Brian Williams featured The Second City on tonight's news broadcast featuring interviews with alums Tina Fey, Bonnie Hunt and Martin Short as well as CEO/Executive Producer Andrew Alexander. To check out the segment, visit www.nbc.com.
For extended in-depth interviews with Tina Fey, Bonnie Hunt and Martin Short, visit www.msnbc.msn.com.
To recognize our 50th Anniversary, Governor Patrick Quinn, Mayor Richard M. Daley, Senator John Cullerton and Alderman Vi Daley honored Second City with a variety of proclamations and plaques proclaiming today, the official anniversary of The Second City, as Second City Day. Happy Anniversary!
Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas, Andrew Alexander, Richard Daley, Martin Short,
Eugene Levy, Cathrine O'Hara, Harold Ramis
Vi Daley, Andrew Alexander
SCTV Golden Classics, a new public television special featuring some of SCTV's most hilarious moments, premieres Thursday, December 17 at 9 p.m. on New York metro area public television station WLIW21. The special will premiere nationwide on other public television stations beginning March 2010 (check local listings). Visit wliw.org for a video preview and to support this broadcast. Contact your local station to request the show at pbs.org/stationfinder.
Check out people.com for a great video shot at our red carpet on Saturday night. People's intern asked various alums about their fondest and wildest on stage memories from The Second City.
During the 50th Anniversary Festival, as part of it's long-term commitment to emerging talent and the brand's partnership with The Second City, PUMA announced the PUMA & The Second City "LOL" Scholarship Program, offering ten scholarships to the organization's training center in Chicago and Los Angeles as part of The Second City Outreach & Diversity Program in an effort in increase diversity among the improv community. Check out this great video with clips from our 50th Anniversary and more information about the scholarships. Thanks to Puma for your help in this great cause!
Check out today's New York Times for an extensive feature on Second City along with a special video highlight from Saturday's anniversary show.
Jon Glaser of Adult Swim's Delocated put some photos and memories from his trip back to Chicago for the 50th Anniversary on his blog. Check it out at the Delocated Blog.
The Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun Times offer up a pair of terrific wrap up articles on The Second City’s 50th Anniversary weekend. It was an amazing and most memorable weekend, and both newspapers summarize Saturday’s Alumni Reunion Performance perfectly.
On a Saturday night, December 12th, Second City alumni from all generations returned home to perform classic scenes at our 50th Anniversary Festival. Their performances delighted audiences and helped raise money for The Second City Alumni Fund. Here is the list of scenes and alumni that performed in the 7pm shows at the Mainstage and e.t.c.
ACT ONE – 50th ANNIVERARY REVUE
ACT TWO – 50th ANNIVERSARY SHOW
Check out our Facebook Page for photos of the Anniversary, Backstage, the Red Carpet and more!
Special thanks to all the Alumni, Staff and sponsors who have made this possible!
Photo: John McCloskey
Listed below is a complete schedule of events for the weekend. Throughout the days ahead we will post updates regarding ticket availability.
Friday, December 11th, 2009
Saturday, December 12th, 2009
Sunday, December 13th, 2009
All events will be held at The Second City and Piper's Alley complex at North and Wells. Tickets range from $10.00-$750.00 and will be available for purchase at The Second City Theater Box Office in Chicago at 312-337-3992 beginning at 10:00amCT Thursday, November 5th, and online at http://www.secondcity.com/. Performers are subject to change.
Proceeds from the shows will go to The Second City Alumni Fund. The Alumni Fund of the Second City was established by Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara, and Martin Short to assist and aid current, former or retired performers, technicians, support staff or other members of the creative and productions teams employed by The Second City theatres and in connection with the SCTV television series.
Sponsors for The Second City's 50th Anniversary Festival Weekend are Miller Lite, Southwest Airlines, PUMA, Hub 51, Cafe-Ba-Ba-Reeba, Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, Food Life and Lou Malnati's.
The Onion's A.V. Club takes a second look at 7 great SCTV characters including Count Floyd, Bob & Doug Ricardo Montalban, and Lola Heatherton. For the complete list including video clips, visit The A.V. Club.
The Second City is proud to announce the 8th annual event: "The Second City That Never Sleeps: Letters to Santa" - 24 consecutive hours of improvisation by Second City performers and alumni featuring a variety of special guest artists - a tradition that provides presents for needy children during the holiday season and this year wraps up a weekend of events around The Second City 's 50th Anniversary.
Doors will open at 5:45pm. The show will begin on Tuesday, December 15th in The Second City e.t.c. (1608 N. Wells St, 2nd Floor of Piper's Alley) at 6:00pm and will conclude on Wednesday, December 16th at 6:00pm.
An ensemble of Chicago's best known improvisers (along with alumni of The Second City) will take the stage for an entire 24-hour period. Improvisational games, scenes, songs, monologues and random acts of weirdness inspired by sleep deprivation will accompany performances by such artists as Robbie Fulks, Jeff Tweedy, UCB's ASSSCAT, Bonnie Prince Billy, The Mountain Goats and The Blisters.
Listed below is the current performance schedule. For schedule updates, visit www.secondcity.com.
Performance Schedule:
| 12/15/09 - 7:00pm | Jeff Tweedy |
| 12/15/09 - 10:00pm | Robbie Fulks |
| 12/16/09 - 12:00am | UCB's Asssscat with Matt Walsh, Horatio Sanz and Chicago friends |
| 12/16/09 - 3:00am | Flash-mob Marching Band |
| 12/16/09 - 6:00am | Bonnie Prince Billy |
| 12/16/09 - 7:30am | BabyCo |
| 12/16/09 - 12:00p | Nina Nastasia |
| 12/16/09 - 2:00pm | The Mountain Goats |
| 12/16/09 - 4:30pm | The Blisters |
Tickets for "The Second City That Never Sleeps: Letters to Santa" are $15.00 for the 24 hour period and can be purchased at the door. The event is open to all ages. Alcohol will be available to those 21 years and older from 6:00p-2:00a and from noon-6:00pm.
In addition to raffle prizes offered during the event, there will also be an auction to win a private performance with Jeff Tweedy.
