Free Associates
The Free Associates were a Chicago long-form improv company active from the early 1990s, operating both as a performing ensemble and as an improv school. The group produced long-form shows and improvised cabaret formats, and faculty included Nancy Howland Walker, who later co-founded Chicago Improv Associates, a corporate entertainment and training company that continued a similar mission.
History
The Free Associates operated in Chicago from the early 1990s as both a performing company and a training school. Documented productions include Cast on a Hot Tin Roof, As We Like It, Pick-a-Dick, BS, Divamatic (an improvised cabaret musical), and The Greatest Story Never Told. In 2001, Nancy Howland Walker and Marshall Stern co-founded Chicago Improv Associates, a corporate entertainment and training company that carried forward comparable programming. Primary documentation of the Free Associates' institutional history has not survived in indexed public sources.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Free Associates. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/companies/free-associates
The Improv Archive. "Free Associates." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/companies/free-associates.
The Improv Archive. "Free Associates." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/companies/free-associates. Accessed March 17, 2026.
The Improv Archive is a systemically maintained repository. The archive itself acts as the corporate author.