The Laurel of Asheville’s Community Events Calendar
If you would like to submit an event to appear in our online Community Events Calendar, please visit our submission page.
The Laurel of Asheville is a lifestyle magazine focused on the arts, culture, and communities of Western North Carolina, and submitted events should fall within this context.
All submissions are subject to editorial approval and edits for clarity and style before being published online. If you are going to include a photograph, please be certain that you have the rights to utilize that image. If there is a question about image rights, we may remove the image. Also, images should be no larger than 2000 pixels wide. Large images will prevent the event from being submitted.
Please allow up to 5 days for your event to be posted. If you encounter difficulties submitting an event, please email amy@thelaurelofasheville.com.
Hodgepodge Improv Weekend: Saturday, November 21 | 6:30pm Show
Let’s kick off this Hodgepodge Weekend with a bang, a musical bang! Local teams, Mixtape and Losing is OK will rock the stage, as only they know how to do. Closing the show will be our very special guests, the ladies of Hodgepodge, all the way from Chicago, Illinois!
Made up of veteran improvisors Sayjal Joshe, Shelby Burton, Liz Allen, and Dee Ryan, Hodgepodge is a lauded assembly of improv, acting, writing, and teaching talent, joyfully crash-landing in the 828!
Sayjal Joshi is an Indian-American actress, improviser, and teacher. She holds a BA in Theater from UNC Greensboro and has been performing and teaching theater, sketch & improv for the last 20 years. Credits include FOX’s Empire and Presumed Innocent, The Kennedy Center, The Goodman, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, The Second City e.t.c., The Second City National Touring Company, Norwegian Cruise Lines, The Annoyance, Laugh Out Loud Theater, The Improvised Shakespeare Company, and critically acclaimed Asian-American sketch ensemble.
Liz Allen has been teaching, performing, and coaching improv in Chicago and Las Vegas for the past 31 years. Liz won the Coach of The Year Award at the iO Chicago Theater so many times, they gave up and renamed it. It’s now, officially, The Liz Allen Excellence In Teaching Award. At the Flamingo Hotel & Casino in ‘05, Liz directed the first ever long form improv show for The Second City on The Vegas Strip. Liz coached The Commune, the improv ensemble in Mike Birbiglia’s 2016 film, Don’t Think Twice.
Dee Ryan is a an alumna of The Second City having written and performed three shows on their Second City ETC stage. She toured Nationally and internationally with The Second City Tour Co The Best of Second City and The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s The Complete Millennium Musical – ‘abridged’. Dee has written, performed and toured her one-woman shows Deeconstruction and Broadguess at such theaters as: The Reston Community Theater in Reston, VA, Flatwater Shakespeare in Lincoln, NE, Pittsburgh Public Theater in Pittsburgh, PA and The UCB Theater in Los Angeles, CA. Dee has taught improvisation for over twenty years at The Second City in Hollywood and Chicago.
Shelby Burton is the Artistic Director of Bughouse Theater and co-producer of “Forward In Comfortable Shoes,” a showcase highlighting diverse perspectives in comedy. She has performed at iO Theater, Laugh Out Loud Theater, Improv Acadia, and Comedy Sportz in Chapel Hill, bringing her unique blend of wit and spontaneity to each stage.