The Bad Dog Theatre Company
Encyclopedia
The Bad Dog Theatre Company is an improvisational theatre
company based in Toronto
, Canada, and established in 2003. The theatre is eclectic and broad in its production of shows, with a focus on short-form improv, but it has branched out to include the work of other schools of thought in improvisation.
While short form improvisation is still a mainstay as in the weekly Theatresports
shows, the theatre has embraced long form improv with the weekly Harold
Night at the Bad Dog, musical improv in the form of Show Stopping Number: The Improvised Musical and 'Troubadour' and parody
shows like The Lord of the Things
, A Twisted Christmas Carol
and Dreadwood
.
Several of the theatre's productions and co-productions have been nominated for Canadian Comedy Awards, and the theatre at 138 Danforth Avenue in Toronto has been twice-named 'Best Improv Theatre' in Toronto by NOW Magazine
's annual 'Best of Toronto' awards.
In addition, free introductory workshops in improvisation are provided to the general public, every Saturday at 7 pm (at the time of this writing).
. The company performed weekly improvisational comedy shows at
Harbourfront in the Theatresports
format. The show consisted of teams of improvisers competing with one another. Notable teams included Dangerous Poultry, The Parts, The Chumps
and The Kids in the Hall
. Some of these groups went on to greater fame.
Alumni from this period include Mike Myers
, Tim Sims
, Bruce Hunter
(Puppets Who Kill), Pat McKenna (Red Green), Gary Campbell
, (MadTV
producer/screenwriter) Lisa Merchant
(Train 48
), Sandra Shamas
(Playwright), Linda Kash
(A Mighty Wind), Colin Mochrie
(Whose Line Is It, Anyway) Globe and Mail Columnist Andrew Coyne
and actor Keanu Reeves
. It was through their work with Theatresports as well as legendary live shows at The Rivoli that Lorne Michaels
reputedly came down to recruit Bruce McCulloch
and Mark McKinney
of the Kids in the Hall to write for Saturday Night Live
.
In the early 1990s Theatresports left Harbourfront, performing at a series of venues, including St. Paul's Church basement
, Big City Improv, Solar Stage and Tim Sims Playhouse
, becoming Toronto's longest continually running improv comedy show. Nevertheless, audiences and workshop attendance had dwindled from the levels seen at Harbourfront.
In 2003, Theatresports Toronto established a permanent home at 138 Danforth Avenue. A push to 'reinvent' the organization led by Co-Artistic Directors Kerry Griffin
and Marcel St. Pierre and Workshop Director Ralph MacLeod (producer of the successful student performance showcase That Friday Show) led to Theatresports Toronto becoming The Bad Dog Theatre Company on May 1st, 2003.
Improvisational theatre
Improvisational theatre takes many forms. It is best known as improv or impro, which is often comedic, and sometimes poignant or dramatic. In this popular, often topical art form improvisational actors/improvisers use improvisational acting techniques to perform spontaneously...
company based in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada, and established in 2003. The theatre is eclectic and broad in its production of shows, with a focus on short-form improv, but it has branched out to include the work of other schools of thought in improvisation.
While short form improvisation is still a mainstay as in the weekly Theatresports
Theatresports
Theatresports is a form of improvisational theatre, which uses the format of a competition for dramatic effect. Opposing teams can perform scenes based on audience suggestions, with ratings by the audience or by a panel of judges...
shows, the theatre has embraced long form improv with the weekly Harold
Harold (improvisation)
Harold is a form of longform improv. Developed by Del Close and brought to fruition through Close's collaboration with Charna Halpern, the Harold has become the signature form of Chicago's I.O. and the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York and Los Angeles...
Night at the Bad Dog, musical improv in the form of Show Stopping Number: The Improvised Musical and 'Troubadour' and parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
shows like The Lord of the Things
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
, A Twisted Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
and Dreadwood
Deadwood
Deadwood may refer to:in geography*Deadwood, Alberta, hamlet in Alberta, Canada*Deadwood, California , several unincorporated communities in California, United States*Deadwood, Oregon, unincorporated community in Oregon, United States...
.
Several of the theatre's productions and co-productions have been nominated for Canadian Comedy Awards, and the theatre at 138 Danforth Avenue in Toronto has been twice-named 'Best Improv Theatre' in Toronto by NOW Magazine
NOW (magazine)
Now is a free weekly newspaper in Toronto, Canada. It was first printed on September 10, 1981 by Michael Hollett and Alice Klein. Now is an alternative weekly mixing arts and entertainment news with political coverage....
's annual 'Best of Toronto' awards.
In addition, free introductory workshops in improvisation are provided to the general public, every Saturday at 7 pm (at the time of this writing).
History
The Bad Dog Theatre Company was founded in 2003, but can trace its roots back to 1982 when it was known as Theatresports Toronto. The company's work was based around that of director and playwright, Keith JohnstoneKeith Johnstone
Keith Johnstone is a drama instructor whose teachings and books have focused on improvisational theatre and have had a major influence on the art of improvisation.-Education:...
