MOMENT! 2018: 7th International Improv Festival Vienna

VIENNA IS 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

7th INTERNATIONAL IMPROV FESTIVAL VIENNA 2018 (Oct. 4th – 9th, 2018)

MOMENT! IMPROV FESTIVAL’s international ensemble will perform daily shows at 7.30 pm. 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

Ruth Bratt (GB)
Franck BuzZ (FR)
Inbal Lori (IL)
Dan O’Connor (US)
Mico Pugliares (IT)
Patti Stiles (AU)
THE TAG SPORT-VOR-ORT-ALLSTARS

and as our special guest
Nick Byrne (AU)

the MOMENT! Festival is hosted by
Jim Libby

THE TAG SPORT-VOR-ORT-ALLSTARS

SHOWS

Thursday Oct. 4th
DEEP DREAM presented by Inbal Lori

This format created by Inbal Lori (ISR-Berlin) and Keng-Sam Chane Chick Te (Reunion Island) is played by various improvisers. The stage is an imaginary border between sleep and wakefulness, where pictures appear and fade, stories are born and developed, and the audience gets a peek to a visual fantasy led by charismatic storytelling.

Friday Oct. 5th
QUOTABLE WOMEN presented by Patti Stiles

Quotable Women is a celebration of women improvisors. Using quotes from notable women throughout history as inspiration, Quotable Women will take us on a playful expedition into the often untold stories of women. Power, submission, lust, love, sexuality, body image, success, politics, friends, sisters, mothers, daughters, whores, virgins and lovers. Join this all female cast on a journey from concubine to feminist, from damsel in distress to patriarchal working woman.

Quotable Women was created by Patti Stiles to acknowledge and celebrate women who inspire from all walks of life. The cast are asked to share quotes that connect with them personally as a stimulus. The result is an evening of powerful female voices, triggering the imaginations of a female cast, in a space allowing the cast to step into the challenge of playing characters and stories which they do not normally encountered in other improvisational forms.

Saturday Oct. 6th
CONNECTIONS presented by Ruth Bratt

Seven characters connect, but how? And who? And where? We don’t know yet, but we do know they have no choice but to sing about it.

THE FESTIVAL CAST presented by Nick Byrne

A single character emerges from group movement, and we hear what is inside this one human mind, as she/he goes about her/his daily business, hiding these thoughts from all but the audience. As we meet more characters, it is clear that each human has an inner life they lead, and another they portray on the outside. The world is a cacophony of these worlds, but our stage is a playful, poetic place, where beautiful images prevail.

Sunday Oct. 7th
THE PLAY (2 parts) presented by Dan O’Connor

The International ensemble will create a full length play inspired by modern playwrights. Based entirely on audience suggestion and with no set format and no pre-planned plot structure the ensemble will make up a contemporary play for you.

Monday Oct. 8th
UNDER THE MOONLIGHT presented by Mico Pugliares

When the night has come … How many situations arise? How many characters? Is it a dream or a nightmare? Poets and singers tell stories of the people of the night. Lovers, dreamers, killers, drunkards, prostitutes and pimps, thieves and policemen, real people and imaginary creatures – we are waiting for your tales to be told, to get to know you and find out how and where you live

“… when the night has come
and the land is dark
and the moon is the only light we’ll see
no, I won’t be afraid
no, I won’t be afraid …”

Tuesday Oct. 9th
IMPRO LIGHTBOX (2 parts) presented by Franck BuzZ

Mixing his experiences as professional improviser and former light designer, Franck BuzZ, with Thomas Ury’s support, imagined a show where lighting atmospheres, randomly associated to sound atmospheres, are the starting point of each new scene. In order to provide variety it combines all types of lighting sources, from candles to video projections. All the magic is in the choice of lightning energies, conceived to stimulate improv actors and encourage them to release their spontaneity. Impro LightboX is played in different languages: a mix of languages, international english, gibberish, … and a lot of silence! Emotions, pictures, body language and relationships are universal!

