BATS Improv Announces Lineup for Long-Form Festival
From Shakespeare to disco, the month-long festival celebrates a unique form of improvisational theatre

►Press Image #1: Noir (Pictured: Rafe Chase)
►Press Image #2: Backseat (Pictured: Diane Rachel, Tim Orr, Regina Saisi)
►Press Image #3: Hostage (Pictured: John Kovacevich, Diane Rachel)
►Press Image #4: Transformation (Pictured: Tim Orr)

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San Francisco (March 14, 2005) — BATS Improv announced the performance lineup for its 3rd Annual Long-Form Festival, to be presented at San Francisco’s Bayfront Theater at Fort Mason Center, April 29 through May 29.

The festival is sponsored in part by a generous grant from the Zellerbach Family Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The opening night reception is sponsored in part by Anchor Brewing Company.

The month-long festival will feature 17 performances, including improvised shows in such genres as disco-romance, Shakespeare, and Brechtian-musical. It will also include performances by renowned Bay Area improv troupes True Fiction Magazine and 3 For All.

Long-form improvisation is different from the short, quick, comedy improv that many people are familiar with from TV programs such as “Whose Line is it Anyway?” While the shows definitely include humor, long-form improvisation strives to develop narrative and tell complete stories. The experience of watching a long-form improv show is akin to watching a full-length play or movie—although one that is created spontaneously right in front of the audience with no pre-planning.

“After a long-form show, many audience members have a hard time believing that the whole thing was completely improvised,” says BATS Executive Director John Kovacevich. “People think that the improvisers must have planned the story or characters. But everything you see—the story, the dialogue, the live music, the lights—it’s all completely improvised right there on the spot.”

“Long-form improvisation immerses both the audience and the performers in a journey of character and story,” says BATS Artistic Director Dave Dennison. “I’m proud to say that over the past 18 years, BATS Improv has pioneered this form of storytelling.”

"Plus, the festival gives us an opportunity to showcase the BATS Improv style—that we're funny and entertaining because we focus on the story," adds Dennison.

Tickets are $8-$15 per person. For more information or to purchase tickets in advance, visit the BATS web site at www.improv.org or call (415) 474-8935.


SCHEDULE

WHAT: BATS Improv Long-Form Festival, a month-long festival hosted by San Francisco’s favorite improvisational theatre company, returns to the Bayfront Theater, April 29 to May 29. Different from the short, quick, comedy improv that many people are familiar with from television, a long-form improvisation show is akin to watching a full-length play or movie—although one that is created from scratch right in front of the audience. See original stories inspired by everything from disco to Shakespeare.

WHEN: Friday, Saturday, Sunday evenings, 8 PM, April 29 – May 29, 2005

WHERE: The Bayfront Theater, Fort Mason Center, Building B, 3 rd Floor, San Francisco’s Marina District

TICKETS: Go to www.improv.org or call (415) 474-8935; Tickets are $8-$15; Group sales available by e-mailing info@improv.org

INFO: For more information, visit www.improv.org

SHOW DESCRIPTIONS

Friday, April 29
Festival Opening Night: Critical Choice
Show: 8 p.m.; Reception: 10–11 p.m.; Tickets: $15 advance; $20 at the door

Join us as we celebrate the grand opening of our new stage, the kick-off of our 3 rd annual Long-Form Festival, and the debut of a brand new format: Critical Choice.

In life we can never really know about the road not taken, what would have happened if ...  but in this completely improvised long-form we do just that. Audience suggestions will be the inspiration for a story in which a pivotal moment of decision is reached. The story will then divide into two distinct narratives following the different consequences of that "Critical Choice."

Format created and directed by Rafe Chase. Cast: Rafe Chase, Gerri Lawlor, John Kovacevich, Tim Orr, Regina Saisi and Barbara Scott. Music by Joshua Raoul Brody.

Your ticket also admits you to our special opening night reception after the show. Enjoy beer and hors d'oeuvres as we kick-off our month-long celebration of long form improvisational theatre and celebrate the completion of the stage upgrade. We will also honor Regina Saisi, who recently ended her three-year term as BATS' artistic director. There is a lot to celebrate; come join the party! (The opening night reception is sponsored in part by Anchor Brewing Company.)

