Pride and Platypus?
Long-Form Festival featured as the "Hot Spot" in San Francisco Bay Guardian's "8 Days a Week" section

San Francisco Bay Guardian
April 30, 2003

By Kerry Rodgers

PRIDE AND PLATYPUS? The Cook, the Bathtub, His Wife, and Her Kidney? These could be the titles of plays performed at the BATS Improv Long-Form Festival – in fact, since the actors often take title suggestions from the audience, just about anything you suggest could be turned into a two-hour show. Unlike most improvisation games and comedy sketches, these "long-form" works are full-length plays created entirely on the fly, leaving audiences to marvel, "I can't believe it's not scripted!" While the performers may be as smooth as butter, at some point they are bound to find themselves in uncomfortable binds. "Part of the fun is watching the actors screw up," managing director John Kovacevich says, "and then watching them get untangled from the mess they've created."

The festival kicks off this week with "Double Feature," an improv format in which two "films" are created spontaneously and enacted simultaneously. In the coming weeks the BATS Improv players will experiment with mask theater, a classic improv form called "the Harold," and movie westerns. They'll also welcome guest groups Start Trekkin', True Fiction Magazine, Underdog, and 3 for All.

Through May 31. Opens Friday May 2, 8 p.m.
Runs Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.
Bayfront Theater, Fort Mason Center, Bldg. B, Marina at Laguna, S.F.
Tickets $12-$15.
(415) 474-8935