Dear friends of improv,
IMPRO, the International Festival for Improvisational Theatre in Berlin, keeps on growing. 48 artists from 12 countries will get together from March 15th until March 24th 2013 to inject international spirit into the ever-expanding improv theatre genre. Since its inception in 2001 the festival has not seen such a wide range of artists and shows. The Gorillas are particularly delighted to have signed improv artists from India for the first time: Improv Comedy Mumbai. On two evenings this eagerly anticipated ensemble will improvise in the style of a Bollywood film!
Another true gem will be making its Berlin debut: La Triviata from Munich, featuring professional classical singers brought onto the improv stage by one of Germany’s most experienced improv players, Andreas Wolf, member of the legendary Munich theatre outfit fastfood theater.
The Festival of 2013 has something very special in store: the whole of the festival ensemble, including the Gorillas, will relive bygone eras in the ‘Markthalle 9’ in the Kreuzberger Eisenbahnstraße. Using three different locations of this unusual space, the actors will assume the identities of three different epochs (the Roaring Twenties, the post war years, as well as the heyday of squatting). Parlour dames, market criers, allies, black market traders, anarchists and freaks draw the audience into the eras through improvisation.
The market hall will also stage another format debuting the festival: ‘Play what's been served’, a show in which not only the actors have to improvise but so does the cook, with his pots and pans.
Of course there is also plenty of the familiar, established, and popular: two nights of the Crumbs, who need no further introduction; the National Theatre of the World, last year’s shooting stars, with their format ‘Impromptu Splendor’, in which they improvise in the style of various authors; the legendary ‘Women’s Show’ featuring an exclusively female cast; ‘Barbara’s Bar’, in which Barbara of the Gorillas is joined by fellow colleagues to ponder and sing about life; ‘Game of Death’, a solo evening by Canadian Jacob Banigan which already wowed Berlin audiences last September; in ‘City Beats’ it’s the improv musicians - usually ‘just’ accompanying the action - who set the tone; the ‘ImproVision Song Contest’ is in search of the festival’s best song; in the ‘Slow Impro Show’ our French colleagues will explore the magic of slowing things down; and in a ‘Jam Session’ a big bunch of improv artists from all over the world will bring the stage to life.
Last but not least: For the first time IMPRO will guest at the ‘Theater am Kurfürstendamm’ to host its big Opening Show on March 15. We are delighted to unleash a new edition of Europe’s biggest improvisational theatre festival on this wonderful stage!