The Eckerd College student improv group Another Man’s Trash has been selected to perform at the prestigious Chicago Improv Festival next month.
It is one of only two college improv groups among the more than 200 performing during the festival, which bills itself as the longest running and largest improv festival in the world. Another Man’s Trash will perform at the Playground Theater at 9 p.m. on April 4.
“It’s a pretty big deal,” said Dylan Carey, a founding member of the group who graduated in 2010 and performs nightly at the Playground Theater. “Chicago is the place to be for improvisation and the festival gets submissions from troupes all over the world.”
Carey will introduce his former college troupe. “It’s going to be a cool experience and really bring things full circle for me,’’ said Carey, a double major in marine science and theater.
Another Man’s Trash, founded in 2008, is comprised of 11 students and performs monthly to sold-out audiences at Eckerd’s Miller Auditorium. Improv subjects are chosen at random from written suggestions placed in a trash can on stage.
The group was chosen for the festival based on a video recording of its December performance.
“I am very excited,” said Geoffrey L. Fella, a senior philosophy major and director of Another Man’s Trash. “I’m not an easily excited person. When I got the news I was in the library and was just trying to hold it in. It was something else.”
All 11 members of the group will travel to the festival but only seven will perform. The group received funding for the trip from ECOS and Academic Conference Funds and raised money through performances, t-shirts sales and donations from the Family Weekend show.
Many former members, such as Carey, continue to perform in improv groups around the country and Fella said many of the current members hope to follow in their footsteps.
The festival will be a great experience for the members, Carey said, and not because they will be performing at a prestigious festival. There are numerous workshops led by professional performers, giving them “a chance to learn and really grow from the experience.”
“I think it’s going to be a great experience to see how far the troupe has progressed,” said Carey.