Saturday, April 30
Disco Romance
Show: 8 p.m.; Tickets: $12 advance; $15 at the door

Teen angst to a danceable beat! Young love in bell bottoms and feathered hair! If there's one thing we've learned from movies such as Saturday Night Fever and Xanadu, it's that love is sweetest under the disco ball. Break out your glitter tops, platform shoes, and leisure suits and boogie down to a kickin' 70s soundtrack for an improvised polyester explosion. Directed By Gerri Lawlor. Music by Joshua Raoul Brody. With special guest singer Spencer Day.

Sundays, May 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
Sunday Player Long-Form
Show: 8 p.m.; Tickets: $8

The Sunday Players are graduate-level BATS Improv students who perform each and every Sunday night at the Bayfront. In May, they tackle a variety of long-form formats, from the Harold to musicals. A different show every Sunday.

Friday, May 6
Improvised Shakespeare
Show: 8 p.m.; Tickets: $12 in advance; $15 at the door

In this completely improvised Elizabethan play, the audience supplies the title and the story takes off from there--the plot, characters and more are made up right there on the spot using the language and themes that made Shakespeare famous. Directed by Rebecca Stockley.

Saturday, May 7
An American Musical
Show: 8 p.m.; Tickets: $12 in advance; $15 at the door

Emotions flow just beneath the surface in this completely improvised musical of love and loss. Come join the BATS improvisers as they explore the hopes and dreams of America's working class in this Brechtian-style musical. (If you liked Broadway's "Urinetown," you'll love this show.) Directed by Regina Saisi. Music by Joshua Raoul Brody.

Friday, May 13
The Improvised Time of Your Life
Show: 8 p.m.; Tickets: $12 in advance; $15 at the door

A fully improvised three-act stage play in the style of the great American dramedies (such as The Time of Your Life and You Can't Take It With You.) Join the characters for a magical and uncharted evening of laughter, love and drama! Directed by Tim Orr.

Saturday, May 14
The Harold
Show: 8 p.m.; Tickets: $12 in advance; $15 at the door

The Harold is the granddaddy of all long-form improv and one of the oldest improv formats, created by Del Close and Charna Halpern. A single word inspires an explosion of images, associations and memories. These, in turn, inspire scenes, games and songs so that you may never look at the word the same way again. Directed by Dave Dennison. Music by Joshua Raoul Brody.

Friday, May 20
Genre Tricycle
Show: 8 p.m.; Tickets: $12 in advance; $15 at the door

The audience helps supply three genres for the evening—it could be anything from science fiction to film noir to family drama to horror to…who knows! Then the players create three rotating stories: 1 play, 1 movie, 1 musical, all completely improvised on the spot. It's triple the fun. Directed by John Remak.

Saturday, May 21
Special Guest: True Fiction Magazine
Show: 8 p.m.; Tickets: $15

True Fiction Magazine brings their innovative, spontaneous theater back to the Bayfront Theater. TFM continues to push the envelope of improvisation, exploring new and exciting styles of storytelling. A TFM performance is a full evening of spontaneous theatre, as the troupe takes titles suggested by the audience and creates stories that move forward and backward in time, interweave and intersect, until the final resolution.

TFM's inspiration is the hard-bitten, emotion-driven fiction found in the pulp stories of the 30's and 40's, tempered by their own comic sensibilities, resulting in a myriad of unusual characters and the worlds they live in.

For more information about True Fiction Magazine, visit www.truefictionmagazine.com.

Friday, May 27
The Life Game
Show: 8 p.m.; Tickets: $12 in advance; $15 at the door

The Life Game shows that everyone has a story. An audience volunteer will be interviewed about his/her life. (Don't worry…you won't be pulled out of the crowd or put on the spot unless you want to be!) Our actors will improvise scenes inspired by the information revealed. Some of the questions will be easy and others will be more probing. It won’t be 60 Minutes, silly comedy or psychodrama, but it will be the Life Game: theatrical, evocative and fun. Created by Keith Johnstone. Directed by William Hall.

Saturday, May 28
Special Guest: 3 For All
Show: 8 p.m.; Tickets: $15

See the group the critics call "brilliant...hilarious...a must-see," as they bring their inimitable brand of high-stakes improvisation back to the Bayfront Theater. 3 For All is Rafe Chase, Stephen Kearin and Tim Orr, with music by Joshua Raoul Brody and lights by Andrew Merit. For more information about 3 For All, visit www.3forall.com.

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