WORKSHOPS

3 hrs WORKSHOP for BEGINNERS
3.30 pm – 6.30 pm
Fees: € 50 / Workshop

RELATIONSHIPS! 
Make friends on stage
with Dan O’Connor 
Friday Oct. 5th
LYMA – Loquaiplatz 12 Top 1, 1060 Vienna

This workshop is about building relationships on stage that lead to a story. You will start by looking at an improviser’s relationship to him/herself and to the other performers. How do all the improvisers on stage relate to each other? You will learn how to create great theatrical relationship on stage.

NO ISN’T ALWAYS A BLOCK – fully booked – waitlist!
Sometimes the best yes is a NO!
with Patti Stiles
Saturday Oct. 6th
Rehearsal Room TAG – Gumpendorfer Str. 67/4, 1060 Vienna

Learning to accept each other’s offers is vital in improvisation. However, many improvisers end up being trained in a pavlovian response to create improvisation through a cycle of offer – say yes – offer – say yes. Scenes go around in circles, more and more ideas are thrown in and nothing really happens. This is due to people being trained to say yes to an idea. But this workshop will show you that sometimes the best Yes is a NO!

CHARACTERS – fully booked – waitlist!
Who are you?
with Inbal Lori
Sunday Oct. 7th
Rehearsal Room TAG – Gumpendorfer Str. 67/4, 1060 Vienna

In this workshop you will explore the joy of finding truth in characters and the ability to change in a believable way. You will do so by trying out different body languages, statuses, personal rhythms and psychological states. You will explore realistic characters along side with expressive and extreme ones. By using improv scenes and long forms, you will look at the ways each character has to express itself while using its motivations, actions, relationships and more.

SILENCE, PHYSICALITY AND PLAYFULNESS – fully booked – waitlist!
Don’t talk unless you can improve the silence.
with Franck BuzZ
Monday Oct. 8th, 2018
Rehearsal Room TAG – Gumpendorfer Str. 67/4, 1060 Vienna

Let’s be inspired by the great masters of black and white movies (Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, …). Let’s play simple but funny situations. Before speaking, there is already a lot to play: a movement, a gesture, a look, a contact, a breath. Our bodies are telling a lot. Let’s enjoy our real comic power by the attitudes and intentions of our characters. Drawing on his extensive background in physical theatre and clowning, Franck will guide you through exercises to help you become more aware of your body and what it may communicate, while giving you some simple tools to make more out of the possibilities of your physical appearance rather than your words, for comedy and drama.

WHERE I STAY?
Stage yourself on stage
with Mico Pugliares
Tuesday Oct. 9th, 2018
Rehearsal Room TAG – Gumpendorfer Str. 67/4, 1060 Vienna

Do you know where to put yourself on stage when there are other players? And when you’re alone? The stage is a space to be occupied physically and this can’t be done randomly. You have to know where to stand, how to relate „your area“ to the “area of others” and the rest of the stage. You’ll discover how to move, how to „be there“ without covering the other actors and find out when it is your turn. You will learn how to explore the space for your characters and emotions and to exist without overpowering the others and try to figure out where the focus of your improvisation lies.

3 hrs WORKSHOP for ADVANCED IMPROVISORS ONLY
3.30 pm – 6.30 pm
Fees: € 50 / Workshop

MUSICAL
Let’s make improvised music as good as the written stuff – or even better!
with Ruth Bratt
Thursday Oct. 4th, 2018
Rehearsal Room TAG – Gumpendorfer Str. 67/4, 1060 Vienna

In this Workshop you’ll look at song structures – solos, duets, group songs – and how to make improvised lyrics sound like real song lyrics rather than improvised song lyrics. You’ll find out why songs happen and how they happen, who leads who, and the joy of collaborating with a musician as a scene partner.
 

TIME
How to jump in time and be everywhere at once.
with Inbal Lori
Friday Oct. 5th,  2018
Rehearsal Room TAG – Gumpendorfer Str. 67/4, 1060 Vienna

Improvisation – like any other story telling arts – uses the element of time to create a variety of cool things. It allows you to jump from one time to another, to be in two different times simultaneously, to slow or fast-forward reality, to jump from the past to the future and much more! This intensive workshop will take you from being totally present in the moment to time-travelling in an epic, fast and funny way, with cinematic and theatrical qualities.

