Tag Archives: san diego

Spotlight on San Diego Improv Festival 2015

Posted by Nick Armstrong on December 1, 2014

The San Diego Improv Festival launches into its second year in February. I was able to interview Kevin Dolan one or the Producers of the festival. Check out what wonderful things this city and the festival have to offer.

This is your 2nd year of the SDIF. Tell us how the SDIF came about.

Amy Lisewski, the Artistic Director of Finest City Improv (FCI), has always believed in bringing the top improvisers to perform and teach workshops in San Diego. Even before FCI had its own space, she would have the best people she knew down from LA to teach workshops during the day and perform on the same bill with local teams at night. Once FCI had its own theater – and one that is attached to a hotel no less – having multi-day festival was a natural step.

It is unique to have a festival where the theater and hotel are connected. Tell us about that and what the hotel has to offer for improvisers.

FCI has a great location, attached to The Lafayette Hotel, Swim Club & Bungalows. The place has a retro feel reminiscent of a Hollywood-style property you would see in a 1940s movie. The hotel restaurants have tasty food, the lobby is a great place to relax, and the rooms have been recently remodeled. And of course there is a swimming pool which we use for the festival’s big social event: the pool party on Saturday afternoon.

The biggest advantage to being attached to the hotel is that it’s great for connecting with other improvisers. We want the San Diego Improv Festival to be a social event as much as it is an improv event. We want people to make friends and come back every year to see those people again.

The neighborhood surrounding FCI is also “uber-hip,” or so I’m told. I can definitely tell you it has some good restaurants that don’t cost a fortune.

What can improvisors expect?

Our goal is to make SDIF the perfect weekend vacation for the improviser.

Even if your team isn’t performing at the festival, you can participate in our open jam on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights before the shows start. This is an opportunity to get on stage and play with the people you’ve been partying with all week.

We also have a full workshop program, with four already scheduled and four more in the works. Improvisers will be able to take up to two workshops on Saturday (10am and 3pm) and two on Sunday (11;30am and 3pm). Workshops will be two and a half hours long to facilitate getting adequate stage time for all attendees. Nick Armstrong and Karen Graci from LA, and Colleen Doyle and Jason Shotts from Chicago, are the confirmed workshop instructors.

Then there are the parties. I already talked about the Pool Party on Saturday afternoon – it’s scheduled between the morning and afternoon workshops – and that’s the social highlight of the festival. There will also be parties either on site or very close by on Friday and Saturday nights after the shows. With the hotel so close by, the parties were very popular last year and I expect it to be the same this year.

And of course we’re going to have a great lineup headlined by King Ten from Los Angeles and Dummy from Chicago; as well as other great teams from Chicago, New York, and other places closer to home.

The San Diego Improv Festival is the perfect improv vacation: take great improv workshops, see world class improv teams, party with fun improvisers, and participate in an improv jam (or two).

If accepted to the festival what do improvisers have to look forward to? Discounts? Workshops?

Performers will receive a wristband which will allow them to get into shows free of charge when there are seats available (at start of show). Performers can guarantee a seat by buying tickets or a festival pass in advance and are given a 50% discount. Performers will also receive a welcome package upon arrival.

Tell us about your great city…What can improvisers from out of town do while they’re there?

Of course, San Diego has some of the nicest weather anywhere in the world. Also, FCI is not too far from Balboa Park, home of the San Diego Zoo as well as a number of popular museums. San Diego has a number of micro-breweries, for those who like beer. And of course the beach isn’t far away. Surf’s up!

What have been some of the biggest challenges putting a festival on?

There are a so many details involved in staging a festival. We are fortunate to have people like Kat Brown, Erin Hanehan, and a great team of volunteers to make everything go smoothly.

 

Instantly submit to SDIF today.

Nick is Camp Director and Founder of Improv Utopia an improv retreat for adults in California and Pennsylvania. He is also one of the founding members of the National Improv Network and performer and teacher at iO West as well as member of The Sunday Company at The Groundlings. He has also taught many workshops around the country.

San Diego’s Freshman Outing

Posted by Bill Binder on February 20, 2014

Improv This Way

Improv This Way

San Diego has had improv for a long time, but the last couple of years has seen a huge growth in performers, quality and involvement in the national community. Several theatres have grown, at least one new one has started, and this past weekend they put on a proper festival.

