Unexpected Company
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Unexpected Company is an improvisational comedy group founded in Hollywood, CA in 1986 by Dr. Tim Hillman, formerly a director and teacher at the LA Connection in Sherman Oaks, Califonia were he trained under Kent Skov. Since February 2003, the company has performed weekly at the Warwick Museum of Art in Warwick, Rhode Island.
The original cast of Unexpected Company included Emmy winners Lisa Kudrow and Conan O'Brien as well as experienced voice actors April Winchell and Paul Rugg from The Groundlings and LA Connection. Unexpected Company was founded on Hillman's desire to explore improvisation outside the boundaries of short-form. The Church of Scientology's basement Celebrity Center Theatre hosted the group, originally known as "The Fun Onions"- a name discarded after one performance. Lisa Kudrow coined the actual name of the company after inspired by a scene that involved company arriving unexpectedly for dinner. After a six month run, the members of the company disbanded, while Hillman kept rights to the name over the years.
In Los Angeles, the company gave occasional performances in a variety of venues that included the Natural Fudge Company. Cast members included performers who went on to professional success, including Matthew Perry and Jody Lambert. In the 1990's, Unexpected Company was based in Sewanee, Tennessee, where it performed at St. Andrew's-Sewanee School and the University of the South and functioned as a largely educational entity. In that era, over thirty different performers worked with the group, with alumni Joe Petrilla, John Stewar, and Michael Barker going on to successful careers with the Titanic Players (Northwestern University) and ImprovOlympic in Chicago and Los Angeles.
When Hillman moved to Rhode Island in 2001, a chance meeting with Justin Lang led to the reformation of the group there. The original goal of the company in Rhode Island was to continue Unexpected Company's exploration of long form improvisation, particularly exploring the improvisation theories espoused by Charna Halpern and Del Close.
The Rhode Island version of Unexpected Company brought together founding cast members Justin "JJ" Lang, Greg DeSantis, Andrew Mendillo, Nick Mendillo, Brian Perry. Within a short time, that founding group was joined by Eric Harrington, Jordan Eastwood, Victoria Gillette, Marialana Abbene, Matthew Archambault, Frank Fusaro, and Tom Reedy. The group struggled with "The Harold" and Hillman chose to abandon work toward that end. The company discovered their own signature performance piece, "The Morris," during a rehearsal sequence. The performance piece is long form based on personal monologues followed by scene development- an expansion of one particular element of the "Harold" format.
Within months, Unexpected Company became the most acclaimed improvisation group in Rhode Island and the center of improvisational development in the state. The group grew rapidly, performing at the now defunct Castle Theatre in Providence and the Firehouse Theatre in Newport. Unexpected Company currently performs each Sunday night at the Warwick Museum of Art in Warwick, RI where their performance time of 7:17 has become part of the common lingo in Rhode Island.
After nine months, the rapid growth of company and fiscal conflicts led Hillman to suddenly abandon the group, releasing the rights to both the name "Unexpected Company" and "The Morris." In the wake of Hillman's unexpected departure, the company's fortunes increased, due particularly to the influx of new cast members Tom Gleadow and Tim Thibedault, the group's current Artistic Director. The group has traveled numerous national and international improvisational comedy festivals, notably performing at Edinburgh's Fringe Festival in the summer of 2005.
