It’s happening! After a year of fundraising and the incredible generosity of so many in the BATS Community, our new super-snazzy lighting grid is being installed. Right now there’s a lot of infrastructure work being done – there’s a lot…
Theatre. Improvised.
Blog Archives
30 Years of Narrative Longform
In the summer of 1989, members of San Francisco’s “BATS Improv” began to take improv to a new place with a series of single-story improv shows, as they pioneered what would became known as “Narrative Longform”. (The term “long form”…
Posted in Uncategorized
BATS To the Future
Posted in Backstage
In Memoriam – Gerri Lawlor
On January 28, 2019, former BATS Company member Gerri Lawlor passed away, all-too-suddenly, and all-too-soon.Gerri was a fearless improvisor, and brought enough energy to light up a dozen stages. She was a generous teacher, a treasured colleague, and an exhilarating performer.…
Posted in Uncategorized
Q&A – Off The Stage
“HOW HAS IMPROV AFFECTED YOUR LIFE OFF THE STAGE?” For several years, we’ve had Q&A sessions with our audiences after opening night shows. We get some of the questions you might imagine (“how long have you been improvising?”, “what do you do when you can’t…
Posted in Backstage
Rise of the Empathy Bots
I recently re-read one of my favorite books, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy“. It’s a deliciously funny, absurd, sci-fi romp with speculative technology like the infinite-improbability drive (“a wonderful new method of crossing interstellar distances in a mere nothingth of…
Posted in Backstage
Improvising Dickens
In order to create “Songs for a Sixpence” we had to take a deep dive into the world of Charles Dickens, through the filmed versions of his work, his writing and his history. We looked at the 1968 movie version…
Posted in Backstage, Study Guide
Music for the Fifth Dimension – The Twilight Zone Preshow Playlist
One of the goals for the Twilight Zone show was to transport the audience back to the original time period of the show (1959 – 1964). There have been some attempts to reboot the show (and even a movie version…
Posted in Backstage, Preshow Playlists
The Bechdel Test – Preshow Playlist
Looking for some music by your favorite female music-makers? Check out the music you’ll be listening to before the Bechdel Test, many of which were suggested by BATS fans. Thanks to everyone who suggested these great songs and great artists –…
Posted in Backstage, Preshow Playlists
Twilight Zone – Episode Study Guide
We always get asked what we do to prepare for certain shows. And just because we make it up at show time doesn’t mean we don’t do a lot of homework! In a show like Twilight Zone, we go right…
Posted in Backstage, Study Guide
