BATS Improv's Fifth Annual Long-Form Festival Begins March 2
Company Members Celebrate the Theatre Format Born in San Francisco with Full Month of Special Performances

SAN FRANCISCO (February 13, 2007) – BATS Improv, the Bay Area’s largest improvisational theatre company, has announced its performance lineup for the 5th Annual Long-Form Festival, running March 3rd - 31st, 2007 at Fort Mason’s Bayfront Theater (click here for ticket link). The month-long festival celebrates "long-form" improvisation, a format in which full-length plays, musicals or interconnecting scenes are created instantly from one or more audience suggestions. Long-Form improv, now performed around the world, got its start in San Francisco in the 1960s.

Members of BATS’ Main Stage Company are widely regarded as pioneers in advancing the development of original long-form dramas, comedies and musical performances. The 2007 festival will feature ten different long-form performances over five weekends, featuring audience favorites from past years, innovative new offerings and special guest appearances.

BATS’ artistic director Dave Dennison said, “long-form storytelling is popular with audiences and actors alike, in that both parties get to experience the thrill of discovering how a particular story will evolve during the evening. The opportunity to add plot twists and to develop depth and relationships for our characters in this format gives the audience a bona-fide theatrical production – which is further enhanced by the innate suspense created through the art of ‘improvisation’”.

Performances during BATS’ Long-Form Festival are every Friday and Saturday night during March; show time is 8:00 p.m. Ticket prices range from $8-$20, including “early-bird” offers available for selected shows. Additional information and online ticket purchases available on BATS web site at www.improv.org.

Performance Schedule for BATS Improv’s Long-Form Festival:

Friday, March 2, 2007:
Improvised Shakespeare - A play utilizing the soliloquies, lyrical dialogues and emotions that would make the Bard proud.

Saturday, March 3, 2007
Double Feature - Two simultaneously unfolding “films” come alive from a single audience suggestion.

Friday, March 9
Special Guest: 3 FOR ALL - The critically-acclaimed trio performs in their high-stakes improvisational style for this first SF performance of 2007.

Saturday, March 10, 2007
The Life Game - A night of entertaining and often touching scenes inspired by the life stories of audience volunteers.

Friday, March 16, 2007
Special Guest: True Fiction Magazine - This renowned ensemble creates a night of intersecting stories from a single suggestion.

Saturday, March 17, 2007
The Irish Play - A St. Patrick's Day play set on the Emerald Isle

Friday, March 23, 2007
Tales of the Unknown - An evening of eeriness featuring three suspenseful, improvised tales of the unexpected.

Saturday, March 24, 2007
Make-Your-Own Musical - A hilarious and multi-faceted musical created from 10 random audience suggestions.

Friday, March 30, 2007
I [Heart] Teen Angst - A like, totally tubular tribute to John Hughes - the King of 80’s Teen Movies.

Saturday, March 31, 2007
Improvised Murder Mystery - Who murdered whom, and why? Help the sleuths solve this intriguing, spontaneous mystery.

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Acclaimed by critics as “bounce-in-your seat funny,” “consistently hilarious” and “ San Francisco's premiere improvisational theatre”, BATS Improv has been a leader in the Bay Area's innovative improv theatre scene for nearly twenty years. Fifty weeks a year, BATS presents a series of completely improvised shows in a variety of formats — from comic competitions to improvised musicals and everything in between. BATS has also gained a reputation as one of the best schools of improvisational theatre anywhere in the world, and offers improv classes and workshops to individuals, corporations, non-profits and other groups. BATS attracts students from all over the United States, and as far away as Australia, England, and Japan.

Additionally, BATS offers free improvisation classes through its “Laughing Stock” program to people living with HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis C, cancer, and other chronic, life-threatening illnesses. Classes focus on strengthening quality of life through humor, physical activity, group interaction, risk-taking, and imagination games.

Media Contact:
Sara J. Butz
415-516-8876
sara@improv.org

General Information:
BATS Improv
www.improv.org
415-474-6776