MOMENT! 2016: 5th International Improv Festival Vienna

PUTTING VIENNA BACK ON THE INTERNATIONAL IMPROV MAP!
TAG – Theater an der Gumpendorfer Straße in Vienna produces passionate and entertaining contemporary theatre with a special focus on improv theatre and hereby proudly announces the 5th INTERNATIONAL IMPROV FESTIVAL VIENNA 2016

MOMENT! IMPROV FESTIVAL’s international ensemble will perform daily shows at 7pm. Each night a different set of players hits the stage and the audience can expect vivid performances unique in their matchless constellation of improv stars from all over the world alongside the TAG SPORT-VOR-ORT-ALLSTARS.

The Festival ensemble is excited to be creating incredible, unexpected and lasting MOMENTs for you!

ARTISTS LINE-UP

Rod Ben Zeev (NL)
Nick Byrne (AU)
Jana Carpenter (US)
Randy Dixon (US)
Omar Argentino Galvan (ES)
Charlotte Gittins (GB)
Per Gottfredsson (SE)
Kiki Hohnen (NL)
Steve Jarand (CA)
Gunter Lösel (DE)
Sonja Vilc (SI)
Goran Završnik (SI)
 

THE TAG SPORT-VOR-ORT-ALLSTARS
Beatrix Brunschko
Magda Leeb
Rupert Leehofer
Jim Libby
Clemens Matzka
Susanne Pöchacker
Georg Schubert
Helmut Schuster
Michael Smulik
Kathy Tanner
Barbara Willensdorfer
Markus Zett
Anita Zieher
AND OTHERS

SHOWS

Opening Show Thu 15.9.2016, 7 pm
Friday Show Fri 16.9.2016, 7 pm
Saturday Show Sat 17.9.2016, 7 pm
Sunday Show Sun 18.9.2016, 7 pm
Monday Show Mon 19.9.2016, 7 pm
Closing Show Tue 20.9.2016, 7 pm

WORKSHOPS

Rod Ben Zeev (NL) „50 CHARACTERS IN 3 HOURS“  
Friday Sept. 16th, 3 pm – 6 pm

In this workshop you will learn quick, easy and practical ways to create a distinct and original character. As the title suggests you will be working intensively and have over 50 of them by the end of the workshop and an arsenal of techniques to create hundreds of believable and surprising characters at a moments notice.

Steve Jarand (CA) „THE FASCINATION OF THE MASKS“  
Saturday Sept. 17th, 11 am – 2  pm

What are the differences between good Impro and great Impro? Good acting and great acting?
It lies somewhere beyond wit, charm and precision.
In this session, gain some insight into the origins of improvised theatre and of the heart of the performer through the use of masks and mask ideas.
Experience how the impulse of transformation can come from something other than your thoughts, your concepts, your self.
We will work with half and/or partial masks (noses, glasses, wigs, etc.) to give ourselves different inner and outer perception.
We will also play full masks to practice new physical and emotional states and reveal stories of the audience as well as the personal feelings that go along with them.

Randy Dixon (US) „THE UNSTRUCTURED HAROLD“
Saturday Sept. 17th, 3 pm – 6 pm

Explore the new innovations of this favorite long form:

Being Present: Techniques and games designed to keep you in the moment and away from being too creative or playwriting. Using collaboration to discover new ways of being spontaneous and in the moment.
Raising Stakes: How, and when to raise the stakes in order to make a story more compelling and interesting. Making offers which put the characters at risk and drives a story towards something worthwhile. Make scenes worth something! 
Creating Great Scenes & Scene Beginnings: Setting up the scene, recognizing when you have the promise, and can move to the middle. Covering a good, basic beginning to all types of scenes.  
Narrative and Storytelling; Focus given on how stories work and how to make strong narrative offers in scene work and long form. Story structure and how it is applied by performer and audience will be covered.
Personal Storytelling: How to use aspects of your own life to inform your improvisation and find deeper meaning for your audiences through your work.
 

Kiki Hohnen (NL) „IMPROV AND PSYCHOLOGY“
Sunday Sept. 18th, 11 am – 2  pm

We talk about personality disorders, because they make for interesting characters (used a lot in literature, film, and tv!) and play with that.

Charlotte Gittins (GB) „DAMN GOOD CHARACTERS“
Sunday Sept. 18th, 1 pm – 4 pm

Nick Byrne (AU) „COMMON MONSTERS“
Sunday Sept. 18th,  3 pm – 6 pm

Are there areas of improvisation that you consider more difficult than others? Do you sometimes avoid choosing these types of scenes, games, long-forms? Did you imagine you needed a special talent or skill set to perform musical or Shakespearean improv, or another specialised style? Who told you that? Maybe it was yourself? Well, you can do it! You can do it, now! Do it, easily, in this workshop, and free yourself.
Nick Byrne operates a company that is largely composed of non-professional performers, with day jobs. They are people who simply won’t have the time to devote themselves to understanding every nuance of a difficult genre, like Shakespeare, before they are asked to play a scene in that style. They won’t become musicians or even conquer their (usually mistaken) belief that they are tone-deaf, before they are asked to improvise a song. Nick believed their must be a way to make these ‘common monsters’, (whatever shape they may take for different improvisers), approachable and easy to enjoy, so that fear and complexity did not prevent them from growing their skill-set. In one night, (as part of his beginners course), Nick now has every participant successfully singing solo, and expressively invoking Shakespeare, in scene work, and has developed this work into anything up to a nine-night course, which encompasses participants own ‘monsters’, and includes work on the most common monster of all; releasing the need to think ahead or reflect on the past.
Whatever your experience level, leave this workshop believing that there is no area of improv that you cannot enjoy and be competent in.
 

Per Gottfredsson (SE) „THE SCENES FULL POTENTIAL“
Monday Sept. 19th, 3 pm – 6 pm

In this workshop we are going to work on tools that will help you find the scene´s full potential. We are going to examine how we can stay connected with our fellow improviser on stage. How we can create an electric charge between the characters that will help us stay in our bodys and play the situation. We will work on multi-layered dialogues where you while you play the situation you also examine the history the characters have together and the character’s dreams and whishes. We will work on how we can use the stage to make the scene more interesting.  
 
for advanced improv players
Duration: 3 hrs
Fees: 50 Euro / Workshop
Location: LYMA – Learning for Life, Loquaiplatz 12/1, 1060 Vienna
Apply now!