Wichita’s improv scene is booming: ‘We’re pretty serious about our funny’
Say What?!, Flying Pig Improv, First Draft and Parking Lot Sushi each offer audiences regular, one-of-a-kind performances.
“Making it up as we go along” is the guiding principle of improv theater. It is embraced by four local troupes that are helping Wichita discover a new appreciation for this spontaneous art form.
“Improv is kind of having a moment across the country,” said Kayla Vix of Parking Lot Sushi, a local improv troupe that held its second show in January. “There’s a lot of professional nationwide troupes to watch and learn from.”
The origins of improv theater — where actors create scenes, dialogue, and characters on the fly — can be traced back to the Hull House in Chicago in the 1920s. Social worker Viola Spolin created theater games for immigrant children to help them overcome their shyness. She invented many of the games used today for teaching improv and the concept of audience suggestions. Her son, Paul Sills, was among the founders of Second City.
Improv theater became part of the entertainment scene in Wichita when Say What?! started performing in 2000. It remained the primary outlet for professional improv until two decades later when Jessie Gray launched the Flying Pig on East Douglas as both an improv school and performance space.
By late 2023, First Draft emerged, followed by Parking Lot Sushi’s first show in December 2024. In addition, there’s a college improv group, Sloppy Joes, affiliated with Newman University’s theater club, while Wichita State University offers improv classes within its School of Performing Arts and hosts occasional shows at the student-run Empty Space Theatre.
Local improv groups often attend others’ shows for support and to see what they are doing. Members sometimes move from one troupe to another.
“It’s a little of both collaboration and friendly competition. Everyone wants to be successful,” said Dan Gray, a founder and leader of Say What?! “There’s a good understanding that if we support one another, it continues to grow the scene, and open the door to collaboration in the future — maybe a single show with all.”
With more awareness and interest in improv, Todd Ramsey of First Draft envisions Wichita becoming a hub of improv in the Midwest. “We love the idea of let’s have 20 troupes in Wichita and we all collaborate and work together,” he said.
While all local improv groups share common elements, each troupe has its own unique style and vision for the future of improv in Wichita.
Drop-in classes at the Flying Pig offer newcomers a chance to try their first class for free. Some immediately grasp the fun of playing with others and sign up for more. It’s not merely about being silly on stage; class members repeatedly practice exercises until their reactions become instinctive. “We’re not just goofing around,” Jessie Gray said. “We’re pretty serious about our funny.”
John Penny from the Flying Pig highlights some benefits of improv: “As people get deeper into improv, they realize they can listen better with empathy. Being on stage, having eye contact, being able to gauge other people, read what is coming and then react appropriately are all ways you build confidence with improv.”
Scenes from a recent show at Flying Pig Improv. Photos by Jason Crile for the SHOUT.
Todd Ramsey of First Draft champions improv as an “art form for life.” He notes that in many conversations, we are thinking so much about what we’re going to say next that we’re not even listening. “Improv is all about slowing down, being authentic and just saying the next thing. There’s something disarming about that from an entertainment standpoint but even more so if you take a class, even if you don’t intend to perform.”
While improv can be a skill-building exercise, at its core it's about play. “Doing improv gives us an opportunity to stop being adults for just a minute,” said Jack Kriwiel of Parking Lot Sushi.
A table of 20-something women who came out on a whim to Say What?!’s February 22 show had never seen improv. They were pleasantly surprised and said they’d be back. “It’s like watching ‘Saturday Night Live,’” one said, though improv is not scripted like “SNL.”
Dan Gray of Say What?! says the audiences like the fact that even if they’ve been to a performance before, there’s always something new. “The greatest compliment I get is, ‘I don’t know how you do that — that had to be scripted.”
Vix from Parking Lot Sushi points out that improv is one of the few performance art forms where the audience's energy and tempo directly influence the show. She explained that the thrill of watching an unscripted live performance is that “anything can happen, and it feels super genuine.” Both the audience and the actors share a unique moment that will never be repeated.
The grandparents of three members from the Say What?! troupe appreciated the 5 p.m. showtime. Their table included family members who had never considered their kids to be funny before, often labeling them as “nerds,” a term some improv actors embrace. Two members from the Newman improv group, Sloppy Joes — Corbin Molina, a chemistry major, and Emily Maddox, a radiologist — also attended the show. Molina remarked that the “yes, and” rule in improv, which encourages acknowledging what someone has said and expanding on it, allows you to learn to “roll with the punches and handle whatever you’re given.”
While all four local improv groups share common elements, each troupe has its own unique style and vision for the future of improv in Wichita.
Say What?!
Monthly improv shows take place at 5 p.m. on third Saturdays at Vorshay’s Cocktail Lounge, 417 E. Douglas Ave. in Wichita. Tickets are $15.
Led by Dan Gray, Say What?! is celebrating its 25th year as an improv troupe. It has moved between various venues over the years before settling into Vorshay’s Cocktail Lounge two years ago, where it hosts monthly shows.
The troupe also books private events, particularly during the holiday season, and they perform for teachers on in-service days.
A recent call for auditions expanded the troupe to 14 members, its largest group ever. The February 22 live show featured seven new members performing in their own segment. Nearly every table at Vorshays was filled for the show, with overflow seating in the balcony.
While Say What?! has always found venues to perform, Gray hopes to have their own space in the future for more control of where and how often they can perform.
