Martin de Maat (January 12, 1949 – February 15, 2001) was a teacher and artistic director at
The Second City
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise. It is the oldest improvisational theater troupe to be continuously based in Chicago, with training programs and live theaters in Toronto and New York. Since its debut in 1959, it has b ...
in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. He also taught at
Columbia College and
Players Workshop
Created in 1971 by Josephine Forsberg, The Players Workshop was Chicago's only official school of improvisation for over a decade. Although it was never officially a part of The Second City cabaret theater, The Players Workshop was often referred ...
. He studied under
Viola Spolin
Viola Spolin (November 7, 1906 — November 22, 1994) was an American theatre academic, educator and acting coach. She is considered an important innovator in 20th century American theater for creating directorial techniques to help actors to be ...
. De Maat and
Del Close
Del Close (March 9, 1934 – March 4, 1999) was an American actor, writer, and teacher who coached many of the best-known comedians and comic actors of the late twentieth century. In addition to an acting career in television and film, he was ...
were the two main figures of the Chicago
improvisational comedy
Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv or impro in British English, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted, created spontaneously by the performers. In its ...
scene in the late 80's and throughout the 1990s.
De Maat began working at The Second City as a teenager washing dishes in the kitchen and began teaching classes at The Second City for his aunt,
Josephine Forsberg
Josephine Forsberg (January 28, 1921 – October 3, 2011) was an American comedian, teacher and author.
Biography
Josephine Forsberg, ex-wife of film director Rolf Forsberg, was hired by Paul Sills and Viola Spolin to join the original Second Ci ...
, when he was 18 years old. He instantly became a favorite teacher at The Second City, as well as supporting the shows by doing lights and stage managing. He studied theater at the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...
and would much later receive a
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
from
National University in Kanpur
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
in communication arts. In 1974 he moved to New York City, where he became a very successful director and art director in both theater and film. During this period Martin returned to Chicago every summer to teach improv for his aunt's new school,
Players Workshop
Created in 1971 by Josephine Forsberg, The Players Workshop was Chicago's only official school of improvisation for over a decade. Although it was never officially a part of The Second City cabaret theater, The Players Workshop was often referred ...
, which acted as The Second City's unofficial training program. In 1984 Martin returned to Chicago semi-permanently and began to teach improv full-time at the
Players Workshop
Created in 1971 by Josephine Forsberg, The Players Workshop was Chicago's only official school of improvisation for over a decade. Although it was never officially a part of The Second City cabaret theater, The Players Workshop was often referred ...
, helping his aunt,
Josephine Forsberg
Josephine Forsberg (January 28, 1921 – October 3, 2011) was an American comedian, teacher and author.
Biography
Josephine Forsberg, ex-wife of film director Rolf Forsberg, was hired by Paul Sills and Viola Spolin to join the original Second Ci ...
to develop the school. About that time, friend and colleague
Sheldon Patinkin
Sheldon Arthur Patinkin (August 27, 1935 – September 21, 2014) was a chair of the Theater Department of Columbia College Chicago, artistic director of the Getz Theater of Columbia College, Artistic Consultant of The Second City and of Steppen ...
asked Martin to join the staff of the recently created
The Second City Training Center
The Second City Training Center was founded in the mid-1980s to facilitate the growing demand for workshops and instruction from the Second City theatre. The Training Centers are located in Chicago and Toronto. Satellite Centers formerly existe ...
, the theater's official improv training program. In 1985 Martin became its artistic director and led the development of the acting, writing and improvisation programs for the next 15 years, making it the biggest and most successful improv training program in the country. Martin became well known as a transformative and empowering teacher, who greeted his students with a hug and referred to The Second City as their home. He was not only an improv comedy teacher to them but also a life counselor and a father figure who helped to guide them to get in touch with their creativity and give up their restrictive ways of thinking.
Martin de Maat died on February 15, 2001, of complications from
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...
. Always a very private person in the public eye, he never revealed his age. The
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
published it in his
obituary
An obituary (wikt:obit#Etymology 2, obit for short) is an Article (publishing), article about a recently death, deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as Article (publishing), news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on p ...
at "around 52." It also came as a shock to many that knew him that he had been living with
AIDS
The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
for several years. After his death, he received many honors and memorials, especially in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles where many of his students and colleagues teach, direct and perform. At The Second City Training Center in Chicago in the early 2000s, an ongoing performance series was named in his honor, The de Maat Showcase. A plaque in his honor hangs on the wall at the training center.
In 2009, the de Maat Studio Theater was opened in his honor at The Second City in Chicago.
Some of Martin de Maat's students over the years include:
Mick Napier
Mick Napier (born December 12, 1962) is an American director and improvisational theater teacher. He is the founder and artistic director of the Annoyance Theatre and a director at The Second City. He has directed Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Ra ...
,
Chris Farley
Christopher Crosby Farley (February 15, 1964 – December 18, 1997) was an American actor and comedian. He was a member of Chicago's Second City Theatre and later a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' for fiv ...
,
Tim Meadows
Tim Meadows (born February 5, 1961) is an American actor and comedian. He was one of the longest-running cast members on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'', where he appeared for 10 seasons from 1991 to 2000. For his work on ''S ...
,
Scott Adsit
Robert Scott Adsit (born November 26, 1965) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. Born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, Adsit joined the mainstage cast of Chicago's The Second City in 1994 after attending Columbia College Chicago. He app ...
,
Rachel Dratch
Rachel Susan Dratch (born February 22, 1966) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. After she graduated from Dartmouth College, she moved to Chicago to study improvisational theatre at The Second City and ImprovOlympic. Dratch's breakthr ...
,
Sean Hayes
Sean Patrick Hayes (born June 26, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, and producer. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he gained acclaim for his role as Jack McFarland on the NBC sitcom ''Will & Grace'', for which he won a Primet ...
,
Tina Fey
Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey (; born May 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer. Known for her comedic roles in sketch comedy, television and film, Fey has received List of awards and nominations received by Tina Fe ...
, and a young
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, author, and filmmaker.
He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony Award, Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and ''Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first ...
.
External links
Article from the Chicago Reader about Martin de MaatAugust 1998 Interview with Martin de Maat*
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Maat, Martin
American male comedians
Comedians from Chicago
1949 births
2001 deaths
American theatre directors
AIDS-related deaths in New York (state)
20th-century American comedians