HUGE's logo
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Founded | 2005 |
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Focus | Long form improvisational theater |
Location |
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Coordinates | 44°56′50″N 93°17′17″W / 44.947091°N 93.287932°W |
Area served
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Minneapolis – Saint Paul |
Key people
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Butch Roy (Executive Director) Jill Bernard (Education Director) Nels Lennes (Artistic Director) |
Website | www |
HUGE Improv Theater is a Minneapolis theater founded in 2005 dedicated to long form improvisational theater. The non-profit theater acquired its own building in 2010, where it runs scheduled nightly improv performances, acts as one of the Minnesota Fringe Festival's venues, and hosts the annual Twin Cities Improv Festival.
In 2005, HUGE was founded as a non-profit arts organization dedicated to long form improvisational theater, the only of its kind in Minneapolis. Butch Roy, Nels Lennes, and Jill Bernard were responsible for the theater's creation. While performing at such local venues as Intermedia Arts, it was not until half a decade after the theater's founding, in December 2010, that the organization got its own building, designed in part by local architecture firm Shelter and featuring a wall with the word 'HUGE' emblazoned on it separating the lobby from the theater space. Located off Lyndale Avenue, HUGE's new home is accessible via Metro Transit routes 4 and 21. The theater also maintains two parking lots and is wheelchair accessible.
A board of directors, consisting of artistic director Lennes, executive director Roy, education director Bernard, and managing director Molly Chase oversees HUGE.
HUGE runs improv shows six nights per week. The theater also hosts classes for beginning improv students and workshops for more advanced improvisational storytellers. HUGE is the site of the annual Twin Cities Improv Festival, a creation of the theater's staff designed to increase the presence of improvised theater in the Twin Cities. It has been one of the Minnesota Fringe Festival's stages for the late-summer performing arts festival since its opening in 2011.