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ImprovBoston
Completes An Unfinished Script
In "Playbook"
Before your very eyes, an elite team of improvisers from
ImprovBoston will do in 75 minutes what it takes most
playwrights years to do. In "Playbook," running
Friday nights from March 15 - April 12, some of IBs top
improvisers will complete an unfinished script from a known playwright.
ImprovBoston is located at 40 Prospect Street.
Using
the first page of an unfinished script as inspiration, these quick-witted
improvisers will create a complete one-act play. The show will open with
the cast seeing the set and script for the very first time with the audience
helping to cast the roles on the first page.
The actors will then read the lines on the first page, drop
the scripts and continue along without missing a beat. This inventive
form relies as much on the skills of the improviser as it does on the
improviser’s knowledge of play structure and theater presentation.
The goal is to put on a show that is both hilarious and consistent with
the tone and style of the playwright.
The "Playbook" cast includes: Jackie Arko,
Michelle Bonanno, Scot Colford, Anne Colpitts, Christine Cuddy, Chris
Duffy, Sasha Goldberg, Emily Holland, Alex LeBaron, Bryce Read, Lori Strauss
and Ben Walsh.
Playbook will be directed by ImprovBoston’s Artistic
Director Emeritus Will Luera, who also conceived the form. The
show was first produced at ImprovBoston in 2002 and has appeared at festivals,
including the 2009 Del Close Marathon at the
Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
ImprovBoston Artistic Director Mike Descoteaux
commented, "'Playbook' is a unique opportunity for audiences to explore
the intersections of art and comedy, improvisation and writing, head and
heart. We are thrilled to join forces with some of the most exciting playwrights
in America to push the limits of improvisation as we know it."
Playwright Schedule:
March 15
Jami Brandli
Jami Brandli is an award-winning playwright who has had her work produced
across the country. She was a Visiting Artist at the Kennedy Center
Summer Playwriting Intensive, a contributing writer for the Elliot
Norton Award-Winning production of "PS: Page Me Later,"
a finalist for Disney - ABC's TV Writing Fellowship,
and a Visiting Playwright for the 2009 ATHE Conference.
March 22
Faith Soloway
Faith Soloway has been hailed as one of the best and brightest of the
Boston area's singer-songwriters. What distinguishes her from the rest
of the pack in this crowed scene is the theatrical nature of her shows.
Whether singing with her animated, energetic band, The Faith Soloway
Crisis, or creating and performing in one of her many comedic
"Schlock Operas," Faith has built a very large
and very devoted following because she provides the folk-scene with attributes
it so desperately needs: humor, showmanship and, most of all, humility.
March 29
James Ferguson
With over twenty years of experience, Boston-based James Ferguson has
been hired to write numerous screenplays, blogs and sketch comedy projects;
his plays have been produced across the United States and in London. He
is also the author of two novels. In October of 2012, his short play "Ori
& Addison" was one of 40 plays selected (from more than
900 submissions) to participate in The 37th Annual Samuel French
Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival at The Beckett Theatre in
New York City.
April 5
Jeff Sweet
Jeffrey Sweet is an American writer, journalist, songwriter and theatre
historian. Sweet has been a playwright, screenwriter, lyricist, critic,
journalist, teacher, theatre historian, and sometime songwriter and director.
He is a resident member of Chicago's Victory Gardens Theater,
where thirteen of his plays -- including "Flyovers,"
"The Action Against Sol Schumann," "The Value of Names,"
"Berlin '45," "With and Without," "Court-Martial
at Fort Devens," and "Bluff "
have been produced. Sweet is also the author of Something Wonderful
Right Away (an oral history of Chicago's The Second City).
April 12
Melinda Lopez
Boston's own Melinda Lopez, playwright and actress, was the first recipient
of the Charlotte Woolard Award, given by The
Kennedy Center to a "promising new voice in American Theatre."
Her play "Sonia Flew," which was developed
and premiered by the Huntington Theatre Company, won
the Elliot Norton Award for Best New Play and two
IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Awards for Best Play
and Best Production. It has subsequently been produced at the Coconut
Grove Playhouse, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival,
Laguna Playhouse, Ariel Tepper's Summer Play Festival
(NY), the Milagro Theatre (Portland, OR), and Steppenwolf
Theatre in Chicago. The play has been broadcast on NPR's
"The Play's The Thing!" in a production by L.A.
Theatre Works with a cast that included Elizabeth Peña
and Hector Elizondo.
Since 1982, ImprovBoston has used a fresh, funny approach
to comedy, showcasing today’s best performers and training tomorrow’s
stars.
For tickets and information, visit www.improvboston.com.
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