CarniKid Productions is a long-form improvisationly-based theater company dedicated to bridging the gap between straight theater and improv comedy. Its signature piece, Chairs, a one-act improvised play, launched the company in 2003 at Donny’ Skybox at Second City. Since then, Chairs has gone on to play at festivals around the world, garnering critical acclaim and audience popularity. Cited “Critic’s Choice” in Chicago’s The Reader, and given a featured article in Edinburgh’s The Scotsman, Chairs has performed at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Seattle Festival of Improv Theater, The DC Comedy Festival, the Chicago Improv Festival, The Del Close Marathon Improv Festival in New York, Second City in Toronto and The Dublin Fringe Festival, as well as in theaters all over Chicago.       But CarniKid Productions is no one-show pony. Devoted to its mission statement, but adaptable to many mediums, CarniKid has taken on all facets of entertainment in its production history. Reel, an improvised “movie” at Second City’s Skybox Theater, explored the cinematic version of story telling in all its unlikely predicaments. Segue, a Second City de Maat Showcase, also at Donny’s Skybox, was a multi-media sketch show wherecene transitions were linked together by digital video that followed characters from one physical location to the next as they explored the course of their lives and how they got there.       CarniKid has also delved into the world of two person shows with the critically acclaimed sketch comedy, Cathcart and Olson, and the popular Double Vision, productions that have both toured and played around the country.         In the latest of CarniKid Productions’ innovative fusions of traditional theatre and improv comedy, Off Book takes on the world’s best plays and infuses them with its own brand of wit and originality. Each night of Off Book, playing at Donny’s Skybox Theatre at Piper’s Alley Saturdays @ 10:30, August 27th-September 24th, begins with a scripted scene chosen from renowned contemporary and classic plays. The cast then improvises off of and deconstructs the ideas in those scenes, creating new characters and allowing the established ones to explore other possibilities, all to a hilarious and thought provoking climax.