BATS Improv presents its 12th Annual Summer Improv Festival
SF's Longest-Running Improv Festival Features Legendary Theatresports™ Founder Keith Johnstone

San Francisco, CA (June 20, 2006) - BATS Improv today released the performance lineup for its 12th Annual Summer Improv Festival. The festival, held at Fort Mason Center's Bayfront Theater, runs August 3-27 and features 16 "one-night-only" performances.

BATS’ Summer Improv Festival, San Francisco’s oldest and most acclaimed, coincides with a month of intensive improv training at BATS' annual Summer School, which offers workshops and lectures by BATS Improv’s veteran improvisational coaches as well as “main attraction” Keith Johnstone to students from around the world. Johnstone is the creator of the internationally-played Theatresports format, other competitive improv formats such as Gorilla Theatre and Micetro, and The Life Game. He is also the author of Impro and Impro for Storytellers, the "bibles” of the modern-day improviser.

The Summer Improv Festival kicks off with a special fundraiser for BATS’ community service program, “Laughing Stock”, which offers free improvisation classes to people living with HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis C, cancer, and other life-threatening illnesses. Laughing Stock’s performing troupe, The Mirth Brokers, will be presenting Merry Tales and Nursery Lines on Thursday, August 3.

Following the Laughing Stock benefit, one night each week of the festival will be dedicated to a performance of each of BATS’ four most exciting and popular Theatresports formats: The championship match of BATS’ Battle of the Bay Theatresports tournament, an “Aussie Rules” set of games between eight different teams, a “home stage” edition of the BATS vs. Stanford Improvisers (“SIMPS”) competition, and the annual (and fierce) competition between BATS and LATS (Los Angeles Theatresports).

The festival will also feature several performances in the long-form improvisational format -- the signature style created by BATS and, as a result, now generally referred to as “San Francisco-style improv”. Long-form performances during August include Warp Speed: An Improvised Trek, Spontaneous Broadway, The News Show, Double Feature™ and a brand new three act play entirely dependent on an audience member’s suggestion.

Additional highlights of the festival include guest performances from two of the top traveling improvisational troupes, both of which have generated fans from around the world: True Fiction Magazine and 3 For All.

Advance tickets can be purchased for $5-$15 at www.improv.org. Remaining tickets will be sold at the box office each night of the festival. The Bayfront Theater is wheelchair accessible and free parking is available at Fort Mason Center. Detailed information and a complete schedule of summer performances can be found here.

WHEN:       

• Thursday through Sunday nights, August 3 - 26, 2006
• Thursday, Friday, Saturday shows at 8 p.m., Sunday shows at 7 p.m. ; Doors open 7:30

 WHERE:

• The Bayfront Theater
  Fort Mason Center, Bulding B, 3rd Floor
  San Francisco's Marina District
  Directions

TICKETS:

• $5-$20
• Advance tickets available by clicking here
• Group sales available for groups of 15 or more; info@improv.org
  

About Theatresports™

The Theatresports format was created in 1976 by Impro author Keith Johnstone, with the intent to inject the passion displayed by sports fans into a theatre audience. In addition to San Francisco, major Theatresports leagues also exist in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Washington, DC, Orlando, San Diego, Ventura and Austin Texas, as well as in international locations such as Canada, England, Denmark, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

About BATS Improv – Celebrating 20 years/1986–2006

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.

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

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