The Right Now

In 2013 Fontana Butterfield, Mariah Howard, and Claire Slattery formed The Right Now and quickly became known for blending physicality with character driven scenes – equal parts honest and hilarious. They’re stoked to return to SFIF and weave more true-life stories into fully improvised mischief.

The Right Now is a beloved Bay Area improv trio that has been making it up together since 2013. Mariah Howard, Claire Slattery, and Fontana Butterfield first met as part of Leela’s Armando Company in San Francisco and clicked instantly. They formed The Right Now and kicked off a sold-out run of self-produced shows at venues across the city, from the Exit Theatre to a sold-out evening on the Ashby Stage at Shotgun Players’ BLAST Theater Festival.

The Right Now pulls from real life to create never-before-seen character-driven scenes drawing from the stylings of The Harold, The Armando, and Theatresports. The three improvisers weave highly physical, fast-moving vignettes together with longer scene work. The result is a non-stop set that keeps audiences laughing, leaning in, and believing in a little mischief.

Over more than a decade together, The Right Now has taken their signature intuitive style and sensibility on the road, headlining and teaching to sold-out houses at festivals including Out of Bounds Comedy Festival (Austin, TX), Stumptown Improv Festival (Portland, OR), Jet City Improv Festival (Seattle, WA), the Alaska State Improv Festival (Juneau, AK) and, right at home, SF Sketchfest.

Beyond the stage, each member brings deep roots to the improvisation craft: Mariah works as an Expressive Art Therapist; Fontana has taught theater throughout the Bay Area for decades; and Claire is the founder and owner of Improv Central in Alameda. That combination of long friendship, professional range, and years of shared stagecraft is what makes The Right Now come alive on stage and off.