Pretend Soup

Pretend Soup is a collective of theatre, improv and sketch comedy performers from Chicago. Garnering training and performance at iO, (formerly Improv Olympic), Annoyance Theatre, The Second City Training Centers in Chicago and Los Angeles, Columbia College, The Upright Citizens Brigade, and The Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival.

Pretend Soup will premiere an original sketch comedy show along with long-form and short-form improvisational sets with audience participation each night. They will also offer a family-friendly improvised children's theatre performance on Saturday morning and an introductory class on improvisational theatre for folks interested in comedy theatre and thinking on their feet.

Cast Bios

Cate Freedman, Chicago native, is hugely honored to be performing in Michigan with Pretend Soup! A few of her favorite things include eating great food, good company, having a laugh, dogs and cats. Cate began studying and performing improv in 2002 at Second City. Since then, she has done a lot of different things at various theaters and festivals across the country, most recently at Improv Acadia in Bar Harbor, Maine, UCB in NYC and the Philadelphia Improv Theater. Currently Cate can be seen with her team Fat Kid and the super fun remount of Dinner For Six at iO Chicago (formerly Improv Olympic). When not performing in the preceding shows, she's lucky enough to be seen with The Katydids, Fran McKearn in Omelet and with Kimber Hall in Honeydew. She would like to thank her beyond incredible friends (especially Kimber, Brandon and Adam), Anthony LeBlanc, Patrick Stonelake and Hindenburg, Mark Sutton, and most importantly the biggest blessings in her life; Mom, Dad, Mimi and Harry.

Kimber Hall Kimber Hall is delighted to be playing with her friends in Pretend Soup. She hails from St. Louis Missouri, and performs regularly in Chicago at iO (formerly Improv Olympics), at Annoyance Theatre, and has appeared in numerous stage productions, films and commercials. She's soon bound for Bar Harbor Maine to perform in their prestigious Improv Arcadia.

Adam Schwartz spent his first eighteen years in Massachusetts before attending Grinnell College in Iowa. Adam spent a year working on a PhD in philosophy but finally turned his back on Academe to seek a career in the funny business in Chicago. There Adam performs at the iO and Annoyance Theaters in both improvised shows and filthy musicals. He also started his own run of art gallery improv shows called Sell the Boat.

Brandon "Bubba" Ogborn is a native of Muskegon, Michigan. Upon graduating Fruitport High School, he moved from Kalamazoo to Santa Barbara, California, for film and theatre studies, eventually finding a niche at Second City Los Angeles. In 2007, Brandon, his wife, and stepdaughter moved to Chicago because they hate nice weather when it comes with the threat of fire and earthquakes. In addition to stagework, Brandon has written and directed numerous short films that have shown internationally, was host and head-writer for Bizarre News on EVTV1, and is developing several feature film projects. His ashes will be split between his wonderful, loving parents and the left-leaning Dykema-Hendrick family in Bluffton, respectively.