This year there is a wide assortment of improv-related shows to sate your palette at the 2007 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Below you’ll find a handy list of shows you can check out. I’ll separate them over the next three posts. This one’s all improv, with sketch and interdisciplinary shows to follow…
A hilarious, unpredictable tour through a weird world and its absurd inhabitants. The Cabal takes a single suggestion for each show and improvises an hour-long piece of twisted fun. Whether portraying savage children who devour their kittens, or rapping Nebraska legislators, the result is a fast-moving, ensemble comedy.
O’Neals Pub, 611 S. Third Street | $10
9/6 & 9/13 @ 8:30pm
9/7, 9/8, 9/14 & 9/15 @ 8:00pm & 9:30pm___________________________________________
Two improv teams, one stage; two comedy sets, one winner. This is CAGEMATCH: the world’s most competitive longform improvisation tournament, visiting from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and hosted by PHIT. Philly’s best improv groups will perform 25 minutes head-to-head with the winner chosen by audience secret ballot.
Second Stage at The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street | $10
9/13, 9/14 & 9/15 @ 10:00pm___________________________________________
Tapestry Theatre: Cecily & Gwendolyn’s Fantastical Balloon Ride
Gwendolyn and Cecily are two heroic, adventure-seeking ladies on an enchanted journey through past, present, and future. Faced with challenges at every turn, can they manage to return home without disrupting the universe as we know it? Entirely improvised, based on your suggestions.
The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street | $10
9/1 @ 7:30pm, 9/2 @ 6:00pm
9/7 @ 9pm, 8/31 & 9/8 @ 10:00pm___________________________________________
A fool from LA…a fool from Philadelphia…no script. With nothing but a blank stage, a single suggestion, and two twisted minds, Thomas Fowler and Mary Carpenter take you on an improvised ride that is hilarious, unique, and dangerously unpredictable. “Better than any improv group I’ve seen.” – Philadelphia City Paper
The Actor’s Center, 257 N. Third Street | $10
9/8 @ 9:00pm
9/6, 9/7, 9/8, 9/9 @ 7:00pm___________________________________________
Come see the improv that made Philadelphia City Paper “collapse into laughter” at last year’s Fringe! Industrial is back to perform for their comrades in Philadelphia, with their red jumpsuits and manifesto-informed world view in tow. A single word the audience suggests fuels a thirty-minute improvised one-act play.
Independence Park Hotel, 235 Chestnut Street | $10
9/1, 9/2, 9/3, 9/9 & 9/13 @ 8:00pm
9/1 & 9/2 @ 9:30pm___________________________________________
LunchLady does longform improv like no one else. Spontaneously-generated theater that is funny, smart, strange, and utterly breathtaking. Philadelphia City Paper and Philadelphia Weekly say “these five improvisers are uncanny;” “the best of the bunch;” “satisfying and impressive.” Over ten seasons of sold-out shows at the Philly Fringe!
Second Stage at The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street | $10
8/31 & 9/8 @ 9:00pm
9/1 @ 6:00pm, 9/2 @ 7:30pm & 9/7 @ 10:00pm___________________________________________
The N Crowd: Triple Double Feature
The N Crowd is a short form improv comedy troupe that has been performing weekly in Philadelphia. Each hilarious scene starts with a suggestion from the audience. They promise you can’t legally have this much fun in ninety minutes for ten dollars.
The Actor’s Center, 257 N. Third Street | $10
8/31, 9/7 & 9/14 @ 8:00pm & 10:00pm___________________________________________
You yell out a word. We turn it into comedy. Rare Bird Show creates hilarious, spontaneous, fast-paced, unscripted longform improv comedy, all from one audience suggestion. An aroundphilly.com Top 10 Pick and a Philadelphia Weekly Editor’s Pick.
Independence Park Hotel, 235 Chestnut Street | $10
8/31, 9/6, 9/8 & 9/15 @ 8:00pm & 10:00pm___________________________________________
With an emphasis on realism, this unique improv ensemble develops a spontaneous theater piece that explores a wide range of relationships. These talented actors create laugh-out-loud humor and heart-touching moments of truth as they improvise the human experience. Expect romance, comedy, drama, playfulness…and lots of kissin’ and wrestlin’.
Second Stage at The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street | $10
9/13, 9/14 & 9/15 @ 9:00pm
Posted by Matt Nelson 
