Over the years, IMPROV has become one of the largest and one of the most important festivals of its kind in Europe. Good improvisational theater is meant to mirror its time, and thus IMPRO 2016, the international festival for improvisational theater (March 11-20) is dedicated to all those who are hoping for a better life outside of their home country.
Saturday, March 12 | 8pm
Improv Without Borders
Professional improvising artists as well as improv amateurs will be celebrating the liveliness of improvised theater all over the world, from Melbourne to Shanghai, from Atlanta to Sindelfingen, today, on March 12. We, the Gorillas, invited the international improv community to do this, and every day, more improvisers adopt this idea. On the world’s improv stages, there will be scenes, whether lugubrious or celebrating life, but they will show the greatness of improvised theater: this understanding across borders, playing theatre scenes together, and commemorating those who are on the run around the world on this day. Moreover, it is our joint aim to support refugees: the proceeds of the six shows will go in equal shares to ProAsyl and Asyl in der Kirche; our other participating colleagues will be supporting local organisations around the world. In Berlin, the international ensemble will be playing at Baptistengemeinde Schöneberg, Bühnenrausch, English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center, the Volksbühne’s Grüner Salon, the Ratibor Theater, and at ufa Fabrik, with a colorful mix of 5-6 improvisers at each location. It’s up to you, dear audience, to make this day a festival of theater. You only have to come along.
Sunday, March 13 | 8pm
Who Are You?
Who are any of us really? A show, developed and presented by Lee White of CRUMBS, exploring who we are by asking questions designed to gain insight, and see the perspective of others. Discover who you are by learning how people perceive themselves. Plenty of laughs and heart touching moments as we see the person behind the walls we surround ourselves with everyday.
Monday, March 14 | 8pm
A Place To Be
The issue everyone talks about has arrived at our festival, too. This evening will approach the issues of exodus and borders, limitations and freedom, by means of improvisation. Farah Shaer and Lucien Bourjeily from the Lebanon, who already delighted IMPRO audiences two years ago, as well as Tarek Kannish (Syria) and Raouf Khelifa (Algeria) will first pass on their experience with these issues to the international cast in internal workshops. This is exactly the kind of IMPRO which is the reason why we, the Gorillas, organize it: it’s theater, as unpredictable as our life, which can also be as exhilarating in that people meet on stage and communicate across the barriers of language and culture; they are foreigners and approach each other, they misunderstand and understand. Everything that’s typical for life itself.
Tuesday, March 15 | 8pm
A Place To Be
The issue everyone talks about has arrived at our festival, too. This evening will approach the issues of exodus and borders, limitations and freedom, by means of improvisation. Farah Shaer and Lucien Bourjeily from the Lebanon, who already delighted IMPRO audiences two years ago, as well as Tarek Kannish (Syria) and Raouf Khelifa (Algeria) will first pass on their experience with these issues to the international cast in internal workshops. This is exactly the kind of IMPRO which is the reason why we, the Gorillas, organize it: it’s theater, as unpredictable as our life, which can also be as exhilarating in that people meet on stage and communicate across the barriers of language and culture; they are foreigners and approach each other, they misunderstand and understand. Everything that’s typical for life itself.
Wednesday, March 16 | 8pm
The Freedom Game
Will we become more creative as the rope of regulations and infringements of personal freedom becomes ever tighter? Or will the joy of movement wane at some point, in resignation of anticipatory obedience? Together with the audience, the improvisers will use the means of improvised theater to examine these interrelations in the context of society’s politics – albeit not exclusively – such as fear of terror, telecommunications data retention, xenophobia. Which conclusions will we come to? Is dictatorship funny in improv, but not so much in everyday life? It’s a theater experiment in two acts.
Thursday, March 17 | 8pm
A Place To Be
The issue everyone talks about has arrived at our festival, too. This evening will approach the issues of exodus and borders, limitations and freedom, by means of improvisation. Farah Shaer and Lucien Bourjeily from the Lebanon, who already delighted IMPRO audiences two years ago, as well as Tarek Kannish (Syria) and Raouf Khelifa (Algeria) will first pass on their experience with these issues to the international cast in internal workshops. This is exactly the kind of IMPRO which is the reason why we, the Gorillas, organize it: it’s theater, as unpredictable as our life, which can also be as exhilarating in that people meet on stage and communicate across the barriers of language and culture; they are foreigners and approach each other, they misunderstand and understand. Everything that’s typical for life itself.
Friday, March 18 | 8pm
Our Lives
Hardly any other art form lets the actors use their own life experience to directly impact what’s happening on stage like improvised theater does. Eight players from eight nations each get to draw one of the following subjects out of a hat: love, family, work, tradition, city, country, Christmas and food. As the directors, the players will examine their subject together with their fellow players and attempt to improvise and present what’s characteristic for their country in respect to this subject.
Saturday, March 19 | 8pm
Almost Ibsen & Speechless
Henrik Ibsen is dead. “What a pity”, some will say, “thank God” say others and some people will confess “I didn’t know“” Three of the best improvisers of Norway’s Det Andre Teatret, Torgny G. Aanderaa, Camilly Frey and Nils Petter Morland will improve a one act play based on Ibsen, which has never been written. It’s an improvised tragedy, based on the audience’s
suggestions, staged with appropriate costumes and set design, but without prescribed structure or dramatic rules.
Speechless is an evening full of poetry. It’s magical and fantastical in more than one sense: the two Columbian improvisers Daniel Orrantia and Felipe Ortiz, together with their congenial Canadian DJ Mama Cutsworth, will put a spell on their audience. Not a single word is spoken while the three of them develop improvised stories from the audience’s suggestions. Inspired by
silent films, improvised theater, pantomime and cirque moderne, this is a very special show, and unique each time.
In 2015 as well, Die Gorillas have invited improv artists from 13 different countries to improvise together. The 14th edition of IMPRO will be held from March 13-22, 2015 and once again, we are delighted to serve as one of the festival’s hubs and bring you three different shows, including a very special event: the festival ensemble will improvise the story of a Berlin family from the 1920s to the present over six consecutive nights: The Hoffmanns – A Berlin Family Story. A different year in the family story will be presented each night. 1925 will be followed by 1937, 1955, 1970, 1990 and end in the year 2015. The audience will accompany a Berlin family on a very special journey through time over multiple generations. Even Die Gorillas are excited to see how this improvised family saga will turn out!
This is the first scripted, non-improvised theater performance that we’ve ever presented during the 14 years of our festival – the focus of this solo is the very international family history of Marko Mayerl of Strasbourg, whose ancestors are from Finland, Germany, Russia and France. A father tells his son who is in hospital the story of their family. It’s an odyssey spanning several European epochs which makes the son forget that he is seriously ill. A Finnish woman marries a Russian, who defies his father’s wish for him to become an orthodox priest. A Frenchwoman, pregnant with her first child, marries a pilot of the German air force while World War II is raging. This autobiographical play, full of tenderness and humor, prompts us to take a look at how we deal with our own family history. Which part of our heritage is acceptable for us to take on, which part do we reject and why?