PLAYING POLITICS
How to tackle political, racial and gender issues in improvisation
with Inbal Lori
Tuesday Oct. 9th
VHS – CLUB ROOM – Königsegggasse 10, 1060 Vienna

The world is changing fast and often we are not sure what we are “allowed” to do on stage and what is “inappropriate”. We find ourselves facing questions like:
* How do we tackle political, racial, gender issues in improvisation?
* How do we play the bad guys and/or people who are different from us?
* What do we have to say and how do we avoid propaganda while saying it?
* How do we keep our improvisation playful and funny while tackling such topics?

If you are interested in making relevant, meaningful, thoughts evoking improvisation – this workshop is for you!

5 hrs WORKSHOP for ADVANCED IMPROVISORS ONLY
1.30 pm – 6.30 pm
Fees: € 80 / Workshop

MAKING A PLAY – fully booked – waitlist!
Improvise your way all the way through
with Dan O’Connor
Saturday Oct. 6th
LYMA – Loquaiplatz 12 Top 1, 1060 Vienna

In this workshop you’ll learn how to create a full-length play using improvisation. Where do you begin? How can you use the work of the world’s greatest writers as an inspiration to start with your story and create a fully improvised play? How do you create dynamic stage relationships? You will look at how writer’s provide a terrific tool box for improvisers: How does Shakespeare paint the fourth wall? How does Chekhov employ simple characters to create drama from everyday situations?

GENDER / GENRE
Explore the purpose of your character
with Patti Stiles
Sunday Oct. 7th
 LYMA – Loquaiplatz 12 Top 1, 1060 Vienna

Many of the genres we perform have characters that were created to reflect society of the time. Even if the author set the story in a different time, the actions or behaviours of the characters represented the social sensibility of the reader. These acceptable social rules were heavily categorised into male and female behaviour. Today’s world is different. Our social dynamics and ‘rules’ of engagement encompass more freedom then rules of the past yet our storytelling is still shackled to historical roles. For example, if we continue to categorise behaviour by gender, in reflection of today’s world, are we not perpetuating a form of sexism? Do the actions need to be linked to the gender for the story to be told? Do the stories remain genre ‘true’ regardless of ‘gender’ casting? By questioning, challenging and exploring the purpose of the character in the story and removing the gender assumptions we break open new levels of impro play and possibilities. The effects on the audience are really quite interesting.
 

CASTING for ADVANCED PLAYERS ONLY
Out of your Mind – Festival Cast trained by Nick Byrne

TAG and Nick Byrne will cast a group of advanced players who’ll have the possibility to train and perform with Nick Byrne during the MOMENT! Festival 2018.

If Nick Byrne could describe his style of teaching and directing, it is to remove the worry that clogs the heads of improvisers, and to release the effortless, playful creativity that is already part of every performer. This workshop will include a range of movement exercises in which performers can mindfully focus on simple tasks, so that improvising is worry-free, and large groups can seamlessly co-operate to generate clean stage pictures and multi-perspective scenes. In this state, performer’s minds are relaxed enough to actually notice what offers are already in the scene, and energised to access their ideas or skillsets. There will also be work done to make more difficult improviser’s tools (such as poetic language) easier, even for those with English as a second language.

Through this process, performers will also learn to access and use their stream of consciousness, the limitless flow of information and ideas pouring through our minds, the inner monologues that cycle relentlessly, and the human desires these subconscious thoughts represent. Accessing these on stage presents a different style of storytelling, and a vulnerability that audiences and scene partners can empathise with.

Finally, the workshop returns to concrete realistic scenes, that are more true, coming from instinctual impulse and desire, movement and rhythm.

Fees: € 190

Training Sessions
Thursday Oct. 4th, 2018, 11.00 am – 3.00 pm
Friday Oct. 5th, 2018, 10.00 am – 3.00 pm
Saturday Oct. 6th, 2018, 10.00 am – 3.00 pm
Rehearsal Room TAG – Gumpendorfer Str. 67/4, 1060 Vienna

Show
Saturday Oct. 6th, 2018, 7.30 pm (second half)