BATS Improv Celebrates 20 Years of "Wingin' It"
Bay Area's largest improvisational theatre company celebrates anniversary of inagural Theatresports™ performance in 1986

San Francisco, CA (October 10, 2006) - In the fall of 1986, a stage actress from Seattle visited some former co-stars in San Francisco, bringing with her the improvisation techniques developed by legendary drama instructor Keith Johnstone. The San Francisco actors were entranced and quickly formed a workshop to pass on these new techniques to more of their fellow actors, culminating in San Francisco’s first public performance of the Theatresports improv format on November 10, 1986.

From those modest beginnings, Bay Area Theatresports was born. Twenty years later, BATS Improv, as the group is now known, is now one of the country’s largest non-profit organizations dedicated to the instruction and performance of improvisational theatre.

This November, BATS celebrates its 20th anniversary with special workshops, an anniversary party, and three weekends of performances commemorating BATS’ place in the history of Theatresports on the West Coast.

Since BATS traces its roots to Seattle Theatresports and later helped spawn Los Angeles Theatresports (in 1988), members of those troupes are travelling to San Francisco to participate in BATS’ anniversary events.

“It’s a great opportunity for a reunion,” said BATS company member Rebecca Stockley, the aforementioned actress who first brought the Theatresports format to San Francisco. “We are thrilled that so many of the players and supporters who helped to sustain and grow BATS over the past 20 years are returning for this celebration.” Stockley and co-founder William Hall, two of the performers who were part of the first workshop 20 years ago, have continued on as cast members and coaches at BATS Improv since participating in the original performance.
 
In addition to its Theatresports performances (in which two teams of improvisers compete at performing brief scenes, songs and games for judges’
points), BATS also performs Johnstone-created improv formats Micetro™, Gorilla Theatre™ and The Life Game™, and regularly mixes in its own creations, featuring improvised full-length dramas, musicals and comedies.

BATS’ executive director John Kovacevich, said, “BATS’ commitment to the promotion and artistic development of improvisational theatre has helped to elevate improv performances from bars and comedy clubs to large, sold-out stages,” said Kovacevich. “BATS improvisers have been among the leading innovators in creating new, dynamic improv formats over the last 20 years – which is why the Bay Area is a national hub for improv today.”

BATS is widely regarded as key link between the early origins of improvisational theatre in the Bay Area (dating back to Del Close’s work with “The Committee” during the 1960s), and the rich diversity of today’s Bay Area improv scene. Dozens of Bay Area improv groups trace their origins back to BATS, and the style of long-form improvisation developed at BATS is now performed and taught around the world.

“In some ways, the ‘BATS-style’ has come to personify San Francisco long-form improvisation,” says Kovacevich. “BATS was one of the first companies in the country to offer up a full night of theatre featuring a completely spontaneous narrative. Whether it’s Theatresports or a longer format, BATS’ goal in performing and teaching improv is to enrich the overall storytelling experience, by adding plot twists and by developing both characters and relationships. Telling great stories, rather than just going for the laugh, has legitimized improvisation as a bona fide art form in the theatre world.”

BATS’ anniversary-related shows will be performed at 8 p.m. each Friday and Saturday night, November 3-18. The performances on November 3-4 co-star members from Seattle Theatresports’ performing troupe, “Unexpected Productions”, the November 10-11 shows feature both past and current members of BATS Improv, and the November 17-18 shows co-stars “Impro Theatre”, the performance company of Los Angeles Theatresports.

Members of the Seattle and Los Angeles companies will also offer special improv workshops through BATS’ educational program during the week of their respective visits. Performance tickets range from $12 to $30, while workshop prices are $40 for a 3-hour class. Information on obtaining show tickets and/or workshop reservations is available at 415-474-6776 or www.improv.org.

Individual Show Details:

Friday, Nov 3; 8 p.m.
Theatresports Match: BATS vs. Seattle
In 1986, Rebecca Stockley, a teacher from Seattle Theatresports taught the Theatresports format to a group of San Francisco actors. Thus BATS was born.
As every child must challenge and ultimately defeat their parent, so too, BATS takes on the theatre company from which it was sprung.

Saturday, Nov 4; 8 p.m.
Campfire with special guests Unexpected Productions
Seattle improv troupe Unexpected Productions (with BATS co-stars) presents its Halloween-based format in which narrated stories are created using actual audience experiences with the supernatural. Audience volunteers will offer up their tales of true, unexplained and spooky occurrences from their lives. The improvisers then take turns around the campfire telling a chiller based on the collected stories. Format created by Randy Dixon in 1994.

Friday, Nov 10; 8 p.m.
20th Anniversary Show
Travel back in time to the day it all began. Alumni from the November 10,
1986 Theatresports show (the first ever performed in California) perform with current main stage company players in improvised scenes, songs, and games. Show tickets also good for admission to BATS’ 20th Anniversary “After Party”.

Saturday, Nov 11; 8 p.m.
BATS Alumni Theatresports Extravaganza
Four teams of improvisers, made up of past and present main stage company players, compete in a free-for-all Theatresports match. More than a dozen improvisers from BATS’ 20-year history (including special guests from out of
town) perform on one stage.

Friday, Nov 17; 8 p.m.
Theatresports Match: BATS vs. Los Angeles
In 1988, Los Angeles Theatresports was co-founded by BATS company alumni Dan O'Connor and Ellen Idelson. Like most uppity children, the BATS progeny from LATS venture north to prove who wears the daddy pants now in this head-to-head Theatresports match.

Saturday, Nov 18; 8 pm
The Hell Show by special guests Impro Theatre
In order to get their salvation, a group of lost souls trapped in purgatory must improvise a musical for a cantankerous demon. Format created by Brian Lohmann and LA Theatresports/Impro Theatre. Members of Los Angeles Theatresports troupe Impro Theatre perform their wildly popular “Hell Show”, in which a group of lost souls trapped in purgatory must improvise a musical for a cantankerous demon in order to earn their salvation.

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 adults, kids, 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