Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre

The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (shorter UCB Theatre) is an American improvisational theatre and training center, founded by the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe members, including Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh. It has locations in the New York neighborhoods of Chelsea and the East Village as well as the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard.

The troupe was originally trained by Del Close at Chicago's ImprovOlympic, invented the ASSSSCAT show the success of which led to the troupe getting their own sketch show on Comedy Central from 1998 to 2000, and eventually founded their own theatre. In 2013, they co-authored a manual The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual.

The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre Training Center teaches longform improv, sketch, writing, parts of directing and various other comedy skills. The training center's philosophy of improv is based largely on the teachings of Del Close, with a strong emphasis on the "game" of the scene. The primary improvisational form is "The Harold", and the theater in all its incarnations has had a group of "Harold Teams", house teams that perform regularly.

Prior to opening their own theatre, the Upright Citizens Brigade performed their signature improv show, ASSSSCAT, first at KGB Bar, and then later at Solo Arts. Solo Arts was the first semi-permanent home to the Upright Citizens Brigade's Harold Teams and is considered by some to be the group's first theatre. The troupe's first permanent space was at 161 West 22nd Street, a 75-seat auditorium that used to be the Harmony Burlesque Theater, an all-nude lap-dancing club—essentially a storefront. The original theatre was closed on November 18, 2002, after a building inspector ordered the theater to be shut down due to fire code violations. In the months that followed, the theater found a temporary home at the Access Theater on lower Broadway, then moved to the Chelsea Playhouse for a short time before finding a permanent space.

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