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The Winnipeg IF… Improv Festival Will Take Every Form of Theatre and “Just Wing It.”
The 14th edition of the Improv Festival offers science fiction, musical theatreand even a game show, all of it improvised!October 1-5, 2013
The 14th edition of the Improv Festival offers science fiction, musical theatreand even a game show, all of it improvised!October 1-5, 2013
The Gas Station Arts Centre is proud to present the 2013 Winnipeg IF... Improv Festival. This year’s Winnipeg IF… Improv Festival will be bringing in performers from Chicago, Vancouver, Edmonton and Regina for five nights of world-class improvisational theatre.
Improvised theatre can take many forms. This year’s IF shows Winnipeg audiences just how versatile improv can be, whether it’s playing with genres like science fiction, musical theatre, or more experimental forms, like the one-and-only improv game show known as “The Big Smart Improv Show.”
Sci-Fi and fantasy fans will have a couple must-see shows: the perennially sold-out Dungeons & Dragons improv show, with elf mages, warlocks wars and 20-sided dice; and the inaugural Winnipeg performance of “Star Alliance 557,” brought here by Vancouver’s Instant Theatre Company. The intergalactic space highway is long and tiring for the motley intergalactic crew, as they travel through space doing the lowest priority jobs for StarCorp (a subsidiary of the Star Alliance of Companies).
The members of Outside Joke are masters at their craft. OJ combines the genre of musical theatre with long-form improv based on audience suggestions. The ease with which they invent hilarious lyrics (while staying in key or busting out harmonies) will blow your mind.
Another Festival highlight will be “The Big Smart Improv Show” — an improvised game show paying homage to the classics like “Family Feud” and “The Price Is Right,” developed by Lee White (CRUMBS) and complete with sound effects, team scores and battles of wit.
Winnipeg IF… Improv Festival boasts plenty of homegrown talent:
Internationally renowned improv duo CRUMBS and their musical improviser, DJ HUNNICUTT, plus Winnipeg stage veteran GORD TANNER, actor ALIX SOBLER and the always hilarious FRAZ WIEST.
And then there are the out-of-town guests. This year’s talent includes:
The amazing JOE BILL. He is one of the founding members of the Annoyance Theater in Chicago and has performed, coached, directed and innovated with a vast number of successful groups including The Screw Puppies at Annoyance, The Armando Diaz Theatrical Experience, Georgia Pacific at iO Chicago (with whom he developed “The Bat”), The Throwdown at Donny’s Skybox- Second City Chicago and The Scramble at The Playground. He directs and performs in Chica Go Go and Chicago Improv Gorillas at The P.I.T. in New York City and he’s frequently a guest improviser in Let’s Have A Ball & ASSSSCAT 3000 at UCB Theater in New York and L.A.
Performers from Vancouver’s Instant Theatre Company: ALISTAIR COOK, SHAWN
NORMAN and WARREN BATES. This year Instant Theatre Company celebrates its 20th anniversary producing improvisational theatre in Vancouver, BC. The company works in both short and long format improv, and in both structured and freestyle techniques. The company has competed in world improv competitions, placing first twice.
LUCY HILL and DANIEL MASLANY are two movers and shakers from Regina, Saskatchewan. Together they are Business. They have been performing together for 7 years in both improv and various theatrical endeavours. Their unique brand of improv combines the absurd and silly with the dark and dramatic, telling stories with an emphasis on character.
KORY MATHEWSON, of Edmonton’s Rapid Fire Theatre, performs in the weekly Theatresports and CHiMPROV shows, and performs with The Imagineers and Veritas Tassle and the Lie Detectors, which debuted at the 2009 Winnipeg Fringe Festival. He is also a performer with Die Nasty, the Long Form Improvised Soap opera, where he has worked along side Dana Anderson, Joe Flaherty and Julian Arnold.
Kicking it all off with a “Festival Sampler Platter” on Tuesday, October 1 at the King’s Head, the Winnipeg IF… Improv Festival gives audiences a chance to see some the dynamic performers that will be playing throughout the week… for FREE!