I was lucky enough to be in San Diego for the event, and even perform with Galapagos on Saturday evening. The whole festival was well organized and the shows were great all around. And while there were a fair amount of performers in the audience, there were plenty of audience members seeing improv for perhaps the first time. I can’t imagine a better introduction.

One of the important things traveling performers always want to know is “How close to the venue is the hotel?”. San Diego may be #1 in the game on this one. The distance from my room to the stage was probably about 200 feet. Finest City Improv has a lovely venue attached to The Lafayette Hotel and graciously provided their stage to the festival. The closeness was nice of course, but having that close of a relationship between a festival and a hotel meant many other conveniences throughout the weekend, inducing a pool party hosted by local troupe Swim Team and one after party at the hotel bar across the hallway.

The Venue itself was great for a first year festival; not as huge as some festivals, but a great size to welcome the public and introduce them to new improv. The Finest City folks were among the most generous of their time and energy of any festival I’ve visited and their volunteers could not be more involved and motivated. A lot of that is unquestionably rooted in the energy of Amy Lisewski and Chris George. They weren’t by any stretch of the imagination the only people working hard, but it was apparent that their love and passion for improv were the inspiration for many people. Everyone at the festival clearly believes in their vision.

Nyarlathotep

Nyarlathotep

And that vision goes to working together with all the artists and performers in San Diego. It was great to catch up with Mike McFarland from Sidestage Improv and other performers from around the theatres in town both performing and coming to share together in the excitement of the weekend. It was the performers of San Diego all working together to celebrate. It was in fact sad that one improv company decided to isolate themselves and not involve themselves at all with the festival. It’s always disheartening to see companies like this think that working together to educate the public is somehow hurting their business model. It’s an outdated idea and one that I hope dissolves in San Diego in the next few years.

The programming for the weekend was solid and consistent, pulling a slightly regionalized set of performers, but also shows and instructors from farther away providing exposure to different styles. Workshops from Bill Arnett, Cook County Social Club and The Reckoning were not only an incredible collection of ideas, but a great investment in the future of San Diego performers. The shows were not only solid from start to finish, but well balanced and ordered to give each block’s audience an good variety of shows – something that many festivals overlook. Also, on a personal note, it has been fun this last year visiting festivals where I knew at least a little bit about every troupe performing through NIN. I won’t call out every show, but the highlight had to be Cook County Social Club sitting in with The Reckoning. That’s the kind of show you don’t get to see that often. The Laser Improv Show was another show that got people talking if only because it was nice to see someone trying something new and unique.

Overall, if this is indicative of how San Diego runs festivals, they’re off to a great start. I have no doubt they’ll continue to grow. The festival was great and will continue to be great because of the hard work and enthusiasm of people like Vanessa, Gary, Emily, Kevin and especially Kat who was working and organizing practically every minute of that festival. To each of these people and to all the other volunteers and organizers, a sincere thank you from all the performers and audience members who enjoyed themselves this last weekend.

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Currently Bill is an instructor at The Torch Theatre and producer for the Phoenix Improv Festival. He tours teaching and performing across North America.


Photos Courtesy Finest City Improv

Spotlight On: San Diego Improv Festival

Posted by Bill Binder on December 12, 2013


San Diego is growing fast as an improv city. Different theatres, different styles, but plenty of people who are working towards making improv accessible to the people of San Diego.

Part of that growth means a new improv festival and a new chance for improvisors to visit a new place and share the love (on Valentine’s Day no less).

I’ve had the pleasure to know Chris George for a while now and I was excited to get to talk to him about the upcoming first San Diego Improv Festival and the growth of the city’s active improv scene.

Finest City just opened in December. And you’re putting up a festival in February; that’s a lot going on. Why did you decide to have a festival so close to the launch of the theatre? What kind of shared energy do you think will go into launching this first festival?

San Diego is in a real boom-time as far as improv goes. In the last three years, there has been a huge explosion in the number of theaters, groups, venues, showcases, classes, workshops, and people. In addition to Finest City opening, groups like Sidestage have seen enormous crowds and popular workshop series, and Lifeplay (which focues on using improv skills to help children and teens with bullying, but also does a lot of great traditional programming) has seen a large increase in demand and activity. Basically – San Diego is at a critical point for improv and we feel that it is time to both tie us in to the larger national community, and also celebrate just how wonderful improv is in San Diego right now. We hope to really capture the unbridled enthusiasm our community has right now, and also expand some horizons of some of our players that may have been a little isolated up to this point.

