Their words, not mine. Take with a grain of salt and a shot of tequila.

FuzzyCo., at WNEP, 3209 N. Halsted.In this improv-soaked city, there are hundreds of actors who can riff for hours on any subject under the sun and in whatever aesthetic style a fevered, youthful imagination can conjure. Be the improvisation vehicle long-form, short-form, musical, satirical, ethnically based, relationship-driven or merely based on an inanimate object, you can be sure that a striving someone in Chicago already will have driven it to death in some squalid little theater on the North Side. And that historical reality makes a fresh, funny and remarkably inventive show called "The Neutrino Project" at the WNEP Theater all the more remarkable. It's only once a week — late on Saturday nights — and it only runs for about an hour. But it's not to be missed. The concept here needs a little explanation. Poorly titled, "The Neutrino Project" purports to be a fully improvised movie. Granted, the likes of the great British director Mike Leigh have experimented with unscripted filmmaking for years, but the FuzzyCo production company goes a good deal further. "The Neutrino Project" is composed of a one-time film that's prepared, performed, shot, distributed and exhibited in less than an hour. Fuzzy Gerdes directs. The night begins with a group of actors, directors and camerapeople standing in the WNEP Theater. They solicit a title in the typical long-form fashion (last Saturday it came back as "Surfing") and borrow objects (a Herman Hesse volume, say) from the audience. But they then run out of the theater and split into groups on the street. Scenes are then filmed simultaneously in the Lakeview blocks surrounding the theater — and runners rush the material back to the theater, where it's shown to the audience just a few seconds after it was stuck in the can. Remarkably, the result is a funny full-blown movie with several different interlocking narratives (think "The Hours") which all come together in the closing scenes. Last week, there was the sad tale of lonely urban souls all looking for the pleasures of summer: the epic drama of two Florida-bound vacationers with a lost car, an inappropriate office summer romance, lost luggage causing sisters to fall apart, and a tale of newfound love and interconnected betrayal in a local restaurant. The concept — which originated at the Upright Citizens Brigade, recently kicked out of its little space in the less-hospitable Manhattan — is not only very clever, but it also creates the kind of tension-filled petri dish in which the best improv finds fertility. The cinematic form expands the improv vocabulary — riffing camerapeople can focus in on objects or bewildered bystanders to great comic effect — and it engenders a terrific sense of immediacy. In few other theatrical entertainments can one keep constant watch on one's illegally parked car across the street — and watch with horror as an errant valet parker bangs its bumpers. This idea is, of course, not easy to do well. The producers need to think of inventive ways to better cover up the inevitable pauses between scenes. And there were times last week when some of the mainly theater-trained actors were too overblown for acting on camera. But those are minor quibbles. Gerdes' instant movie was an instant blast. The place already was packed last weekend. And as word of mouth builds, "The Neutrino Project" will become a big, deserving, late-night hit.
-Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, January 10, 2003

FuzzyCo., at WNEP, 3209 N. Halsted. Combining long-form improv with gonzo film-making, "The Neutrino Project" is the logical outgrowth of "The Blair Witch Project"; if you can make a movie using a video camera and improvising actors, why not flip the concept around and make an improv show using a video camera and, well, improvising actors? The result is a completely spontaneous one-hour flick created on-the-spot Saturday nights at WNEP Theater. Here's how it works: A group of actors, videographers, and runners led by director Fuzzy Gerdes gather on stage at the start of the show and solicit an audience suggestion. Then they break off into four teams and dash out into the Lakeview neighborhood, where they begin shooting brief improvised scenes. In about five minutes, the first team completes their shot, a runner grabs the video and hauls ass back to the theater where technical manager Greg Inda cues it up and starts the movie. As the runner ventures back out into the cold to track down his comrades, a runner from the second team shows up with the next scene. The process is repeated multiple times, and what evolves is an almost-real-time episodic film that manages to tie together all the disparate scenes (and teams) together by a final shot. While the performances are hit-and-miss (Dan Izzo and Beth Melewski are standouts), the sheer novelty of the concept, first created at New York's Upright Citizens Brigade, makes this experiment a success and a compelling first step in exploring the boundaries of improv. "The Neutrino Project" plays Saturdays at 10:30 pm at WNEP Theater, 3209 North Halsted, (773) 296-1100 "Recommended" by New City
-Nina Metz, New City, January 9, 2003

CHILD'S PLAY: The pictures and one-sentence stories of Chris Van Allsburg's imaginative children's book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick were brought to life in a magical production at WNEP Theater. It illustrated one of the best aspects of small Off-Loop theaters: an unabashed determination to invent uniquely original work. Using little in the way of props, the delightfully talented cast transformed each story into a wonderland of expressive detail. Memorable performances included Steve Lund as a hapless chairmaker and Patrick Brennan and Dan Izzo as two wily caterpillars.
-Lucia Mauro, Chicago Sun Times, December 30, 2002

