MAD LIBrarians
UPCOMING SHOWS
A free craft starts at the listed show time of every performance!
Saturday, January 17, 11:30am - Family Learning Center - 3164 34th St, Boulder, CO 80301
Sunday, February 1, 10:30am - The New Local Annex - 713 West Pearl St, Boulder, CO 80302
Saturday, February 14, 1:30pm - The Savoy - 2700 Arapahoe St, Denver, CO 80205
Sunday, March 1, 10:30am - Dairy Arts Center (Grace Gamm Theatre) - 2590 Walnut St, Boulder, CO 80302
Saturday, April 4, 1:30pm - The Savoy - 2700 Arapahoe St, Denver, CO 80205
Saturday, April 18, 1:30pm - Family Learning Center - 3164 34th St, Boulder, CO 80301
Sunday, May 3, 10:30am - Dairy Arts Center (Grace Gamm Theatre) - 2590 Walnut St, Boulder, CO 80302
Sunday, May 17, 10:30am - Dairy Arts Center (Grace Gamm Theatre) - 2590 Walnut St, Boulder, CO 80302
About the MAD LIBrarians
Watch top-notch improvisers light up the stage, while your kids’ faces light up!
At each one-of-a-kind show, kids in the audience make up new book titles and then the MAD LIBrarians hilariously off-the-cuff stories to go with the kids’ titles.
Capacity is 25-30. Ticket reservations are not needed, it is first come, first served.
MAD LIBrarians shows are FREE. If you’d like to donate to support the show and its artists, please do so here.
For Parents
Capacity is 25-30. Ticket reservations are not needed, it is first come, first served.
MAD LIBrarians shows are FREE. If you’d like to donate to support the show and its artists, please do so here.
Special Events
Birthday parties offered at our shows!
All you need to do is:
Email madlibrarians@betc.org with an estimate of how large your party will be
Invite your guests
Arrive early to lay out any birthday cake/snacks/goody bags for your partygoers (we’ll provide you a 6-foot table)
Sit back and watch:
the MAD LIBrarians show with the birthday kid, their friends, and any parents joining
the kids take part in a 30-minute improv/theatre workshop led by one of the actors
Meet the kiddos in the snack/party area for parent-provided snacks/cake, light the candles, and singing Happy Birthday
Send your guests home with their parents
A MAD LIBrarians birthday party costs $95 plus a suggested donation of $5/attendee for the show.
Tickets & Discounts
Support the MAD LIBrarians!
Because we want to welcome lots of kids and families, many of our MAD LIBrarians performances are Pay-What-You-Can.
Do you want to help make great theatre possible?
Put the spotlight on your business with advertising and corporate sponsorship opportunities, or else make a tax-deductible contribution.
CAST
Margarita Archilla first performed improv at her high school in Colorado Springs, in the group, “Theatrical Garbage.” She loved it so much, she thought she’d skip performing improv altogether in college, resuming her journey in 2005 with the now-veteran improv troupe, the RiP. With the RiP, Margarita has performed improv in festivals and shows in Denver, Boston, Omaha, Kansas City, San Francisco, Syracuse (Kansas), Wichita, and possibly a few more places. She is a member of Rise Comedy’s Rise Repertory Theater and Last Laugh Standing.
Aside from improv, Margarita has performed scripted works on stages throughout Colorado, including Star Bar Players, Theatre D’Art, and the Millibo Art Theater. She has also been on screens of various sizes in commercials, films, and sketch comedy. Margarita is also one of the co-hosts of the hit podcast How Have You Not Seen That?
Sheevani Desai is an actor, improviser, writer & podcaster who came to Colorado from Michigan about 6 years ago. In addition to her blog about imposter syndrome (Impressionista.me), Sheevani enjoys writing everything from comedy sketches to full-length television pilots. After studying improv and sketch comedy in Detroit, she decided to go all in with her lifelong dream of acting professionally which has afforded her roles in everything from feature films to national commercials.
In addition to all the acting and writing, Sheevani has joined the podcasting world with her show, Hot & Heavy: The Elaine Benes Podcast which explores the genius of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ portrayal of Elaine Benes on Seinfeld, one of her biggest comedic influences. Sheevani is also a mother of two stellar children with her husband, Paul who is her biggest fan.
Asa Erlendson and Improv officially met in 2007 at Pitzer College in the group Without A Box. Things got hot and heavy when he co-founded a group called ImpRAWv in which he had a transcendent experience in an experiment called The Beehive (watch “My Dinner With Andre” to get the reference). When he moved back home to Denver in 2011, Asa and Improv started going steady while at the Bovine Metropolis. First, as a student, and eventually as a coach and teacher. Things got really serious when he joined the group Governor Jack. With Governor Jack, Asa was able to meet, study with, and perform with amazing improvisers from cities and schools all around the country while absconding to festivals in Denver, and from New York City to Salt Lake City, but no further West than that… yet. Since they first met, Improv has introduced Asa to a variety of genres, styles, and forms. He can truly say he is a better person for knowing Improv. And even though he has messed around with sketch and has a growing friendship with stand-up, his heart will always belong to Improv, its community and all of its teachers and students.
Adrian Holguin has been improvising and teaching since the late 1900s. In addition to appearances at various stages around town, he was the assistant director for Impulse Theater for 14 years, and coached the Smoky Hill improv group, Spontaneous Combustion for over 23 years. He is grateful for every student, performer, and audience member who every shared a scene with him.
Brian Kusic has worked onstage in Colorado for the past 15 years and was born and raised in Denver. He is a founding creator of “Pants on Fire: An improvised Childrens’ Musical” and a longtime member of “Boomtown” at Creede Repertory Theatre in Creede Colorado. Currently, Brian works as an Educator/Performer at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. He is overjoyed to be returning to BETC for this new adventure into children’s theatre.
Archer Rosenkrantz (They/Him) is excited to be performing with MAD LIBrarians!
Credits: Avery in Holly, Alaska! (BETC); Joe Crowell/Wally Webb in Our Town (The Arvada Center); Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Colorado’s Elusive Ingredient); Prince Humperdinck in The Princess Bride, and Wadsworth in Clue (The Anticipations); Norm in Norm’s Newsstand (Meow Wolf); Ghost Tours (THEATREdART). Jurassic World the Exhibition (Universal NBC); Dinner Detective (The Dinner Detective)
@archiebeshort
Jean Schuman has been acting, storytelling, and doing improv in and around Denver for 20 years. She is currently improvising with the Dishwater Blondes in their show, SCRIPTprov, making up radio broadcasts with the King Penny Radio Show, and entertaining the kiddos (and their adults) with MAD LIBrarians.
Mitchell Slevc has co-written, produced, and performed over 200 shows for young audiences with Buntport Theater (tRUNks, Duck Duck Dupe, Siren Song), and the Denver Art Museum (Foxy & Shmoxy: art detectives, Art Emergency). These days he can be found making sound effects for the King Penny Radio Show and pretending to be an astronaut at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
Nanna Thompson has been performing and teaching improvisational theater for over twenty years. She has performed on stages all over the world and has participated in numerous improv festivals throughout the country, including the Chicago Improv Festival and the Del Close Marathon. She draws much of her improv training from the iO Chicago improv theater.
Here in Colorado, Nanna has been a member of various improv groups, including Cult Following, Comedy Sportz, the SanScript Players, and the award-winning Dishwater Blondes. Nanna also played a primary role in the immersive theater experience Travelers of the Lost Dimension. She has been a teaching artist with the DCPA for the past five years, educating students of all ages in the art of improvisational theater.
