The 13th annual Providence Improv Fest will take place this weekend in downtown Providence with nonstop shows, workshops and after-parties. Running from Sept. 22 to Sept. 24, the festival features some of the best improv troupes from around the country and world, including groups from New York City; Austin, Texas; Chicago; Rhode Island and even India.
The festival’s headliners include acts from the two-women group The Boys; the hip-hop, spit-fire rapping group, North Coast and Airwolf, the group that tells crazy roommate, neighbor and living-situation stories. “The goal is to show improv as an art form and to showcase local and national talent,” said Tim Thibodeau, producer of the festival.
Thibodeau describes the art of improvisation as creating spontaneous thoughts into scenes in what can be considered the team sport of comedy. One of the festival’s main goals is to have a diverse group of performers who have different backgrounds and viewpoints, he said. Much of an act is created in the moment and on stage, so even the producers of the fest are surprised. It is “very encouraging … a very important and awesome thing, to have such a diverse group of performers at the festival,” Thibodeau said.
“It’s a pretty well-known festival in the improv world,” Melissa Bowler said, executive director of the Providence Improv Guild — a sponsor of the festival along with Motif Magazine. The fest has a lot of returning groups that come back every year because “they think it’s that much fun,” Bowler said. She added that different cities have different kinds of audiences and different types of groups who perform. “Providence is generally very supportive of arts and the performing arts. We have a beautiful festival for such a small city, and we really put on a good show,” Bowler said.
Eric Fulford, assistant producer, said that the festival will include a diverse “cast of characters” who will perform different styles and new forms of the art. “Every year someone comes up with a really wackadoo crazy form,” Fulford said, adding that there is even a Harry Potter-themed act this time around.
“We’re different from larger festivals,” said Casey Seymour, another assistant producer. She added that the fest has “been around for a long time, and what distinguishes us is that we are intimate. We support the fest’s groups and work to make sure everybody is taken care of.”
Seymour also encouraged Brown students to come to the festival, saying that “it is so easy to become stuck in your campus, and it is also so easy to walk down (College) Hill. Why not take advantage of it?” Bowler attended Providence College and did not start exploring the downtown area until after she graduated. “I wasted so much time … on campus and not enjoying the city that I was in,” Bowler said.
Susan Messing and Rachel Mason make up The Boys, the fest’s headliner based out of Chicago.“They are superstars,” Seymour said, adding that anybody who is interested in improv should take advantage of the opportunity to see the two women perform, both of whom have never before been featured in the Providence Improv Fest.
Brown students should come to the festival because “this stuff could change your life,” Messing joked. Mason also encouraged people to explore “an uncensored art form where anything can happen.”
Kevin Miller, of Austin, Texas’s History Under the Influence troupe, said the fest is “a phenomenal chance to catch some top-notch improv from around the country.” This will be Miller’s fourth time at the fest, and it is his first time teaching a workshop. He added that “improv is about taking the mistakes and goofs that you make in life and making something delightful of them.” In History Under the Influence, five sober group members will partake in an act while dealing with Miller, the “drunken narrator” who will be on the side of the stage. Miller prepares for his role with “five Titos and Cranberry, one every 15 minutes — a very specific regiment,” he said.
The festival is located at AS220 Black Box at 95 Empire Street and AS220 Main Stage at 115 Empire Street.
