15th International Improvisation Theatre Festival Amsterdam. Januari 25-30, 2010

With the 15^th International Improvisation Theatre Festival from the 25^th until the 30^th of January (2010) Amsterdam will be the stage for inspiring performances. Professional improvisation groups and actors from around the globe will create scenes and stories on stage on the fly. The participants come from Slovenia, United States, Turkey, Austria and Sweden. The Netherlands is represented with its home team TVA from Amsterdam. This year's theme of the festival is ‘Once upon and ever after… 1001 ways of improvised theatre’, to emphasise the different expression styles and story elements each team brings from its cultural background.

Improvisation theatre is a young theatre format that is growing in popularity, and is developing rapidly from witty short scenes (known from ‘who’s line is it anyway’ and the Lama’s), through touching encounters (like the ones from ‘de vloer op’) to 45 minute length movie-style stories. All improvised on the spot!

Shows at the festival therefore include various short and longer formats, with a mixed cast and specialties of the visiting teams.

The full program outline

• Monday will be the grand opening with short presentations by all teams and individual actors, as a promise for the rest of the week
• Tuesday will be the kick off of ‘The Feuilleton’ and ‘Tales from the North’, special from Sweden
• Wednesday will be ‘Smashing Short Forms’, ‘The Feuilleton’ and a special format from the USA
• Thursday there is a Music Night, ‘The Feuilleton’ and ‘Call’, a special from Slovenia
• Friday will be short forms by several teams, ‘The Feuilleton’ and an improvised story in Astrid Lindgren style.
• Saturday will have an all stars show with three mixed long forms and the finale of ‘The Feuilleton’

More details can be found at www.festival.theatersport.nl.

The entire festival will be in English. Venue is the beautiful Rozentheater, daily shows start at 20.30 and last until 23.00.  On Tuesday and Thursday there will be a 'Late Night Open Stage' (23.30 – 24.00), in which the audience can have a go at improvising together ánd with the festival actors. Ticketprices vary from € 11,=  to € 13,50, depending on the evening of your choice

A passe-partout for all 6 evenings costs € 62,50 but is limited available

Tickets are available through www.festival.theatersport.nl and at the box office of the Rozentheater. Reservations through the website are appreciated

Besides watching, enthusiasts can take part in the festival. Workshops given by the invited teams, are open for the general public on Friday and Saturday afternoon.