Marlon Brando at Brainerd
An evening titled “Marlon Brando at Brainerd” is being offered at the Improv Theatre as a fundraising event for the Brainerd Community Center. On Saturday, March 16th the Improv Players will present an evening honoring the Wild One's tenure in Libertyville with and evening of`improv and laughter. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at www.SaveBrainerd.org or through the Improv Playhouse at (847) 968-4529. Doors open at the Black Box Theater at 7pm with the show starting at 8pm. Drinks are BYOB. Light appetizers will be served during the social hour. The IP Black Box Theater is located at 735 N. Milwaukee Ave. in the Liberty Square Mall. Seating is limited.
Academy Award winning actor, Marlon Brando was a high school student at the Brainerd Building when his family lived in Libertyville in the last 1930s. He earned his reputation as a wild one long before his career in Hollywood began. Known as a prankster, there are many local stories about the antics of Brando as a young man. Whether truth or lore, rumors say that he rode his motorcycle through the halls of the Brainerd Building, threw spitballs in class, passed dirty notes in band, carved his name in the wall, and set fire to the theater curtains. Brando was expelled for smoking then was subsequently sent to military school in Minnesota. There he was eventually expelled for lighting a firecracker bomb outside his teacher's bedroom door. Brando aspired to being a star athlete, but had to spend his time in afternoon detention because he cut classes and pulled pranks so often that he rarely made it to the athletic practices for football and track. As an usher at the Liberty Theater he is reported to have hidden a wheel of Limburger cheese in the building as retribution for being fired. It was days before the cheese could be located and the smell relieved.
The Brainerd Community Center is working to restore and re-purpose the historic Brainerd Building into a center for the performing arts in Libertyville. Upon restoration, the stage that once boasted performances by Marlon Brando could be a home for improvisation, theater, musicals, dance, concerts, art exhibits, banquets and more. The local performance community has expressed a need for more readily available and affordable performance space. A series of videos created by McLaren Photographic have been posted on the BrainerdLibertyville YouTube channel exploring the history, condition, future, and sustainability of the building. Visit www.SaveBrainerd.org for more information.
The Improv Playhouse is a premier theater training center providing a home for live performances, team building events and improvisational training. You Never See the Same Improv Comedy Show twice at the Improv Playhouse Theater! The effervescent comedy teams of short form and sketch comedy improvisers bring their belly laughter to the IP Main Stage!