San Diego has a rich collection of improv, both longform and shortform. What are you hoping for visitors to learn and take away from being exposed to San Diego’s improv scene?

The improv community here is very vibrant and growing, but we’re still largely unknown to the greater San Diego community. We’re hoping that our festival can a celebration of just how much we’ve been able to accomplish in the last few years, and introduce the best of San Diego and beyond to our largely untapped audience. We do have some very talented and motivated local players, and getting the word out is still a high priority.

Outside of performances, what other events will be available for performers? Workshops? Parties?

We will have workshops; we have already confirmed iO’s Bill Arnett (3033, People of Earth) as a teacher at the festival and we plan on having on even more great teachers from our local and visiting teams. We are fortunate to have the venue at the same location as our host hotel, which means that we should have a large concentration of improvisers on site, and no one has to drive anywhere. The hotel has a pool and two bars, which I suspect may mean that the party may never stop. We are also planning some afternoon excursions to some of the local flavor.

San Diego is an amazing city. When the festival isn’t happening, what sights would you recommend for visitors? Where are some of the best places to eat around the festival?

The San Diego Zoo is probably the most well known landmark, and is a terrific exhibit, but the surrounding park (Balboa) has science and history museums, walking trails, and shops. The USS Midway exhibit is a decommissioned aircraft carrier that is a popular tourist destination, and is surrounded by the Embarcadero, which is a wonderful waterfront shopping area. The Gaslamp area downtown is a well known party area, packed with bars and restaurants, and the intersection of 30th & University was rated by several national publications as one of the best places to drink beer in the country, due to its high concentration of bars, nearly all of which have dozens of varieties of beer. Speaking of that, San Diego county is home to 40+ microbreweries, most of which have samplings and tours, making us one of the best places for a beer connoisseur. Our theater is located in the middle of the North Park neighborhood, home to hundreds of bars and restaurants, all within an easy walk or cab ride. There are amusement parks just an hour north in Carlsbad, CA, sunny beaches, surfing, sailing, and of course, improv.

What’s the venue like?

A nice place to chill before shows

A nice place to chill before shows

We’re very fortunate to be partnered with the Lafayette Hotel, which is a kitschy, newly remodeled hotel that used to be a favorite haunt of celebrities and actors in the 30’s-50’s. Our theater is brand new, with full lighting and sound equipment, projectors, and has a hand built stage, which is probably one of the best stages that could be built for improv.

To the best of my knowledge, this will be one of the first times San Diego audiences will be exposed to a large number of out-of-town performances. What are your hopes in exposing them to new kinds of improv?

We have had a few out of town guests in the past – Two Beer Queer, King Ten, The 313, Ice Tits to name a few, but this will be the first largest gathering of visiting teams. I think for a long time, San Diegans have only seen shortform improv, and audiences probably only associate improv with silly, gimmicky, or relatively unprofessional groups. We really want to show the wide variety of high quality teams we have available both in town and out. We would love our audiences to walk away that weekend with an appreciate of traditional longform, deconstructive forms (e.g. Armando), musical, narrative, genre, shortform, and maybe even some new, challenging, and unique improv. We hope that the audiences that come see our stuff will continue to check out new and different improv groups, and hopefully join us in exploring and performing.

What kind of shows are you looking for in your submissions this year?

We want about a 50/50 split between home and visiting teams, and we really want to showcase a large variety of shows. We want great teams, of course, but we also would love to get some shows that no one has really ever seen before.

California has seen an explosion of improv festivals in the last two years. What are some things you’ve learned from them and other festivals around the country? What are some things you’re hoping to emulate or change?

Finest City has been very lucky to have had the opportunity to talk to a lot of festival organizers and get some ideas for how to make the festival the kind of one you would want to come back to next year. We want to focus on making our guests feel welcome – we’re hoping to organize some airport and train station pickups to make the trip easier, and giving each team a local contact they can call if they have questions, or even just want to know a good place to get noodles at 2am (for the record, Jimmy Wong’s Golden Dragon Asian Bistro over in Hillcrest). We are aware that a trip to San Diego is a bit of trip for almost everyone, and we want to make that trip worthwhile.

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Submissions are open right now. It’s a great chance to come out and be among the first to share improv from your home with the people of San Diego and to meet people like Chris.

Currently Bill is an instructor at The Torch Theatre and producer for the Phoenix Improv Festival. He tours teaching and performing across North America.

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