We partner with Gilda’s Club to provide monthly improv play sessions for members of the community whose lives have been impacted by cancer. 100% of participants report feeling more joy at the end of the session than when they started.
Susan Messing Spends a few days with Unscripted
Susan Messing was in Nashville May 20–24. Three sold-out workshops, a podcast recording, and a sold-out headline show at EastSide Bowl.
Messing is in her 40th year as an improviser and comedian. She's an alumna of iO Theatre and Chicago's Second City Mainstage, and a founding member of Chicago's Annoyance Theatre. She's taught her curriculum at iO, iO West, The Annoyance, The Second City, and around the world, and has been an adjunct instructor at Loyola University, DePaul University's Theatre School, and The School at Steppenwolf; she currently teaches at the University of Chicago. Her television and film credits include Comedy Central's Premium Blend and NBC's Late Friday, and Blessing, her duo show with Blaine Swen, has run for years at iO. When someone with that résumé agrees to spend a few days in Nashville, it's an opportunity to bring a caliber of training and performance our community doesn't often get access to.
The Blessing Show
The week opened with a sold-out show at EastSide Bowl: Blessing, the long-running two-person show Messing and Blaine Swen (Nashville star improviser and founder of the heralded Improvised Shakespeare) have performed together at iO for years. Local TikTok star Andi Marie Tillman and improviser Kelsie Craig opened the night.
The Workshops
Messing taught three public workshops, and all three sold out: Characters, Ensemble, and one called Kaleidoscope, focused on movement and whimsy. Three different entry points into improv, three full rooms of Nashville's improv community, hungry for this level of instruction.
The Podcast
While she was here, Messing sat down with Mike Garvin to record an episode of Improv Saves! World Agrees., Unscripted's podcast. It's a chance to get her perspective on the stage and on tape so she can keep teaching people well after her visit ended.
Why It Matters
Bringing in an artist like Susan Messing costs money and coordination, and it's a deliberate investment. It raises the level of instruction available here, gives local performers and teaching artists a chance to train and open for someone at the top of the field, and it draws attention that helps make the case that Nashville can support this art form at a high level. That's the same idea behind everything Unscripted does: improv shouldn't be limited to a few cities or a few people who can already afford access to it.
This project was funded in part by the Tennessee Arts Commission.
Fool's Day 2026
April 1 SOLT OUT at East Nashville Beer Works!
Fool's Day is our yearly reminder that improv connects us as people and as artists. This year we put our two 2026 resident improv teams, Short Ribs and TúPOC, next to a poet, a musician, and a dance/theater improv group, all outside, all in one night.
Short Ribs Improv and TúPOC Improv brought the improv. Rashad thaPoet and Austin Willé brought poetry and music to life through improvisation, jazz, and spoken word. And to close things out, we threw four of our own into a room together for a one-time-only, never-happening-again set: "Emma & Spencer & Stevie & Anne Make Something Up.”
We built the night around the idea that improvisation is the language that connects artists across mediums, bridging gaps between communities.
Tickets were $25 and got you in the door, a drink, and some snacks, plus we ran a $5 community-priced ticket for anyone who needed it. Everyone gets in the room, no matter what.
More photos from the night below by Kim Macdonald and Eli Gibbons. See you next Fool's Day.
TúPOC + John Gebratatose
Investing in Ensemble: Behind TuPOC's For The People Show
A lot of the most important work Unscripted does never happens on stage. It happens in a rehearsal or classroom, with intentional teaching and facilitation.
This year, that room belonged to TuPOC, Nashville’s BIPOC Improv Ensemble Unscripted supported in 2026, and visiting artist John Gebratatose, of Good Camel Comedy in Minneapolis, who came to Nashville in late February 2026 to help build For The People, a show made by and for the community.
The Workshops
Then, the weekend of the show in late February, John arrived in Nashville and packed in three workshops, opening the work to the wider community: one for our community partners and participants, a public workshop on character work, and Hard Topics, built for teachers navigating tough moments in an improv classroom.
