Vivid Stage’s Improv Team presents “Ancient History”

Graphic by Yolanda Fundora

(SUMMIT, NJ) — Vivid Stage will present its house improv team, The Flip Side, at the Oakes Center on Saturday, March 9, 2024 at 8:00pm. The theme of the show will be Ancient History, as the improvisers take the audience on a kooky and irreverent journey through the myths and legends of the distant past.

The Flip Side features Brad Barton, Laura Ekstrand, Noreen Farley, Lulu French, Dave Maulbeck, Scott McGowan, David Lee White and Emaline Williams. This unpredictable evening is an affordable, enjoyable evening that is packed with laughs from start to finish.

Based on improv techniques created by The Groundlings, Upright Citizens’ Brigade and The Magnet, The Flip Side offers a unique spin on short-form improv, taking audience input to create instant scenes that are both unexpected and hilarious. No two shows are alike, and the most important ingredient in every show is the audience.

The show includes improvisational comedy sketches that use audience suggestions to shape the scenes that the actors instantly create onstage.  Performers use ingredients such as everyday objects, strange maladies, and unusual circumstances to cook up unconventional mini-plays that appear and disappear in a matter of minutes.

The Flip Side will appear at the Oakes Center at 120 Morris Avenue in Summit on Saturday, March 9 at 8:00pm. Tickets are $23, and $18 for students 25 and younger.  Tickets are available for purchase online. The Oakes Center is wheelchair accessible.

Vivid Stage was founded in 1994 as Dreamcatcher Rep, and is a non-profit professional ensemble of actors who build community with the audience by sharing contemporary, life-affirming stories that challenge, energize and entertain. Their work has at its heart a belief in the essential goodness of people and the power of live performance to connect people through our shared humanity. They expose theatregoers to ideas and lives like and unlike their own with the intention of awakening their imaginations and creating empathy for others. They deepen the experience of all their patrons with personal contact through receptions, talkbacks, and interactive programs.

The company’s activities include mainstage productions, improvisational comedy and cabarets, new play readings and a variety of educational and senior outreach programs.

Vivid Stage’s programs are funded by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Union County Department of Cultural and Heritage Affairs, and many other corporations, foundations and individuals.  Vivid Stage is an Equity Producing member of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.

Vivid Stage, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) corporation, incorporated under the laws of the State of New Jersey.