Brian Posen rented Theatre Building Chicago for the inaugural edition of this annual sketch comedy blowout back in January 2002—and for each one since. Now the inmates are running the asylum: Last May, a Posen-led group took over the three-theater TBC complex on Belmont, renaming it Stage 773.
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The 10th SketchFest, touted as the nation’s largest event of its kind, features 150 performances by 129 sketch troupes comprising more than 800 artists. Posen himself plays with two of those troupes: the Cupid Players, the Reader‘s 2008 pick for Best Sketch Group (Sat 1/8 and 1/15, 8 PM), and silent physical comedy trio Bri-Ko (Fri 1/7 and 1/14, 11 PM). On the first weekend only, pH Productions sends a contingent around the corner from its home digs on Sheffield (Sat 1/8, 7 PM), and the Best Church of God, another Reader pick—Best Sketch Show, 2010—offers one of its fundamentalist-skewering worship services (Sun 1/9, 1 PM).
