Indivisible Chicago's Blue Wave Rave uses improv to mobilize political action

Wednesday night the Athenaeum Theatre hosted the Blue Wave Rave, a free improv show featuring cast members from iO, the Second City, and the Annoyance Theatre and put together by Indivisible Chicago, a coalition of 12 chapters around the city that was created after the 2016 election.

"I spent almost ten years as the CEO of the League of Chicago Theatres, so I know lots of theater folks," says Marj Halperin, the cofounder of the Blue Beginning chapter that meets at the Hideout. She was one of the main organizers of the Blue Wave Rave. "Also, I have this political life where I've managed campaigns and been a volunteer." Halperin got the idea to combine canvassing with improv after attending an event put on by Swing Left, another group that organizes progressives.

"Swing Left had a small event for Sean Casten and then I saw onstage T.J. Shanoff, the longtime music director for Second City, who I knew. So after the show I went up and said hello to him and thanked him for doing this, and he said, 'I just want to do as much as I can.' And I said, 'Well, let's do a second event.'"

"I have never been involved in politics," says Shanoff, a director, producer, and musician from Chicago. "I've always had an interest in politics, and the last couple of years it has increased to almost a desperate interest because of how distraught I've been [since the 2016 election]. Ranting on social media and complaining to people who feel the same was getting me nowhere."

Read more: https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2018/10/05/indivisible-chicagos-blue-wave-rave-uses-improv-to-mobilize-political-action