Dear friends of improvised theatre,

Say yes is the motto of IMPRO 2014. We, the Gorillas, have been doing this for 13 years to consolidate the spirit of international improvised theatre, and we count ourselves lucky for the fact that our festival, which is still independently financed, is becoming an ever more important meeting place for this genre. Not just for the artists we invite to our cast, but also for many others who have discovered IMPRO for themselves and make use of the BIF programme to attend workshops with renowned teachers and take a front row seat to absorb the very special atmosphere of this festival, which has become the biggest European festival of improvised theatre. 
We are happy to be opening this ten day event on the wonderful stage of the Theaters am Kurfürstendamm once again. Actors from 13 different countries will be attending IMPRO 2014 – our festival has never been so international. And for the first time, we have guests from the Lebanon: Impro Beirut – welcome!
The festival’s main theme is improvised film styles, with our main focus on the genres of romantic comedy and fantasy as well as the directors R.W. Fassbinder and Quentin Tarantino. And „In the air“ format experiments with scenes in locations outside the theatre, streamed live to the stage via mobile phone cameras.
Moreover, we, the Gorillas as event organisers, have again set ourselves the goal to present the diversity of improvised theatre: improv in one of the best-known forms ever (Theatersport), in an unusual place (the piano workshop of Goecke und Farenholtz), as a singing competition (ImproVision Song Contest), as a “Women’s show”– just to name a few of the highlights. And we’re happy to be able to welcome the shooting stars of last year’s festival, Munich’s improvised opera ensemble „La Triviata“, as special guests once again.
The event at Kreuzberg's Markthalle 9 is uniquely special: the „Play with us“ format gives the audience the opportunity to improvise with members of the festival ensemble. These international improv pros will be waiting in a kind of improv circle to come into close and intense contact with their Berlin audience, namely by improvising scenes with them! However, there are also “normal“ workshops: like one about improv and music with Gilly Alfeo of Die Springmäuse, who is becoming a firm regular, or the one about film genres with Lorenz Kabas of Graz's Theater im Bahnhof.

We wish everyone 10 stimulating, exciting, fantastic improv days in March.

Yours, The Gorillas

PS: This year, we asked our guests from around the world to take a picture of the view from their living room. You can see the results all over the programme...