"A reputation for imagination, quick wit and irreverence."
-TimeOut New York

"I can't recommend this troupe enough."
- Washington Post's Going Out Gurus

Watch onesixtyone's promo!

Michael Bass started performing improv with James Madison University's Big Honkin' troupe, where he also worked in sketch comedy. Upon returning to DC after graduation in 2002, he joined the Screaming Puppets as an improviser and continued working with the Big Honkin'. After hearing about the company, he auditioned and was chosen to be a member of WIT's onesixtyone troupe. He is very happy and thankful. If you watch closely, you can catch Mike's performance in the critically-acclaimed Sinbad movie, "First Kid". He was an extra.

Topher Bellavia happily stumbled upon the love, truth and beauty that is improv at Wesleyan University and has been performing, directing and teaching improv for over a decade. He founded WIT’s Improv Training Program, expanding it from offering 2 to 40 classes per year. His college graduation speech was excerpted in the New York Times and on NBC Nightly News. Improv has saved his life—no joke. It can save yours too, just ask how.

Mark Chalfant With WIT since its 1997 refounding, Mark has served as the company’s artistic director since 2003, and as a lead instructor in the company’s training program since its inception. Mark’s improv training includes work with Bay Area Theatresports, Improv Olympic, Annoyance Theatre, Second City, Burn Manhattan, Centralia, Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, Brody Theatre, and HotHouse STC. Mark has also directed Jackie, WIT’s other longform ensemble.

Brian Coleman received his introduction to improv with GWU's comedy group, Recess. An eminently useful degree in Theatre led him to join the Marine Corps in 2000. In 2002 he had a platoon sergeant that coerced his Marines into buying his daughter's Girl Scout cookies; this led Brian back to comedy and the warm, sticky embrace of WIT. He is in equal parts a fan of hockey, beer, European history, fluffy puppies, fuzzy kittens, and violent video games. He and his wife Marjorie live in a condo owned by their two cats, Ripley and Hudson.

Catherine Deadman was spawned by the WIT training program. She's thrilled to be performing with 161. At the University of Virginia where she was an Anthropology and Spanish major, she had absolutely nothing to do with improv. Her Spanthropology degree has had absolutely nothing to do with anything she's done since. She's an alumni of the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory, and she's been called "one of the most impressive talents to hit Washington's stages in the last ten years" by her boyfriend.

David Johnson has been improvising to entertain others for about as far back as he remembers. While earning his MFA in Acting at  Ohio University, he was a member of both comic and dramatic improv groups. He performed with NimprovYC, an improv group in NYC, doing short form and long-form improv structures, of which his favorite was an improvised Shakespearean play. In addition to performing and teaching with WIT, he is a professional actor who performs on stage and in film.

Tyler Korba's humble improv beginnings began with Denison University's Burpee's Seedy Theatrical Company. Now a writer/producer with the Discovery Channel, Tyler has been teaching and performing with WIT all over the country since 1997. A member of the southern belle known as Biscuitville, he is also the director and cameraman for DC's Neutrino Video Project, and has directed WIT Films' six award-winning 48 Hour Film entries. Tyler has appeared in several plays, a few commercials and one television pilot. On Tap magazine recently called him "trim" and "affable".

Colin Murchie first came into improv in 1998 with Cornell University’s Whistling Shrimp. It’s about the only thing he’s stuck with this long, and it generally remains the high point of nearly every week, and the source of all his lasting friends– sad or spectacular? I see you’ve already decided. In his simultaneous, parallel, other lives, he’s a lobbyist on Capitol Hill, an EMT in Prince George’s County, and a tinker and inventor.

Natasha Rothwell began improvising in the placenta, but fine-tuned her skills at the University of Maryland where she was a part of the improv troupe, Erasable Inc and got her BA in Theatre Performance. She has put that piece of paper to good use: teaching with WIT's Training Program and with Arena Stage Community Engagement, directing cool people in Caveat, and writing brilliant things. She'd like to give a shout out to the Big Guy upstairs for putting up with her antics and for not, you know, smiting her.