He said it can be a challenge to keep a troupe together because of other things going on in their lives. “I tell my troupe I don’t expect this to be the most important thing in your life, but I do expect a certain amount of commitment.”
“My business partner Andrew Bennett and I have been doing this for 25 years. I always wonder at what point I’ll say I’m done. I don’t want to have spent almost half my life creating this to have it fall apart if I leave.
“As long as it’s still fun, that’s the main thing.”
The Flying Pig
Improv shows take place at 8 p.m. every Friday and Saturday, and tickets are $15. Drop-in improv classes are 7-9:30 p.m. Thursdays ($20) and 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturdays ($10). All events are held at Flying Pig Improv, 2320 E. Douglas Ave. in Wichita.
The Flying Pig has steadily attracted and trained over 600 people eager to perform improv since opening in 2019. The influence of Jessie Gray is evident among nearly all improv actors in Wichita who have taken lessons or performed at “The Pig.” Gray also teaches improv at Wichita State and is a popular speaker and workshop leader.
Jessie Gray of Flying Pig Improv prepares the audience attending the improv center's regular Saturday-night show on February 18. Photos by Jason Crile for the SHOUT.
Gray emphasizes that the Flying Pig is foremost a learning center. Drop-in classes at the Flying Pig offer newcomers a chance to come to their first class free.
Gray moved to California after college and settled in San Francisco, where she immersed herself in the thriving improv scene as a performer, director, and teacher. Returning to Wichita 30 years later, she made the bold choice to establish her own school. The improbability of succeeding (when pigs fly) inspired the center’s name.
Her determination has paid off. An estimated 7,000 people have attended performances at her theater at Douglas and Hillside in the first five years.
When her lease was up for renewal in 2024, she and her creative partner John Penny decided it was time for a “fresh start” in a new location.Their new, vintage-style building at 2320 E. Douglas Ave., felt perfect for transitioning the Flying Pig from its “metamorphosis stage to aeronautic inventiveness.” A complete rebranding and decor change included a new logo featuring a steampunk-style pig.
“For the people who invest their time and money here, whether it’s a class or a show, I want them to come back enough to invest not just their pocket but their heart and to be changed a little. I want the Flying Pig to make a difference.”
The current troupe has 16 members, and Gray plans more auditions to add a second troupe. She also would like to work toward more diversity in audiences and her troupe. “I want to see brown people bring their special spice. It will make us more faceted, more interesting.”
First Draft
Monthly improv shows take place at 7 p.m. on fourth Thursdays at Mosley Street Melodrama, 234 N Mosley St. in Wichita. Tickets are $18.77 with taxes and fees.
First Draft started its four-member troupe in June 2023 after members met at the Flying Pig. “We really connected and enjoyed playing together,” Todd Ramsey said.
The troupe had its first public performance in fall of 2023 at Margarita’s Cantina. They performed at Roxy’s Downtown for a few months before finding a home at Mosley Street Melodrama.
Audience numbers are growing, averaging about 60-70 but reaching 92 people at its January 30 show. They have their own regulars who attend as well as some Mosley Street regulars.
“We want to be innovative and come up with new ways to play,” Ramsey said.
For example, their January performance featured a printed “menu” at each table, giving audience members options to shout out prompts to guide the performance for each “course.”
First Draft is also available for company holiday parties. “We do poke a little fun, not at an individual as much as the idea of the organization.” They work with the corporate contacts to find out what’s off-limits and what the boundaries are.
In the future, the troupe hopes to offer “intro to improv” classes at CityArts, possibly as early as April.
Parking Lot Sushi
The next improv show will take place at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 29, at Harvester Arts at The Lux, 120 E. 1st St. N. in Wichita. $10 suggested donation.
Parking Lot Sushi is another new troupe whose members first became close friends through improv classes at the Flying Pig. The four-member troupe had its second public performance at Harvester Arts on January 25.
The troupe’s unusual name came from the night of July 9, 2024, when they were hanging out and started craving sushi. They went across the street to Dillons and bought some “not-so-good” sushi. They sat down in the parking lot to eat it and began to ponder “what do we do next?”
Kayla Vix said, “We schemed about the future together as a troupe and what we could build. Someone threw out why don’t we call ourselves Parking Lot Sushi? The name was funny, irreverent but cheap and accessible, all the things we wanted our flavor of improv to be.”
They make up all their routines or modify established pieces, like a “recipe passed down from generation to generation that is tweaked a little bit along the way.”
Parking Lot Sushi considers their friendship to be its niche. “We hope our camaraderie comes through and that the audience is invited to be in our friend group,” Vix said. “The Harvester Arts space fosters our ability to have the audience as our fifth member.”
They are encouraged that people paid attention to their promotions and came to their second show. “A rising tide raises all ships,” member Jack Kriwiel said. “The more people are talking about improv, the more people will go out looking for it.”
Correction: This story was updated on March 4, 2025, because two members of First Draft were misidentified in the original version. We regret the error.
Cecilia Green, a Wichita State journalism graduate, has been a freelance writer since she moved back to Wichita in 2021 after 30 years of public relations work in Chicago. A longtime arts promoter, she founded an arts council, an arts center and gallery, and created a global arts festival in Bartlett, Illinois. Her articles for the Wichita Beacon and Active Age have earned local and national awards, including Wichita Professional Communicators' 2024 Sweepstakes Award.
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