It all started with a Halloween show. Mick Napier and a few of his friends dreamt up a cheekily winking sendup of the slasher genre in 1987, and by the time the lights dimmed on the blood- and pudding-splattered stage, they had received a standing ovation. Inspired by the production's success, the group decided to establish an ensemble that embraced the uncensored and subversive—and The Annoyance Theatre was born.

The company has staged more than 100 original plays and musicals since its founding, including The Real Live Brady Bunch, the long-running Coed Prison Sluts, and an annual re-mount of that first fortuitous show, now appropriately known as Splatter Theater. The Annoyance celebrates the impromptu art of improvisation as well, hosting frequent long-form sets that highlight audience interaction and completely blank scripts. This anything-goes approach to material both rehearsed and off-the-cuff has won the theater plenty of fans: the company trains aspiring comedians in both Chicago and New York, and recently opened a sparkling new venue thanks to community donations.