The New Zealand Improv Festival is an annual improvisational theatre festival held in Wellington, New Zealand. It brings together improvisors from New Zealand, Australia and other countries through workshops and performances. [1] [2]
The festival began in 2008 [3] under Wellington Improvisation Troupe. It now operates under the New Zealand Improv Trust. [4]
Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script.
Wellington is the capital and second-most populous urban area of New Zealand, with 418,500 residents. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the major population centre of the southern North Island, and is the administrative centre of the Wellington Region, which also includes the Kapiti Coast and the Wairarapa. It is the world's southernmost capital of a sovereign state. Wellington features a temperate maritime climate, and is the world's windiest city by average wind speed.
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of improvisation can apply to many different faculties, across all artistic, scientific, physical, cognitive, academic, and non-academic disciplines; see Applied improvisation.
Unexpected Company is an improvisational comedy group founded in Hollywood, California in 1986 by Tim Hillman, and recreated in Rhode Island in 2003 by Hillman and Justin James Lang.
The Magnet Theater is an improvisational comedy theatre and improv school in New York City. It has shows seven nights a week, many of which are consistently selected as editor's pick of the week in Time Out New York and The Onion.
ImprovBoston is a nonprofit improvisational theater, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers shows five nights per week at its theater in Central Square and training programs in improvisation, stand-up comedy and sketchwriting.
The Wellington Improvisation Troupe (WIT) is a not-for-profit, community-based improvisational theatre group in Wellington, New Zealand. It is run by a committee elected by and from its forty to sixty active members. WIT performs both long and short-form improvisation.
Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the 2007–08 season after its formation in March 2007, by New Zealand Football to replace New Zealand Knights as a New Zealand-based club in the Australian A-League competition. The club is one of the few clubs in the world to compete in a league of a different confederation (AFC) from that of the country where it is based (OFC).
David Gwynne Shepherd was an American producer, director, and actor primarily noted for his work in improvisational theatre.
The Court Jesters is a professional improv company founded in 1989 and based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is a subsidiary of The Court Theatre professional theatre company, acting as a second company within the theatre.
Theatre Strike Force is the University of Florida's premier improv and sketch comedy troupe. The group also goes by TSF. The style of improv performed by Theatre Strike Force is a combination long form and short form. They both teach and perform improvisational comedy. They have six house teams which include both forms of improv as well as a sketch team. There are four long form house teams which are cast every semester and usually have six to eight members. The TSF Short Form Team is cast every semester as well and usually has fifteen to nineteen members. TSF Sketch is the final house team and usually has twelve to sixteen members, cast each semester.
Jet City Improv is a Short Form Improvisation troupe that performs in the Seattle, Washington area. The troupe was founded in 1992 and is operated by Wing-It Productions.
The Peoples Improv Theater, also known as The PIT, is a comedy theater and training center based in New York City, founded by comedian Ali Farahnakian in 2002. Shows performed here include improvisational comedy, sketch comedy, stand-up comedy, theater, and variety shows. Shows are hosted both by "house teams" and by outside comedians.
The New Zealand Fringe Festival in Wellington, New Zealand was founded 30 years ago to foster and develop new works, support artists working in any discipline, and encourage collaboration, experimentation, and creative potential. Inspired by the Fringe Festival models in Edinburgh and Adelaide, the New Zealand equivalent has built a solid reputation for diverse and exciting programming featuring innovative, emerging, and original arts productions—everything from theatre, comedy, film, and dance to lectures, visual arts, and community collaborations. The Fringe open-access platform provides unique opportunities for emerging artists to stage new works, a place for established artists to experiment and collaborate, and countless opportunities for audiences to get immersed in it all. The 2020 programme marks the festival's 30th anniversary as a leading showcases of new and cutting edge New Zealand works. The festival is held annually for three weeks during February/March. The festival comprises over 150 unique events and productions and 600+ presentation over three weeks. It includes contemporary work in art forms including audio (podcast), busking, cabaret, comedy, circus, dance, improvisation, music, online, physical theatre, poetry, puppetry, spoken word/story telling, theatre, visual & digital art. New Zealand Fringe is produced and managed by the non-profit Creative Capital Arts Trust, with Eric Holowacz as Chief Executive and a team of professional arts managers and seasonal staff.
The Improv is an improvisational comedy show which was started in May 2012 in Bangalore, India. The show has no script and is totally improvised, as its name suggests. The audiences give suggestions, situations and scenarios to the host and taking the cue, the actors create on-the-spot hilarious scenes on stage. It is hosted and directed by Saad Khan, an Indian filmmaker. The show is conceptualized by Saad Khan. The show’s performers are Sal Yusuf, Darius Sunawala, Abel Mathews and Tim Schultz. The team has performed over 100 shows in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sweden.
Geoff Simmons is an economist and the leader of The Opportunities Party (TOP), a political party in New Zealand. He stood for TOP in the February 2017 Mount Albert by-election, and in the Wellington Central electorate in the September 2017 general election.
Laurence Fearnley is a short story writer, novelist and non-fiction writer. Several of her books have been shortlisted for or have won awards, both in New Zealand and overseas, including The Hut Builder, which won the fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards. She has also been the recipient of a number of writing awards and residencies including the Robert Burns Fellowship, the Janet Frame Memorial Award and the Artists to Antarctica Programme. She lives in Dunedin, New Zealand.
The Improv Bandits are an improvisational theatre group in Auckland, New Zealand. They have performed with renowned improvisors Wayne Brady and Colin Mochrie, as well as voice actor Dan Castellaneta. The Improv Bandits were formed by Wade Jackson, and have been described in the New Zealand Herald as "one of New Zealand's most successful comedy ventures".
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