Dear audience,

the festival we, the Gorillas, have been organising since 2001, has definitely seen many highlights so far, and in the past years we've always looked for new ways of international co-operation, found various overall themes like displacement and migration in 2016 or playing in public rooms like at Kreuzberger Markthalle 9 in 2013. However, even for us Gorillas this year's festival is something special, because we had an idea many years ago and hardly believed we could ever make it come true. But now the time has come and we are staging a festival with artists from all 28 EU countries, using our means, i.e. improv theatre, to celebrate the diversity of the cultures and the equality of the nations.

28 Artists

Working with our three partner organisations Kolektiv Narobov/Zavod Federacija (Slovenia), Combats Absurdes (France) and Česká improvizační Liga (Czechia), we initiated the Our Lives Project. And our festival will form the climax of this biennial venture which was co-financed by the European Commission (EACEA). IMPRO 2018 combines the energy and vivacity of improvised theatre with the wealth of the artists' biographies and experiences as they use their own lives as the basis for what happens on stage. In interaction with you, our audience members, we'll create evenings of theatre made extraordinary by the immediacy and power of authenticity combined with the wealth of cultural differences.

28 European Countries

Apart from the Our Lives show formats which will shine a light on life in Europe with shows titled Community, Milestones, Places, and Walls, and which form the heart of the festival, we'll start IMPRO with not one but two opening shows. On the first Sunday, there'll be a very special event in the Pfefferberg: "Role Models", with the 28 artists presenting us their very own personal artistic role model which has shaped their lives. And there will be another multi-faceted Improvision Song Contest. And an exciting German section. And our amazing workshop offer: the BIF days and the BIF week. And on Saturday, 24 March, all 28 of them will actually be on one stage.
Let's celebrate Our Lives.