Our Mission
Un-Scripted Theater Company builds diverse and inclusive stories, challenging conventional tropes, while creating truthful improvisational theater.
Our Company
Since 2002, Un-Scripted Theater Company® has staged over forty multi-month long productions in a range of genres and styles: stage plays, musicals, narrative long-form, improv comedy, and theatrical experiments. The company performs in San Francisco and was named Best Theater Company in both 2008 and 2018 by the SF Bay Guardian. We aim to expand the boundaries of improvised theater.
We are an all volunteer theater company with a similar business model to classic community theater. Our shows give us an opportunity to train improvisors for free in an advanced-improv master-class-style structure, allowing us to advance our art form and serve the greater improv community. Most of our funding comes from ticket sales and donations from individuals. Each ticket sold helps us continue to put on improvised productions and train the next generation of improv theater pioneers.
For those actors who would like to train with us outside of our show schedule, paid acting classes are often available by our staff at all levels of training.
Our dedication to Social Justice
One of the most important tenets of great theater is that it’s representative of the diversity of our society. To insure that stories don’t go missing from our stage, our theater strives to create an environment where those who’ve been historically driven away from improv feel welcome.
From classes to performances, our theater actively strives to quash white patriarchal hetronormative micro/macro aggression at every level of the training process. We want our casts to feel comfortable and safe enough to be spontaneous. We want to foster an environment that makes space for the wide variety of stories told by diverse ensembles. Everyone who is cast in our shows or signs up for a class is asked make a commitment to create a space that is actively anti-sexist, anti-racist, and anti-homophobic. If you are interested in performing with us, we will be talking about social equity and asking those with inherited social privilege to actively work with us to make our space welcoming to everyone.
If you are searching to find organizations working for justice for the BIPOC community, we recommend this list (compiled in 2020) that has been helpful for us.
https://linktr.ee/NationalResourcesList
Our Shows
Un-Scripted Theater Company is known for improvised theater: shows in which our improvisors, using audience suggestions, strive to create plays or musicals that are sometimes serious, sometimes comic, with fully improvised dialogue, songs, and dances created right before your eyes.
All improvised stage performances, from games, to fast-paced comedic scenes based on audience suggestions, to a full-length improvised play, are based on common principles of acceptance, cooperation, and narrative storytelling.
For improvisors interested in performing in our shows, we take the safety of our casts very seriously. We firmly believe that great theater is not at odds with consent for our cast members in regards to subject mater and what they are being asked to do onstage. We check in nightly to see how our improvisors are feeling and make sure to adjust our performances/rehearsals accordingly. Our directors and teachers are constantly being trained on shifting societal evolutions in regards to gender, sexuality, and race, and actively foster an environment where cast members can feel safe to improvise together.
Our Philosophy
Improvised Theater and Improv Comedy
There are key differences between theatrical improvisation and improv comedy. While they're both based on the same basic principles of improvisation, improv comedy is usually played in short-form (quick scenes or games) and emphasizes witty one-liners, fast-paced timing, and focuses on "finding the funny.". It's a place where the quickest, sharpest, and zaniest improvisors steal the show.
Un-Scripted Theater Company® is one of a handful of theater companies specializing in theatrical improvisation. Theatrical improvisation emphasizes acting, truthful, grounded characters, believable relationships, and uses narrative structure to tell a story. Theatrical improvisation is usually funny, but it's just as likely to be serious, thought-provoking, and touching. In theatrical improvisation, comedy comes from situations rather than jokes or clever one-liners. Usually, theatrical improvisation is played in narrative long-form (like a play, only without a script). The television show Whose Line Is It Anyway? is straight-up improv comedy. Christopher Guest films like Spinal Tap have elements of both improv comedy and theatrical improvisation.
Our Box Office and Salon
The Salon (across the hall from the theater) is a comfortable, fun place to hang out before the show. You'll find our box office here, as well as a variety of cold drinks and popcorn. The Salon opens an hour before showtime. Join us in the Salon before (and after) the show!
Show Seating
Doors open fifteen minutes before curtain, and shows start promptly. If you're buying your tickets at the door, we recommend that you get to the theater at least half an hour before curtain.
We will make every effort to accommodate special seating requests for seniors and persons with disabilities.
Group Ticket Sales
If you are part of a group of ten or more, you can take advantage of our group sales program. You will get a discount on your ticket prices and receive assigned seating.
Reserved seats are held until 7:45. All members of your group must be present for you to be seated together.
For more information on Group Ticket Sales please email boxoffice (at) un-scripted.com.
If you are a group and would like to sit together, please email your request to boxoffice (at) un-scripted.com before 6pm on the day of the show you are attending.
Support Un-Scripted!
If you're a starving artist, a student, or a friend of a cast member and you want to see a show for free, consider helping us run the house during a show. We are often in need of extra help. If you're interested in supporting a show on a specific night or just want to find out how you can help our small, non-profit theatre company, please contact boxoffice (at) un-scripted.com for more details.
Press Photos
For photos from past Un-Scripted Theater Company® productions, please check out our Press Page.