Teachers Lounge Mafia Improv Comedy at 49 Franklin

RUMFORD -- One week into the new year, trouble will already be landing on the doorstep of the

Androscoggin Valley -- or at least 49 Franklin St.

This Friday, western Maine’s Teachers Lounge Mafia return to Rumford with a night of custom-built comedy at 49 Franklin Reception Hall.

Teachers Lounge Mafia perform a combination of crowd-suggested improv and all-original sketch

comedy. Audience members provide the ideas and the actors play out the absurd and ridiculous situations that follow.

In addition to the sorts of games made popular on TV shows such as “Whose Line Is It,

Anyway?” Teachers Lounge Mafia offers up its own, including the Facebook-inspired “Clickable” and the awkward-eavesdropping-in-the-restaurant-inspired “Three Course Meal.”

The western Maine troupe includes local comic actors Jeff Bailey, Natalie Bean, Alex Kreitzman, Gavin Pickering, Emily Pottle, Dan Ryder, and Kyla Wheeler, several of whom have appeared onstage as members of area comic groups Lawn Chair Pirates and Curtain Raisers.

Taking inspiration from Saturday Night Live, Upright Citizens Brigade, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, The State, the writings of R.L. Stine, D.H. Laurence and other authors with initials for names, Teachers Lounge Mafia hope to bring something different to the foothills – and still be allowed to live here.

There will be food and drink to order off a special limited menu provided by Grapevine Catering.

Advanced admission is only $8, with tickets $10 on the day of the show. Go to http://www.49franklin.com/ or call 369-0129 for tickets.

For more about Teachers Lounge Mafia, you can find them online at

www.teachersloungemafia.blogspot.com or e-mail teachersloungemafiaimprov@gmail.com.