Since 2009, the Sea Tea Improv comedy troupe has entertained Hartford audiences with shows at City Steam Brewery, HartBeat Ensemble’s Carriage House Theater, Billings Forge, Real Art Ways and other venues around the city.
All this hopscotching around the city has been great for increasing Sea Tea’s visibility and for luring audiences to all those venues. But Sea Tea wants a theater of its own now and is asking the public to help achieve that goal.
A Kickstarter campaign with a goal of $35,000 has been started and will run until May 26. As of April 2, $16,293 had been raised.
Julia Pistell, a founding member of the troupe, said a spot has been picked out in downtown Hartford. The 3,000-square-foot location has been vacant for 15 years. Negotiations for the space should be finalized soon.
“The Kickstarter isn’t asking people to pay our rent. It’s about asking to get a Hartford space usable,” Pistell said. “The landlord is offering us great lease terms and rent if we do most of the fixing up.”
The total cost of the project is around $100,000. Sea Tea has saved up about $35,000. The Kickstarter will match that. An additional $35,000, approximately, will be sought in other types of fundraising, including private donations and possibly public grants.
The most basic renovations include installing new sprinklers, heating, lights and plumbing, building a stage and bar, installing seating for 90 to 99 people and painting the walls. “Stretch goals” include a green room, a better bar, lighting and sound system, paid jobs running the theater, expansion of the improv’s teen program and a video studio.
“Hartford has such a great theatrical community, but it doesn’t have a small cool space for comedy that’s affordable,” she said. “There are so many empty spaces in Hartford. We are dedicated to filling one.”
Greg Ludovici, another of the founding members and Pistell’s husband, said that Sea Tea is not giving up its 900-square-foot headquarters on the fifth floor of 75 Pratt St. in Hartford, which is used every day for classes, rehearsals, drop-in events, mixers and administrative work. But it cannot be used as a performance space.
“”We’re up to code for teaching and office space, but not performing. Once something is a theater, there are all sorts of additional fire code requirements,” Ludovici said. “Here, we can’t charge general admission. We can’t have ticketed events.”
Casey Grambo, another member, said ideally the new theater would open in the fall. She said the timing is right for a downtown SeaTea theater, with both UConn and Trinity College opening downtown Hartford campuses soon.
Ludovici added that the troupe hasn’t necessarily outgrown the venues it has been using, but it has outgrown the availability of those venues. They usually perform about once a month at their regular spaces.
“How much could we flourish if we were running our own show? We could branch out, do sketch comedy, comedic musicals,” Pistell said. “This allows us more room for experimentation.”
And Sea Tea would offer other comedy groups the opportunity to use the space, she said.
Sea Tea Improv was founded, appropriately, on April Fool’s Day 2009. Its seven original members met at an improv class at Hartford Stage. The current active roster is 12 to 14 performers.
Sea Tea Improv’s next show is on Friday, April 17, at 8 p.m. at Studio at Billings Forge, 563 Broad St., Hartford. Admission is $10.
The Kickstarter page can be found by a link on seateaimprov.com or kickstarter.com.
