued through the founding of Logan Square Improv, has been the primary constant of his Chicago improv career.