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From the very beginning of the improv theater Second City, its name made clear that it wasn\u2019t a New York institution and didn\u2019t aspire to be.<\/p>\n
But after 65 years, the Chicago-based institution that has strongly influenced modern comedy is opening an outpost on Monday in Brooklyn, in what is the First City. It\u2019s a seemingly counterintuitive time to expand. Improv, once a thriving part of the comedy scene in New York, is at an ebb, and the company itself has been through tough times<\/a>.<\/p>\n Two weeks before the lights were set to officially go up, Ed Wells, Second City\u2019s chief executive, showed off its new 12,000-square-foot home on North Ninth Street in Williamsburg even as he acknowledged the headwinds facing the expansion.<\/p>\n There is a 190-seat main stage theater with a wraparound mezzanine and a 50-seat black box theater for student shows. A training center with classes for amateurs as well as a career-track conservatory program. The Bentwood restaurant, named after the chair that Second City actors use onstage, sometimes as a prop.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Wells said that the company was drawn to Williamsburg partly for its demographic mix. \u201cYou have a large local population that is looking for entertainment and nightlife and culinary experiences,\u201d he said, noting that it is also popular with tourists. \u201cYou\u2019re telling local New York stories that appeal to New Yorkers, but also appeal to the people that are coming to hear New York stories.\u201d<\/p>\n