• Tara DeFrancisco and Rance Rizzutto, a comedy duo, opened The Nest Theatre in Columbus.
• The Nest Theatre offers improv, sketch comedy, stand-up and storytelling classes and performances.
• The theater emphasizes kindness and human connection within the comedy community.

When their improvisational comedy show, “HERE: The (Improvised) Musical,” took off in 2014, Tara DeFrancisco and Rance Rizzutto started touring and performing all over the world.

Each had moved to Chicago to pursue performing arts, and it was there they met, fell in love and got married.

Despite and because of their explosive success, the comedy duo had a dream of moving to central Ohio, where DeFrancisco is from, to open a theater and create a community for comedy in Columbus.

It was at an annual improv camp that the two were approached with the opportunity to bring their dream to life.

“Some of the local improvisers from Columbus came to us and said, ‘Would you ever think about starting a brick-and-mortar for us? We don’t have one,’” DeFrancisco explained.

“We were like, ‘Gosh, we love Chicago, but I think we could do this. We like the idea.’ It was time.”

Equipped with a passion for making spaces accessible and building connections between people and different kinds of comedy, including stand-up and improv, DeFrancisco and Rizzutto created a community for comics in the heart of central Ohio.

“It felt like they were all really hungry for a place to gather all together,” DeFrancisco said.

“We wanted to open a place where everyone intersects and takes care of each other and has fun.”

They named it The Nest Theatre.

The not-for-profit theater now operates three stages and has a training center for improv, sketch comedy, stand-up, storytelling and more.

DeFrancisco said what sets the theater apart, beyond being a unique presence in central Ohio, is the commitment to human connection and respect in an industry that isn’t known for kindness.

“We have a code of ethics and a code of conduct at our space, and we’re one of the first spaces worldwide that had that as a comedy institution. I think that’s really shaped a lot of the kindness and joy in our doors: People are really, really funny and not at the expense of one another,” she said.

“It’s very welcoming, very warm. Still, there’s that like fun, comedic edge, but never at the cost of human connection, which is really rare.”

A comedy community with kindness

Melissa Anne-Marie Curley is an associate professor in the department of comparative studies at the Ohio State University.

When she moved to central Ohio in 2015 to start working at OSU, she said while both her job and Columbus felt exciting, it felt like a struggle to find community.

After attending a show at The Nest in January 2020 to support a colleague, she knew she wanted to get involved herself.

“I thought, ‘I think this is for me, too. I want to try something like this.’ It felt intimidating, but I wanted to try it. And then it was March 2020, and I didn’t try anything for a year,” Curley said.

When she finally got involved a year later, she found what she was looking for, “and a hundred times more.”

“I really just felt alive in a new way. I felt like a kid again,” Curley said.

“I do think that after the pandemic, people really became very acutely aware of how it feels to be by yourself, to be all alone and to be isolated, and so I think people have a hunger for the opposite of that. The Nest is a place where people are finding a real, playful, creative community.”

Rizzutto said a core desire is the community and empathy cultivated by the troupe spills into the audience and continues to grow connection both on and off the stage.

“I hope the impact on the community is (the) accessibility to arts and appreciation for the grander possibilities rather than just, ‘We do improv, and we make people laugh,’” he said.

“Our goal at The Nest is ‘Make the audience feel,’ more than, ‘Make the audience laugh.’ So, if it’s a deeper emotional thing that happens in the scene, great.”

This article was made possible by support from the Center for HumanKindness at The Columbus Foundation, which has partnered with The Columbus Dispatch to profile those making our community a better place. Help us inspire kindness by suggesting people, initiatives, or organizations for Reporter Sophia Veneziano to profile. She can be reached at [email protected]. Learn more at Dispatch.com/Kindness. The Dispatch retains full editorial independence for all content.