BATS Improv Announces Line-Up for 11th Annual Summer Improv Festival

San Francisco (July 1, 2005) - BATS Improv announced the lineup of performances for the 11th Annual BATS Summer Improv Festival today. The festival, which will take place at the Bayfront Theater at Fort Mason in San Francisco, lasts throughout the month of August and features 16 performances by more than 100 improvisers from the Bay Area, across the United States, and worldwide. Guest lectures from Keith Johnstone, creator of Theatresports™, Gorilla Theatre, Micetro, and The Life Game, will highlight of the festival.

This year marks the 11th year BATS has held the festival, making it the longest running improv festival in the Bay Area. While the initial years were small, it has grown annually since BATS gained its permanent Fort Mason home in the Bayfront Theater in 1997, and attracts audience members and performers from as far away as Australia, Finland, and Japan.

No celebration of improv would be complete without a healthy dose of competition, which will be in full supply at the festival. The finals of BATS summer-long Battle of the Bay Theatresports tournament is Friday, August 5. At the end of the month, it's the annual grudge-match competition in which an elite team of San Francisco improvisers battles a team from visiting Los Angeles Theatresports (LATS). All Bay Area improv fans are invited to cheer the home team on to victory. In between, the festival includes a whole host of competitive improv formats: Micetro, Gorilla Theatre, and Aussie Rules Thearesports.

Other performances scheduled for the festival demonstrate the great variety of improvisational theatre. They include Spontaneous Broadway, Warp Speed: Improvised Star Trek, Critical Choice, The Life Game and others.

The festival also includes special guest performances by two of the Bay Area's top improvisational troupes: True Fiction Magazine and 3 For All.

Advance tickets can be purchased at www.improv.org. Remaining tickets will be sold at the box office the night of the show. The Bayfront Theater is wheelchair accessible and free parking is available at Fort Mason Center. For more information and a complete schedule of summer performances, visit the BATS Web site at www.improv.org.

The Improv Festival coincides with a month of intensive improv training at BATS' annual Summer School, August 11-19. There are classes in movement, improvised singing, genres, and more. The Keith Johnstone Intensive is sold out, but there is still space available in the general Improv Intensive and the Long-Form intensive.

One of the main attractions at the annual festival is a series of lectures by Keith Johnstone. Author of Impro and Impro for Storytellers, two mainstays of any improviser's library, Johnstone is the creator of a host of improv formats including Theatresports (played in dozens of countries worldwide), Micetro, Gorilla Theatre, and The Life Game. Johnstone will direct the Sunday Players student ensemble in Micetro on two Sundays, August 14 and 21.

Click here for a complete festival schedule

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Show Information

When: Opens August 5; Closes August 29, 2005
Thursday through Monday nights at 8 p.m.
Where: BATS Improv's Bayfront Theater, Fort Mason Center, Building B, San Francisco (There is no street address for Fort Mason; entrance at the the corner of Buchanan Street and Marina Blvd.)
Ticket Price: $8 - $15 depending on night and time
Ticket Sales: www.improv.org
Information: 415-474-8935 or www.improv.org