Nurturing Our Neighborhoods: Bandit Theater bringing improv to communities
Bandit Theater’s “Mad Science” crew at a past performance. Photo by Bandit Theater.
There are countless nonprofits working to build community every day, but not many do it like Bandit Theater.
“We realized that the best way to build community through comedy is to bring comedy to community,” said Annie Barry, the founder and artistic director of Bandit Theater.
After working in comedy theaters across the country for nearly a decade, Annie set her sights on developing an inclusive comedy theater for women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. She founded Bandit Theater in Seattle in 2018 to help build community among participants who often feel excluded from comedy because the industry is male-dominated.
Uniquely, Bandit Theater is not housed at one physical location. Instead, the nonprofit meets communities where they are by hosting shows and improvisation classes across the city.
“People say, ‘If you don’t see what you want, you have to build what you want,’” Annie said. “So that’s what I did, and then I brought our creation to the communities who not only need it, but deserve it.”
Performers after a past Bandit Theater show. Photo by Bandit Theater.
Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association (DNDA) provided $7,000 in grant funding to Bandit Theater to host a series of shows and an improv workshop at our Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in Delridge, Seattle. The grant not only covered all production costs, but it also made the tickets free for attendees, helping bring comedy to our local community.
Improv comedy is acting out a scenario without a script, meaning everything is made up in the moment. Bandit Theater specifically teaches “game of the scene” long-form improvisation, where participants explore unusual patterns of behavior. For example, the prompt, “a loud librarian,” challenges students to explore situations in which it would be out of character to be loud.
Delridge and West Seattle community members had the opportunity to engage with improv, most for the first time, at the end of five free shows performed by Bandit Theater’s crew — with the help of audience participation — at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center last summer.
The shows included some of Bandit’s most popular performances: Mad Science, Fancy Cafeteria, Gram Worthy, Swipe Right, and The Reader. More than 50 people attended each show.
Improv participants performing “Swipe Right” at a past Bandit Theater show. Photo by Bandit Theater.
“A lot of people told me they walked to come see the performances because they lived close by,” Annie said.
DNDA was able to host Bandit Theater’s shows and workshop through funding from Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS). Last year, ARTS allocated more than $1 million to 14 organizations across Seattle to support arts and culture projects and uplift local organizations impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. ARTS selected DNDA as one of the organizations to disperse grants to projects, specifically those serving Delridge and West Seattle.
The artful weekend at Youngstown culminated in Bandit’s Improv for Everyone workshop. More than 25 locals of all ages attended the class, and many promised it would not be their last time.
“I cannot believe it took me this long to try this!” one student said.
Thank you to Bandit Theater and ARTS for allowing DNDA to help bring these events to life at our very own Youngstown. Subscribe to DNDA’s newsletters for more “Nurturing Our Neighborhoods” stories at dnda.org/get-involved.
DNDA is currently renovating its historic Thelma DeWitty Theater into a state-of-the-art performance space. Learn more and rent the theater this summer after the renovations are complete at dnda.org/youngstown.
– Written by DNDA Communications Manager Delaney Murray