WNEP Theater Foundation, at WNEP, 3209 N. Halsted. Daring ideas and deft execution don't necessarily go hand in hand. But the folks at WNEP have not only tackled a difficult task--a stage adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg's enigmatic children's book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick--they've done it well. ¶ The original consists of little more than 15 moody black-and-white drawings with titles and captions, because Van Allsburg wanted his readers to use their own imaginations. The stage production Michael Ross and Dave Stinton have crafted preserves this maddening open-endedness while also telling a series of ripping yarns. In the mysterious framing story, a young woman not unlike an American version of Alice finds herself transported into Van Allsburg's pictures. She must literally talk her way out of this wonderland by learning to tell compelling stories based on his art. Along the way, the young woman (played with finesse by Danielle Hoetmer) also discovers the power of stories to wound and heal. First produced in 1999, the show proved such a success for WNEP that they've remounted it with some changes. Having missed the original, I can't compare it to this one. But it's hard to believe that the 1999 version could have equaled Jen Ellison's staging, which has a wondrous evocative power.
-Jack Helbig, Chicago Reader, April 18, 2002

Conspiracy Theatre Company, at Second City, Donny's Skybox Studio. Like a lot of jaunts to the office-humor supply room, this show hinges on the weirdness of the workplace. Even the best-matched colleagues are bound to become surreally familiar through endless on-the-job shoulder rubbing, a state Cubicle Rats hyperextends ferociously. Its six coworkers (Joel Gray, Marz Timms, Jake Martin, Joanna Buese, Josh Walker, and Dori Goldman) drift through a lucid catatonia, seeming to one another--and to the audience-- like ghosts or monsters sprung from a lithium dream. There's a perfectly functional story, but echoing their characters' occupational detachment, the actors sleepwalk around it, throwing their grotesques into harsher and harsher focus. Only six virtuoso performers could pull off such a difficult approach. ¶ The dreamlike presentation echoes the piece's collaborative creation: this is that rare thing, a script generated improvisationally but polished to the point where you wouldn't necessarily guess it. There's a lovely surefootedness to the cast's portrayals, which feel grounded despite blatant overrefinement and mannered excess. Director Dan Izzo has edited "hundreds of improvised scenes" of caricature-driven material down to a tidy, well-paced mess that both hits plot points and ignores them, expertly moving the action along. Thanks to uniformly excellent technique and sly, perceptive conceits--nothing anyone's doing is accidental--whatever's not funny here is transfixing.
-Brian Nemtusak, Chicago Reader, February 21, 2001

Conspiracy Theatre Company, at the Annoyance Theater. Whether in a romantic mode or not, chance first and often one-time encounters between people produce some of the funniest stories that this planet has to offer. Conspiracy Theater Co has strung together a series of such scenes and stories into an overall successful, if somewhat uneven, evening of comical delight.
The 18-plus scenes (which last barely over an hour) range from attempted pickups in a straight bar, a gay bar, an airport and an elevator to a lonely elderly woman who calls a retail store customer service line to have someone to talk to, husbands commiserating over their shopping wives and irate gym members. Interspersed are monologues by "drunk girl" (Regina Reale) on some less-than-perfect moments in her love life.
The majority of the ensemble members have strong backgrounds in improv which may have been useful in the creation of the show but does not always translate well into scripted performances. However, nearly every cast member finds some moment to shine, and Jonathan Browning, Margaret Hicks, Leslie McManus and John Shaffer are consistently strong, while Regina Reale's storytelling is always personal and interesting.
Although some of the scenes are too long for what is essentially one laugh, that laugh is often big enough that you don't really feel too cheated. And occasionally, there were bits that were so short that it left the audience saying, "Huh?" But for the most part, the script works, and the somewhat disjointed scenes are crafted together in a way that, while not linear, is effective. A simple set supplemented by projections of artworks by one of the cast members keeps the action flowing without seeming mechanistic.
I would never describe this as a great night at the theatre, but it is certainly a step beyond pure entertainment and strikes many chords that all of us have heard at some time or another. (3 Stars)
Tracy Adams, Gay Chicago Magazine, Issue #11 March 18-28, 1999

Conspiracy Theatre Company, at the Annoyance Theater. You know it's all a damn conspiracy, and these guys from Chicago are out to prove it. They take totally unrelated audience suggestions and weave them into a conspiracy by-the end of the show. The group comes from an Annoyance Theatre background, and it shows in the no-rules, in-your-face, quick-cuts form that can be like a comic slap in the face. Their work can get down and dirty quickly, but hey, that's how conspiracies are, right?
J.C. Shakespeare, The Austin Chronicle , Vol. 18 No. 31, April 2, 1999

Conspiracy Theatre Company, at the Annoyance Theater.Think of the most outrageous and repulsively bizarre thoughts you might have stuck in the deep lobes of your brain, jumble them together and act them out, one after another, nonstop, without a breath. Performing such an unbelievably taxing feat, also at Esther's Pool, was Conspiracy Theatre Company. Based in Chicago, the eight-member troupe covered a myriad of topics ranging from biting one's toenails to urinating on furniture.
Austin-American Statesman , April 10, 1999