New improv troupe ready to go off script in Sun City

Who says all the fun entertainment is on the Strip? In Sun City Summerlin, the newly formed improv group A. Jesters Court has plans to put on shows at various venues.

The troupe held a press conference May 18 at the Desert Vista Community Center, 10360 Sun City Blvd., announcing a partnership with the Jester & Pharley Phund, a nonprofit dedicated to helping children with cancer and other serious illnesses. It was started through inspiration from David Saltzman’s award-winning book, “The Jester Has Lost His Jingle.”

Saltzman wrote and illustrated the book as his senior project at Yale University before his death from Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1990. His desire was to give the book, with its upbeat and hopeful message, to children facing serious illnesses.

As for the name of the improv group, founder/director/producer Temma Keatan Hammond said the period is an intentional addition.

“Yes, there is a period, and it’s there because A. Jesters Court is a name, like T. Natalie Keatan,” Keatan Hammond said. “I like that folks will question what it means. Silly me.”

Finding a location has proved a challenge. Group member Kim Tuel, president of the Sun City Community Theatre Club, which performs at the Starbright Theatre, said she’d love to get the improv group in there, but the theater is fully booked.

“Maybe next year,” she said.

The group’s senior creative consultant, Sheldon Altfeld, is a 12-time Emmy Award nominee and four-time winner. Altfeld has been an actor, writer, producer and director since 1950.

“There’s a plethora of talent all throughout Summerlin who have retired but are anxious to get back in the swing of things,” he said. “This provides the perfect opportunity to learn something new — improv, and entertain the neighborhoods. … It’s in the process of growing even before we’ve begun.”

The shows are set to include music and singing, so it’s “not just people getting up to do improv,” Keatan Hammond said.

Keatan Hammond grew up in a theater family and has 45 years of experience in producing, writing, coaching and acting for live theater, films and television. She built production studios and a sound stage in a 50,000-square-foot space on West Tropicana Avenue called Silver Mirage, which had clients such as Martin Scorsese, George Clooney, B.B. King, Samuel L. Jackson, Jackie Chan and Whoopi Goldberg. She’s also taught acting workshops at UNLV.

“The goal is to have an actual comedy club and cabaret,” Keatan Hammond said, adding that it would be in Summerlin.

The troupe had been meeting for eight weeks before the press event. Keatan Hammond said she was excited to work with people who were passionate about acting.

“When I first started this, I thought I’d get six and be really excited. But 20 showed up, and I thought, ‘Whoa.’ They’ve been in theater all their entertainment life, and to come into improv, it’s a little different genre. And to be free of memorizing scripts, they’re just going crazy.”

Group member Mary Lee said she has wanted to perform since high school. In Sun City, she’s a member of the tap dancing group.

“I come alive when I get on stage,” she said.

Member Adrianne Gentile said she wanted to join as soon as she heard of the group.

“It’s a little scary, but I’m at an age where nothing scares me, and if you flub up, then you make people laugh anyway,” Gentile said. “Temma is wonderful. She gives us exercises. At one of our (sessions), she asked an off-the-wall question: ‘I heard that drinking this substance helps your hair. Have you heard about it?’, and one of the women said, ‘Yes. It’s urine.’ So, it’s whatever comes out of your mouth.”

Marsha Posner Williams, who was an executive producer for “The Golden Girls,” “Night Court” and “Soap,” is part of the group’s leadership. She said one of the hardest things to do in performance art is to make people laugh.

“But they’re very good at it,” she said. “I can’t wait to see what happens with the comedy club.”

“There is no such thing as ‘over the top’ when it’s improv,” Altfeld said. “You have to abandon all your fears and inhibitions and go out there and entertain.”

Shows are scheduled to start in late June or early July. For more information, visit jesterslasvegas.com.

To reach Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan, email jhogan@viewnews.com or call 702-387-2949.