The Rehearsals
Rehearsals started January 2026: 10 sessions, coached remotely by John, in the Unscripted Studio where TuPOC gathered in person to do the work. Over those months, TúPOC built the trust, timing, and shared instinct that turns a group of improvisers into an empowered ensemble.
The Show
For The People was the payoff: an ensemble performing at full strength, in front of a community that asked for more at the end of the show. A sold out audience that took time for a dance party at the end. TúPOC asked that the show proceeds should be donated to mutual aid in Minneapolis, in solidarity with John’s home community. After artists were paid, Unscripted rounded up all ticket sales and donations sent a $2000 to our neighbors up north.
The Investment
Here's what it took to make it happen:
Direct investment in TuPOC's rehearsals and show totaled $3,257.31: coaching, ensemble and artist fees, flights and lodging, and rehearsal space. Add in $1,000 for John's community workshops and $2,000 in donated ticket sales (including $1,000 in venue rental generously donated by Shannon at The Darkhorse Theater) and the total project investment reaches $6,257.31.
Every dollar of that is an investment in the same idea: that people deserve access to art that heals, empowers, and connects them, and that the artists and ensembles doing that work deserve to be paid.
That's what it looks like to build a show For the People, human by human.
This project was funded in part by the Tennessee Arts Commission.
Nashville International Center for Empowerment
We partner with Nashville International Center for Empowerment to provide improv programs for immigrants and refugees. This program ties directly to the origination of improv in the US - Viola Spolin, the “mother of improv” was a settlement worker who used theater games to help immigrant children connect to one anther in 1930’s Chicago. Her son, Paul Sills, went on to be the artistic director at The Second City.
Briley Barnett
Mandy Fuqua
Rachel Pozin
Nations Urban Ministry
A letter from our partner at Nations Urban Ministry:
To the wonderful team at Unscripted Improv:
Thank you for volunteering your time to bring improv to our youth this summer. For our participants—especially those who are extremely shy and fear public speaking—your workshop was a safe space to practice communication in a way that felt playful, not pressured. We all discovered a liberating truth through your workshop: “Mistakes are gifts”.
Sara, your instructor, managed my rambunctious group well. Guiding us through games like Zip Zap Zop, Pass the Clap, Pass the Character, and Continue the Rhyme. She did more than teach improv; she dropped wisdom. Her mantra, “Mistakes are gifts,” helped to dissolve shame, replacing it with playful resilience. Watching teens who’d rarely laughed collapse into giggles (or full-on tear-streaming laughter like me!) was a revelation. It was amazing to witness youth being present in their bodies and practicing intentional eye contact and connection. We learned to embrace discomfort as a catalyst for growth. The games equipped our youth with tools employers value: adaptability, thinking on your feet, collaborating without judgment, and the courage to speak up. Even our quietest participants found themselves engaging and laughing. Through your work, I was reminded that vulnerability is a form of strength. Truly, “Mistakes are gifts” will stick with me as I undo a lifetime of self-doubt.
Thank you for showing our group that communication isn’t about being perfect. It’s about showing up, listening, and sometimes laughing until you cry. Your time here mattered more than you know.
With immense gratitude from the POWER Youth Experience Work Life Skills Interns at Nations Ministry Center.
Diane
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Diane Uwamahoro
Coordinator of Middle School Success
Cystinosis and Me: Speak Up, Speak Out!
Since July 2023, Unscripted has partnered with Believe, Ltd at Speak Up, Speak Out: Cystinosis and Me as part of the Cystinosis Research Network Family Conference each summer.
We improvise with youth ages 13-22 living with Cystinosis, in order to help grow their confidence, feel more comfortable performing, and have a joyful, creative, good time!
Participants used the creative connections built in improv to lead right into developing their own spoken word poetry.
