The January Blahs Improv Show

This weekend's show is meant to jolt you right out of those mid-winter blahs. You know, it's dark outside, it's cold, maybe you don't want to leave the house. Well our line-up will definitely be worth leaving the comfy, warm confines of that quilt on your couch.

First off, you read the show details all about the amazing special guest improviser who'll be performing with us: Karen Wight. She is unbelievable, a real talent and we're thrilled she's sharing her hysterical wordless improv set with us.

But what's also going to be awesome about this Saturday's show is the debut of a brand new BIG troupe: Lekker (which roughly means "awesome" in Dutch). Lekker's director, BIG Executive Director Catharine Robertson, is really excited about this troupe and what they have planned for their first show. Here's what she had to say:

After seeing how the Baltimore audience reacted with utter joy to Parallelogramophonograph (who performed with BIG in Baltimore last summer), I had the idea that I wanted to put on shows where the audience recognizes the story structure and the common tropes right away. There's something about the predictability of a known story arc combined with the unpredictability of unscripted lines and characters that intrigued me, and I thought it would be really satisfying for an audience as well. I made a list of possible formats, including everything from Shakespeare to TV sitcoms.
 
I knew I would need players with very strong physical and character work, since the story might already be well known in advance. I'd already directed or performed with Fred, Roy, and Franzwa, (members of former BIG troupe Ice Cream Social and current BIG troupes Moving Walkways and Population: Six) and they were obvious choices for the character and physical skills I was looking for.

Then BIG was on the receiving end of Philadelphia's loss: Micheline McManus, aka Murf, performed with Philly Comedysportz for years and years, but her husband's job brought her to Baltimore--and brought Murf to BIG. Both Murf and Kathy Carson, another physical improv standout, came out of a recent BIG advanced improv class. With these 5 performers, Lekker was born.
 
I pitched the new troupe my ideas for formats, and they came up with one of their own: Facebook. I'd been so busy thinking that known stories were the structure that would drive a satisfying performance that it hadn't occurred to me there were other structures out there. The way a person interacts with Facebook--and with other people on Facebook--is very structured, very predictable, and very ripe for creating stories from these snippets of interaction.

There are friend requests that can be frought with meaning, status updates that run from mundane to morbid, lists one makes about oneself that are a narcississt's dream, games, photos... you name it--we've got it in there, even the ads. The recognizable memes of the Facebook structure provide a rhythm for the performers to create scenes and characters, just like in any other long-form improv show. And Lekker will solicit its starting input on Saturday night from a real Facebook status update.
 
Lekker plans to have Facebook as just one of several formats in its repertoire. The next time they appear, they'll probably be doing an entirely different format.

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Sounds awesome, right? Well then you should come to the show! Tickets are already selling quickly, so be sure to buy yours now.

(Photos by Megan Wills. First photo is of Fred Lohr and Emily Franzwa. Second photo is Roy Taff.)