Festival Info / Welcome to the 2009 Festival

As we enter our eighth year of celebrating the art of improvisational theatre and comedy, We are reminded why this festival was started.

As improv artists, our stage craft demands that we support one another, an axiom with a lesson that extends beyond the reach of the theatre. This festival was created to build communities and cross bridges in the relatively tight-knit but expansive world of improv. Our friends and colleagues travel from all over the world to participate in our festival. For one week a year, they learn, laugh and inspire one another. Connections and friendships are made that last lifetimes and span continents.

At local levels, we see different and divergent groups, each working in accord with its own mission and set of goals, distinguished by style, method, or whichever figurehead wrote the book on improv with which they most closely align themselves. We're all guilty of it — we most certainly are — and we should all be proud of it, a hard thing for most Canadians to do, but it is our philosophies and ideologies that make us unique.

For our artists, this festival seeks to provide us and our audiences with the opportunity to take in the world's best spontaneous, instantaneous and hilarious creative expression. It helps us to realize that each form/style/approach to the work is important, that each of us practicing this art form, each in our own unique way, can show one another why we do what it is we love.

And just what is that?

Improvisation is the most immediate and intimate form of theatre. It can be hilarious, inspire awe and occassionally make you cry. In these digital times, improvisation is as authentic an art form as you can think of; where current affairs, culture, and even the audience is part of the process; where the product we see on stage is the process; where our lust for immediacy in our information soaked lives can be sated by an insightful comment on our world.

In a 1996 interview, legendary improv teacher Del Close spoke about how improvisation as an art form is different from other art forms because, as improv artists, we are using human behaviour as an abstraction of human behaviour. It is our belief that we can elevate the art form, that we as improv performers can raise the stakes and heighten the game, that we can elevate ourselves from the level of improv performer to the level of improv artist. As Del was known to tell his students: “You. You can be poets.”

Our mandate is to provide our audiences with the best and most memorable international and Canadian performances in the art of improvisation. We provide our audiences with comedy. We believe we can also provide them with ideas and insight through the design and architecture of our performances. We offer classes with some of the leading instructors of contemporary improvisation so that we can learn new techniques and approaches from which to express ourselves.

In that same 1996 interview, Close is also quoted as saying, "Everybody gets told that they are the spokesmen and women of their generation but few get up and speak." This year we celebrate those that have chosen to do so, past and present. For the first time, we have created programming categories that will demonstrate to our audiences the breadth of styles, techniques and approaches there are to this art form.

We usher in programmes with indicative names such as Modern Masters, Musically Inclined and Ladies First. We will feature a Contemporary Showcase, Special Presentations, and turn our attention to Canada for some Homegrown Perspectives and Great Canadian Classics. We will also feature programming with more creative titles: Fusionaries, performances fusing improvisation with other art forms; Avant-Garde, showcasing work on the fringes of the envelope; and Solos, featuring artists who walk the tightrope of live theatre without a script.

This year's festival also features a number of events, beyond the programming, that are designed to help forge connections between improv artists, audiences and students. We will be holding a symposium on Friday, Sept. 25 and reviving the festival prom, a hit at the 2006 festival. We are inviting one of the most celebrated instructors of our time to teach a three-day intensive workshop at our festival.

None of our various activities would be possible without the hard work and support of our staff and army of volunteers. We are equally grateful to our sponsors and partners for helping the festival reach its goals. Their immeasurable contributions they have made ensure the success of our events.

We invite comedy lovers, theatre lovers, improv artists, journalists and the comedy community at large, whether you are from down the street or down under, to enjoy the selection of this year's wonderful talent.

We hope this year's festival brings together old friends and helps you make new ones; improvisers, trained to support one another, are some of the best people you will ever meet.