The Committee

The Committee was a San Francisco-based improvisational comedy group founded by Alan Myerson and Jessica Myerson (formerly known as Irene Ryan and Irene Riordan, later known as Latifah Taormina). The Myersons were both alums of The Second City in Chicago. The Committee opened April 10, 1963 at 622 Broadway in a 300-seat Cabaret theater that used to be an indoor bocce ball court in San Francisco's North Beach. Garry Goodrow, Hamilton Camp, Larry Hankin, Kathryn Ish, Scott Beach and Ellsworth Milburn were the cast. Jerry Mander handled the group's PR, and Richard Stahl, who later joined the improv troupe, was its first company manager. Jessica Myerson joined the company in May. Arthur Cantor took the company to Broadway in New York in 1964 for a limited engagement at the Henry Miller Theater. This occasioned a second group to hold the fort in San Francisco. Morgan Upton, Peter Lane, Leigh French, Chris Ross, Howard Hesseman (who was then using the name Don Sturdy), Nancy Fish, Peter Bonerz and Carl Gottlieb became the mainstays of the San Francisco troupe. Roger Bowen, a founding member of both The Compass Players and The Second City, joined in 1966. John Brent, co-creator with Del Close of the How to Speak Hip album and a bit player in many movies (Catch-22, American Graffiti, More American Graffiti, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Steelyard Blues, Porklips Now), was also a member. When the Broadway troupe returned to San Francisco, they became the resident company of The Committee Theatre on Montgomery Street. This was a short-lived endeavor that saw three productions mounted there: A Fool's Play, by founding member Larry Hankin; MacBird!, by Barbara Garson; and America Hurrah, by Jean-Claude van Itallie. Joseph Chaikin of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club and van Itallie came to San Francisco to direct and oversee that production. The Montgomery Street theater also quietly hosted a new publication in its basement: Ramparts magazine edited by Robert Scheer (now of Truthdig). By this time, The Committee was a regular at civil rights and anti-war protests—along with Joan Baez, Norman Mailer, and others.