The Frank Mills

The Frank Mills
Years Active	2005-Present
Cast	Bob McNichol Dave Buckman Erika May McNichol Michael Jastroch Rachel Madorsky

The Frank Mills is an improv troupe of working actors who perform grounded, character-driven longform.

History

Prior to forming the troupe, the members trained, directed and performed extensively at The Second City in Chicago and Cleveland, The Annoyance Theater and Improv Olympic Theater in Chicago, Boom!Chicago in Amsterdam and ComedySportz in Austin and Chicago.

They have been consistently recognized by their peers, winning "Best Improv Troupe" by the Austin Improv Collective in 2006 and 2008, and by the Austin artistic community at large; receiving the first B. Iden Payne Award for "Outstanding Improvisation Ensemble" in 2005-06.

In addition, The Frank Mills were selected as "Best of the Fest" by Hyde Park Theater's FronteraFest 2007.

All five current members were founding faculty at ColdTowne Theater.

Former Members

• Todd Schanbacher (2009-2013)

Shows

Improv Shows

Inspired by TJ and Dave & Dasariski, the troupe began performing the monoscene in 2005, which produced notable shows such as "Passover" "Spring Cleaning", (their first Fronera Fest show) and "Snuff Film", (their 3rd Show as The Frank Mills), all of which became full cast sketches for their sketch shows of 2007

In 2009 They opened for TJ & Dave during SXSW and performed Computational Linguistics and "Rumspringa which weaved Pop Outs into their Monoscene format.

They have also performed the Harold, Close Quarters, and the Armando.

They currently alternate between MonoPop, a Gameless Harold and following Rabbit Holes.

Sketch Shows

• Classy Ass Show Feb 2007, The Hideout

• Winning Dirty May 2007, The Blue Theater

Residency

On 4/3/2010 The Frank Mills began their Saturday night residency at ColdTowne Theater and have performed weekly ever since. They currently perform every Saturday at 10pm at Coldtowne Theater, opening for Midnight Society.

Some of their out of town guests have included:

Ike Barinholtz, The Mindy Project

Mike Garcia, iO West's Triggerfinger

Zach Ward, DSI Theater

Rich Talarico, Key & Peele

Craig Cackowski, Drunk History

Colton Dunn, Key & Peele

Kevin Mullaney, Under the Gun Theater, Improv Resource Center

Brittain Spellings, Anchorman

Ed Illades

and Austin Improvisers: Arthur Simone, Justin York, Teresa Kubos, Eric Rutherford, Jeremy Sweetlamb, Chrissy Shackelford, Bridget Brewer, Katie Sicking, Michael Joplin, Adam Trabka, Sam Van Metre and many of their students

Media

Videos

• Video by Brian Boyko of their 4/7/12 show.

Photos

• Photoset by Peter Rogers that includes their 11/15/09 performance.
• Photoset by Roy Moore that includes their 11/19/11 performance at WaffleFest.
• Photoset by Steve Rogers that includes their 6/16/12 "Goodbye Justin and Teresa" show at ColdTowne Theater.
• Photoset by Michael Yew which includes their 12/27/12 performance with Squirrel Buddies in The Threefer.
• Photoset by Steve Rogers of their 1/5/13 performance at ColdTowne Theater.
• Photoset by Claudio Fox that includes their performance in WaffleFest 2013.
• Photoset by Steve Rogers of their June 2014 performance in The 45-Hour Improv Marathon.
• Photoset by Heidi Rogers of their 8/29/14 performance in The 2014 Out of Bounds Comedy Festival.
• Photoset by Steve Rogers that includes their 11/21/14 performance in WaffleFest 2014.
• Photoset by Michael Yew that includes their 6/20/15 show in The 46-Hour Improv Marathon.

More Information

• The troupe's website.
• The troupe's facebook page.
• The troupe's blog from their writing process of their sketch show Winning Dirty.