Groundlings, Los Angeles

Do you want to take in a light-hearted show while you are in Los Angeles? If so, then book your seats now at the Groundlings – you won’t be disappointed! The shows are all well-acted and very funny. Book early because the theatre is so popular the tickets sell like hot cakes!

The Groundlings is a theatre company and school founded in 1972 by Gary Austin. Housed in a theatre on Melrose Place, the troupe produces improvised scenes and sketches. The school is open to over 2000 students a year with a teaching programme on four levels: Basic, Intermediate, Writing and Advanced. A lot of the former students have gone on to success in television shows, soap-operas and films.

The name – the Groundlings – comes from the lower-class audience of Shakespeare’s plays, who couldn’t afford to pay for seats, so they sat on the ground in front of the stage. The theatre opened in 1979 in a building that had once been a decorator’s studio and then a massage parlour.

Before the theatre opened the troupe put on performances in theatres all over the town. The troupe started out as fifty original members, performing artists who set up a workshop with Gary Austin. They wrote sketches and improvised skits based on what they had read in magazines and newspapers. After a year or so, they began putting on performances for friends to see; word got out about the hilarious shows and highly talented actors, and the rest, as they like to say here in L.A., is history!