COURTESY ARCADE COMEDY THEATER

Abby Fudor loves to tell the story of Arcade Comedy Theater’s opening 10 years ago. The first weekend had appearances by Pittsburgh Dad and magician Lee Terbosic, and every show was sold out.

The next weekend, “there were four people in the audience and two of them were my parents,” recalls Fudor, the theater’s co-founder and current director of artistic programs. “It was like, the last balloon fell, the last piece of confetti fell, and it was like a reality check after a very successful grand opening.”

That grand opening, though, “did give us this vision of what could be,” she says. And what could be is a successful comedy theater in the heart of the Cultural District that offers a full calendar of shows as well as classes for novices and seasoned performers. 

PHOTO BY SEAN WADE

This week, it will celebrate its 10th anniversary from Thursday to Sunday with eight celebration shows. More than two dozen local performers and established comedy troupes will perform at 943 Liberty Ave., the theater’s current home. There will also be a special late-night fundraiser for the nonprofit at 811 Liberty Ave., Arcade’s original space that is now home to Liberty Magic.

The anniversary weekend will offer a mix of just about every type of show found at the theater, including performances by all of the theater’s house team improvisers, sketch comedy from Moop Troop, drag from Chi Chi DeVivre, stand-up comedians, the popular live game show “You’re the Next Contestant,” an all-ages musical variety show from the smallest show in town, a performance from Terbosic and a free pop-in improv class.

“A lot of our mission of having variety is going to be alive that weekend,” Fudor says. 

PHOTO BY MIKE RUBINO

Fudor, who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a theater degree, jokes that when Arcade’s founders went to the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust in 2013 they asked if there was a broom closet somewhere they could have to open a comedy venue — something that was lacking Downtown.

“I’m always talking about and passionate about the fact that comedy is so critically important in the milieu of artistic offerings,” she says. “I think Arcade Comedy Theater, what we strive to be, is a place that showcases that.”

“It felt like right time, right place,” she adds of their beginning. “We were flooded with students and performers, a lot of people we knew already from doing improv.”

PHOTO BY MIKE RUBINO

Fudor had been doing improv about eight years in the city at that point and her now-husband, Mike Rubino, director of marketing at Arcade, had been doing improv in the region for about 15 years. Fudor, who also has a master’s degree in nonprofit arts management from Carnegie Mellon University, says opening Arcade was like a dream come true.

“I just feel a lot of gratitude to the people I’ve done it with,” she says. “I think we are such an example of: We are still here because of nurturing and having such a talented, big community,” especially given the challenges brought about by the pandemic.

“All of these artists and technicians that work at Arcade, it elevates comedy, and I think that is where we fit into the big picture.”