. The company performed weekly improvisational comedy shows at
Harbourfront in the Theatresports
Theatresports
Theatresports is a form of improvisational theatre, which uses the format of a competition for dramatic effect. Opposing teams can perform scenes based on audience suggestions, with ratings by the audience or by a panel of judges...
format. The show consisted of teams of improvisers competing with one another. Notable teams included Dangerous Poultry, The Parts, The Chumps
The Chumps Without a Net
The Chumps Without a Net was a half-hour sketch comedy show aired on CBC Radio One, initially broadcast Saturday afternoons during the third hour of Definitely Not the Opera starting in 1996 and running until 1997....
and The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy group formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1988 to 1994 on CBC in Canada, and 1989 to 1995 on CBS and HBO in the United States...
. Some of these groups went on to greater fame.
Alumni from this period include Mike Myers
Mike Myers (actor)
Michael John "Mike" Myers is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film producer of British parentage...
, Tim Sims
Tim Sims
Tim Sims was a Canadian actor and comedian.He is known for his roles as Jack the Cave Man on The Red Green Show and as Circle Researcher Rory Tate in a series of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercials in the 1990s. He also performed sketch comedy with The Second City.Sims died at the age of 33 from...
, Bruce Hunter
Bruce Hunter (actor)
Bruce Hunter is a Canadian actor and comedian from Calgary, Alberta. He has appeared in television shows such as Puppets Who Kill and The Red Green Show. Hunter received a Canadian Comedy Awards nomination in 2002 for his work on the television series After Hours...
(Puppets Who Kill), Pat McKenna (Red Green), Gary Campbell
Gary Campbell
Gary Kalani Campbell is a former American football linebacker who played seven seasons in the National Football League for the Chicago Bears....
, (MadTV
MADtv
MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series. It licensed the name and logo of Mad, but otherwise had no connection with the humor magazine outside the animated Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin cartoon shorts and images of Alfred E. Neuman that the show featured during the late 1990s. Its first...
producer/screenwriter) Lisa Merchant
Lisa Merchant
Lisa Merchant is a Canadian comic improviser and actress.She played Brenda Murphy on Train 48.She has won three Canadian Comedy Awards for Best Female Improviser .-External links:...
(Train 48
Train 48
Train 48 was a Canadian television soap opera, broadcast on Global Television Network or CH airing from 2003 until 2005.Train 48 was based on the format of an Australian television program called Going Home....
), Sandra Shamas
Sandra Shamas
Sandra Shamas is a Canadian comedic actress and writer.The oldest of three children born to Lebanese immigrants, Shamas left home at age 17 and moved to Toronto, where she held a variety of jobs before a workshop at The Second City inspired her to pursue a career in performing arts...
(Playwright), Linda Kash
Linda Kash
Linda Kash is a Canadian actress.An alumna of Second City, she played Trudy Weissman in the 1998 Jean Smart sit-com, Style & Substance...
(A Mighty Wind), Colin Mochrie
Colin Mochrie
Colin Andrew Mochrie is a Scottish Canadian actor and improvisational comedian, most famous for his appearances on the British and US versions of television improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.-Early life:...
(Whose Line Is It, Anyway) Globe and Mail Columnist Andrew Coyne
Andrew Coyne
James Andrew Coyne is the national editor for Maclean's, a weekly national newsmagazine in Canada. Previously, he was a columnist with the National Post and an editor-in-chief of the University of Manitoba's newspaper, The Manitoban.-Background:Coyne was born in Ottawa, Ontario, the son of Hope...
and actor Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix...
. It was through their work with Theatresports as well as legendary live shows at The Rivoli that Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.-Early life:...
reputedly came down to recruit Bruce McCulloch
Bruce McCulloch
Bruce Ian McCulloch is a Canadian actor, writer, comedian, and film director. McCulloch is best known for his work as a member of The Kids in the Hall, a popular Canadian comedy troupe, and as a writer for Saturday Night Live. McCulloch has also appeared on series such as Twitch City and Gilmore...
and Mark McKinney
Mark McKinney
Mark Douglas Brown McKinney is a Canadian comedian and actor, best known for his work in the sketch comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall. Following the run of their television series and feature film , he went on to star in Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 1997...
of the Kids in the Hall to write for Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
.
In the early 1990s Theatresports left Harbourfront, performing at a series of venues, including St. Paul's Church basement
Trinity-St. Paul's United Church
Trinity-St. Paul's United Church is a church belonging to the United Church of Canada in Toronto, Ontario. It is located at 427 Bloor Street West, just west of Spadina Avenue. The church is formed of a mix of three different former congregations and houses a fourth.Today, Trinity-St. Paul's has a...
, Big City Improv, Solar Stage and Tim Sims Playhouse
Tim Sims Playhouse
The "Tim Sims Playhouse" was the second stage or cabaret space located within The Second City's new building in Toronto, after the company moved from The Old Fire Hall on Lombard Street....
, becoming Toronto's longest continually running improv comedy show. Nevertheless, audiences and workshop attendance had dwindled from the levels seen at Harbourfront.
In 2003, Theatresports Toronto established a permanent home at 138 Danforth Avenue. A push to 'reinvent' the organization led by Co-Artistic Directors Kerry Griffin
Kerry Griffin
Kerry Griffin is a Canadian comedic and dramatic actor.Kerry Griffin is a member of three time Canadian Comedy Award winning improv troupe Slap Happy , host of Inside the Out of Work Actors Studio, former artistic director of The Bad Dog Theatre Company and an instructor at both The Bad Dog Theatre...
and Marcel St. Pierre and Workshop Director Ralph MacLeod (producer of the successful student performance showcase That Friday Show) led to Theatresports Toronto becoming The Bad Dog Theatre Company on May 1st, 2003.