Theatre--Improvisation

The Stage Monkeys of Lafayette have grown from a college troupe performing in the UL student union, to presenting their quirky brand of Improv Theatre to near sell-out crowds at their monthly shows at Theatre 810.

The next show is:

The Stage Monkeys of Lafayette
Tuesday, July 31st
7:30 pm
Theatre 810 - 810 Jefferson St, Lafayette, 70501
$7 admission, $5 with student I.D.
For reservations call or text Theatre 810 at (337)484-0172 or email actingunlimitedinc@gmail.com

The Stage Monkey's journey began in 1998, when three broke college students had the idea to provide free entertainment for broke students like themselves. The student troupe of "Cult of the Stage Monkey" has been running consecutively at UL ever since (this fall will mark the impressive 15th season!)

In the intervening years, the Monkey brand of improv spread across the nation, as former members went on to establish monkey troupes in such locales as Chicago, San Diego, Washington D.C., Carbondale (IL), and Hattiesburg (MS). More information on the Monkey's founding and expansion is available on their website:

As the troupe at UL continues to flourish, the time has finally arrived for the Lafayette based Monkey alumni to form their own professional troupe - The Stage Monkeys of Lafayette. The group performs every month at Theatre 810, having just passed their third installment to a near sell out crowd of enthusiastic patrons.

Improvisation is a performance phenomenon that took off in the 1950's at Chicago's Second City, and has grown ever since. Most people recognize improvisation from the television show "Whose Line Is it Anyway?" In improvisation, the performers take suggestions from the audience, and improvise - that is to say, completely make up from scratch - scenes and scenarios based on those suggestions. The Stage Monkeys also feature a keyboardist playing live improvised music to accompany the scenes. The style of the Stage Monkeys is often intellectually stimulating while providing belly laughs at the same time.

The Stage Monkeys are comprised of some of the best and brightest improvisers to come out of UL Lafayette. The members have had extensive experience, averaging ten years of improvisation apiece. The current cast of The Stage Monkeys of Lafayette are:

Elaine Kibodeaux, Steve Benelli, Nico Zaunbrecher, Jude Duhon, Sarah Mikayla Brown, Rick Manuel, Jason Petitjean, Andrew Lee, and Candice Benelli.

Two members of the cast have recently moved back to the Acadiana region after long tenures studying improvisation and theatre out of state. Sarah Mikayla Brown is a recent transplant from Chicago, where she studied improvisation and worked as an actor, and Nico Zaunbrecher hails from Southern Illinois University, where he is completing a doctorate researching improvisation.

Steve Benelli is a native of New Orleans but has been living in Lafayette since 1998 when he became a founding member of UL-Lafayette based improv troupe, Cult of the Stage Monkey. He has been doing improv ever since, also appearing in a few other theatrical productions over that span. Steve is not a real pirate, but he plays one on the weekends as a member of a pirate band, The Whiskey Bay Rovers.

Elaine Kibodeaux began improvising by surprise in 2001, after failing a theater audition.  She was a regular cast member of Cult of the Stage Monkey from 2001 until 2008 and began teaching "Fundamentals of Improv" workshops in 2010. When she's not monkeying around, she might be found belly dancing with Habibi Hips of Oasis Dance Studio. 

Jason Petitjean has been performing on stage since 2005 and took to improv theatre with the Cult of the Stage Monkey student troupe in 2006. Since then he has performed in Mississippi, Illinois, Washington DC in addition to Lafayette. He was director of the student troupe in 2009-2010

Rick Manuel has been performing with the Stage Monkeys since 2007. Initially a member of the technical crew, he cobbled his social anxiety together well enough to stand in front of people and participate as a performing cast member. Since then he's had the opportunity to learn and experience Improv all around the country as part of an ensemble. He currently serves as Director to the student troupe "COSM: Lafayette," at ULL, where he is pursuing a degree in Secondary Education.

Sarah Mikayla Brown recently moved back to her hometown of Lafayette after living in Chicago for nearly a decade. She is a graduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (where she was a member of Cult of the Monkey). She also studied improv theatre at the Annoyance Theatre in Chicago. While in Chicago, Ms. Brown founded an avant garde performance festival, the Chicago Fringe Festival (plug time! chicagofringe.org). She also worked as Managing Director of the wildly experimental Tantalus Theatre Group, and was a member of the Stage Monkeys Chicago troupe.

Nico Zaunbrecher has been involved in improvisational theatre since 1999, and worked with Cult of the Stage Monkey--Lafayette until 2004. He also founded, directed, and performed in fellow ensemble COSM--Carbondale from 2007-2010, is completing a doctorate doing research in improvisation with Southern Illinois University, and has published scholarship on improv in the quarterly journals Theatre Topics and Human Studies. 

Andrew Lee has been studying music since 1988, the same year he moved to Lafayette.  Under the tutelage of a myriad of teachers from a very young age through his college years, he has honed his craft, and performed instrumentally in the ASYO, several musical

pit orchestras, and numerous choral productions, as well as produced music for ULSVGA's video games. His activities with the Stage Monkeys began in 2003, when hejoined the student troupe, and has been contributing music on and off for a little under a decade. He continues to produce music under the moniker alittlepeace along with his improv activities with the Stage Monkeys.

Jude Duhon has been used to the stage since he was in middle school and a stage monkey since 2008. He grew up in Lafayette and is attending ULL where he is majoring in visual arts.