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Kalamazoo Improv Fest
May 10 & 11, 2013 ∙ Kalamazoo, Michigan
Crawlspace Theatre Productions is kicking off Kalamazoo’s festival season once again. It's the 5th Annual Kalamazoo Improv Festival. This event features some of the finest improv comedians around. We’re welcoming teams from Chicago, Grand Rapids, Detroit, and Kalamazoo. The Festival Promises: give us your weekend, and we’ll give you abdomen cleaving comedy (a notch up from side splitting comedy) that will be invented as you watch.
The festival activities start at 6pm, Friday, May 10 with a Happy Hour show (your ticket gets you the show and a drink) followed by shows at 8pm, 10pm, and then an 11:30 jam. The fun continues Saturday, May 11 with improv workshops at 1pm and 4pm, where you can learn valuable improv skills from some of the finest teachers in the business. Saturday night will feature shows at 8pm and 10pm. Tickets are $10 general admission for each show, or get a $25 fest pass and see as many shows as you want. Alcoholic beverages will be sold in the lobby before and after every show. Local rock group Fishlips will be performing before each show of the Fest to make sure the fun never stops. The improv workshops are $15 each. All shows and workshops will be at Farmers Alley Theatre. To reserve tickets, call the Farmers Alley box office at 269-343-2727. For workshop sign-up, contact us at info@crawlspacetheatre.com.The Festival committee would like to thank our generous sponsors: Schupan and Sons, Discover Kalamazoo, and Millennium Restaurant Group. Millennium is generously hosting the official wrap party at The Wine Loft, Saturday night at 11:30pm. Everyone's invited.

Shows:

Friday, May 10, 6pm (Happy Hour Shortform Show)
Monkapult - Kalamazoo College’s legendary troupe
Crawlspace Eviction - aged and weathered with the funny to show for it


Friday, May 10, 8pm

Freak Table - by all means, have a seat
Piebenga Plumbing - two brothers with properly sweated fittings
t&a - character driven high-energy improv duo

Friday, May 10, 10pm
Jessica - four good folks with something new every time
Crawlspace Eviction - aged and weathered with the funny to show for it
ButchMAX - Chicago improv that is not to be trifled with

Friday, May 10, 11:30pm
Open Jam (anyone can play)

Saturday, May 11, 8pm
Mars - Comedy imported from Detroit (don’t sue us Chrysler)
Pop Scholars - young, smart, and sexy longform
Late 90's - voted "Best Harold Team" at the famous i.O. Theater

Saturday, May 11, 10pm
MegaPawn - 3 guys with no room for negotiation
Eleanor - the greatest representation of girl power... ever
Rattlesnake High School - the legend is reborn
The Album - unique longform style and festival favorite

Workshops:
Saturday, May 11, 1pm
Instructor: Alex Moffat
Workshop: Group Mind
Learning To Intuit The Needs Of The Ensemble - Members of this workshop will be treated like your own preexisting improv team.  You will learn the basics of longform improvisation as well as strategies for achieving the all-important "group mind."  Learn to anticipate the needs of your team members and serve the greater good of the ensemble.

Instructor: Mark Piebenga
Workshop: status and subtextWe often use so much energy in scenes focusing on what we say, and in this workshop we will learn to make our job easier by focusing on how we say things. Using games and exercises, participants will learn that as we increase our use of status and subtext, our scenework becomes stronger and more grounded.

Saturday, May 11, 4pm
Instructor: Ben Johnson
Workshop: Self-Directed Ensemble Improv
Are you in an improv ensemble already but don't have the resources or the infrastructure to pay for a fancy director or host shows in a fancy theater? Are you interested in forming an improv ensemble and striking out on your own? You can absolutely do it! The Improv For The Self-Directed Ensemble workshop, facilitated by Rattlesnake High School's Ben Johnson, will give you all the tools you need to continue improvising long after the Kalamazoo Improv Festival has folded up its tents. Ben's approach to improv is process-based and open-ended, and will help both groups and individuals understand how to successfully explore improv on their own, with or without outside assistance or instruction. The goal of this workshop is for Ben to come back next year and take YOUR workshop.

Instructor: Joe Anderson
Workshop: Play to your weaknesses! (Strengths are for Wimps!)
In this workshop you will improvise a LOT. You will do great things and you will do terrible things. Both of those experiences will make you better.