Dear audience,

good improvisational theatre is meant to mirror its time, and thus IMPRO 2016, the international festival for improvisational theatre (11.3.-20.3.) is dedicated to all those who are hoping for a better life outside of their home country. On the first Saturday (12 March) we will be organising a campaign day called "Improv Without Borders", and we will be playing improv theatre for the benefit of refugees, not just on six Berlin stages, but all over the world – and of course, you will find extensive information on that on this website.

The festival's main focus "Borders. Limits. Liberty" is tied to that. Farah Shaer and Lucien Bourjeily (both from the Lebanon), Tarek Kannish (Syria) and Raouf Khelifa (Algeria) will be explaining their everyday life to their colleagues in a themed workshop spanning several days, and this input will imbue the three  "A Place To Be" shows at the English Theatre and the ensemble made up of members from 13 countries in ever changing constellations. "Freedom Game", a new format and idea by Rudy Redl (Gorillas), explores the effects of freedom and limitation - a particularly open and therefore exciting experiment.

Classics and innovations

Another focus of IMPRO Edition 2016 is the "Classics": apart from the indispensable Women's Show, the improv guys also have their own show; the Improvision Song Contest is on again as well as "Spranguage", an evening coined by understanding through language and without words. And of course there are the very special show formats which our guest ensembles have brought us: "Cuddles" from Bonn's Springmaus, "Almost Ibsen" from Oslo's Det Andre Teatret, "Speechless" from Bogota/Winnipeg; and on top of that we look forward to another guest appearance of the Munich ensemble "La Triviata", whose improvised operas have swept festival audiences off their feet twice already.

As in previous years, our wonderful ensemble consists of players who are already known in Berlin as well as ones we've invited for the first time, and with Yelena Taimatova we have the very first player from Kazakhstan visiting us! By the way, we kick off with a prologue on Friday, 11.3. at the Ratibor, where you get the unique chance to see (almost) the entire festival ensemble in one place in one evening...

We look forward to edition 15 of the festival. And to seeing you all.
Die Gorillas