Improvised theatre can take many forms. This year’s IF shows Winnipeg audiences just how versatile improv can be, whether it’s playing with genres like science fiction, musical theatre, or more experimental forms, like the one-and-only improv game show known as “The Big Smart Improv Show.”
Sci-Fi and fantasy fans will have a couple must-see shows: the perennially sold-out Dungeons & Dragons improv show, with elf mages, warlocks wars and 20-sided dice; and the inaugural Winnipeg performance of “Star Alliance 557,” brought here by Vancouver’s Instant Theatre Company. The intergalactic space highway is long and tiring for the motley intergalactic crew, as they travel through space doing the lowest priority jobs for StarCorp (a subsidiary of the Star Alliance of Companies).
The members of Outside Joke are masters at their craft. OJ combines the genre of musical theatre with long-form improv based on audience suggestions. The ease with which they invent hilarious lyrics (while staying in key or busting out harmonies) will blow your mind.
Another Festival highlight will be “The Big Smart Improv Show” — an improvised game show paying homage to the classics like “Family Feud” and “The Price Is Right,” developed by Lee White (CRUMBS) and complete with sound effects, team scores and battles of wit.
Winnipeg IF… Improv Festival boasts plenty of homegrown talent:
Internationally renowned improv duo CRUMBS and their musical improviser, DJ HUNNICUTT, plus Winnipeg stage veteran GORD TANNER, actor ALIX SOBLER and the always hilarious FRAZ WIEST.
And then there are the out-of-town guests. This year’s talent includes:
The amazing JOE BILL. He is one of the founding members of the Annoyance Theater in Chicago and has performed, coached, directed and innovated with a vast number of successful groups including The Screw Puppies at Annoyance, The Armando Diaz Theatrical Experience, Georgia Pacific at iO Chicago (with whom he developed “The Bat”), The Throwdown at Donny’s Skybox- Second City Chicago and The Scramble at The Playground. He directs and performs in Chica Go Go and Chicago Improv Gorillas at The P.I.T. in New York City and he’s frequently a guest improviser in Let’s Have A Ball & ASSSSCAT 3000 at UCB Theater in New York and L.A.
Performers from Vancouver’s Instant Theatre Company: ALISTAIR COOK, SHAWN
NORMAN and WARREN BATES. This year Instant Theatre Company celebrates its 20th anniversary producing improvisational theatre in Vancouver, BC. The company works in both short and long format improv, and in both structured and freestyle techniques. The company has competed in world improv competitions, placing first twice.
LUCY HILL and DANIEL MASLANY are two movers and shakers from Regina, Saskatchewan. Together they are Business. They have been performing together for 7 years in both improv and various theatrical endeavours. Their unique brand of improv combines the absurd and silly with the dark and dramatic, telling stories with an emphasis on character.
KORY MATHEWSON, of Edmonton’s Rapid Fire Theatre, performs in the weekly Theatresports and CHiMPROV shows, and performs with The Imagineers and Veritas Tassle and the Lie Detectors, which debuted at the 2009 Winnipeg Fringe Festival. He is also a performer with Die Nasty, the Long Form Improvised Soap opera, where he has worked along side Dana Anderson, Joe Flaherty and Julian Arnold.
Kicking it all off with a “Festival Sampler Platter” on Tuesday, October 1 at the King’s Head, the Winnipeg IF… Improv Festival gives audiences a chance to see some the dynamic performers that will be playing throughout the week… for FREE!
Tickets for the 2013 Winnipeg IF... Improv Festival will be on sale this week through the Gas Station Arts Centre website at gsac.ca or by calling (204) 284-9477.
The
Winnipeg IF... Improv Festival gratefully acknowledges the support of
its sponsors: The King's Head Pub, 101.5 UMFM, CKUW 95.9 FM, and the Gas Station Arts Centre.For the full list of performances, click here.
