Manila Improv Festival 2015 to Be Held on July 2 to 12

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Silly People’s Improv Theatre (SPIT) is the country’s premiere improvisational theatre group known for their smart and incisive brand of comedy. Considered as one of the best improv comedy troupes in Asia, SPIT has had almost a thousand performances in the last decade to both local and international audiences whose combined numbers easily run up to the thousand. SPIT has represented the Philippines in the Los Angeles, Beijing and Hong Kong Comedy Festivals, and the Improv Festivals in New York and Chicago, and more recently, the Amsterdam Improv Festival in January of this year.

Improvisational theatre is a form of theatre where scenes are co-created by the audience and the actors in real time, without the benefit of a script or prior rehearsals for the performers. Because of this method, watching an improvised theatre show is more akin to performance art due to its non-conventional approach.

This year, Manila International Improv Festival 2015 is happening on July 2-12, 2015. This performance art festival is a partnership with two prominent Philippine institutions. Silliman University in Dumaguete will host our Tropical Improv Camp from July 2-5, and the Philippine Educational Theatre Association (PETA) will be our partner venue where all theatre performances will be held on July 8-12, 2015.

Our performance art fair is hosting improv comedy groups from around the world: PIP Show (Warsaw), Impro Mafia (Brisbane), Pirates of Tokyo Bay (Tokyo), Landry & Summers (Los Angeles), To Be Continued, People’s Liberation Improv, 3 Dudes Improv and Lamb Ink (Hong Kong), The Improv Company (Singapore), Taichung Improv (Taichung), The Beijing Collective (Beijing), People’s Republic of Comedy and Zmack (Shanghai), Bacolod Improv Group (Bacolod), Dulaang Atenista (Cagayan de Oro), One and a Half Men, Switch Improv, and SPIT (Manila).

Now on its third run, we are proud to say that the Manila Improv Fest has earned the distinction of being the “improv comedy festival that has set the standard for improv comedy festivals” according to one of our festival regulars, Curt Mabry of Zmack, Shanghai.

This year’s festival theme is “Finding the Game”- a nod to the games and exercises that improvisers use in performance, and an affirmation of the playful nature of improvisation.

Silliman University plays host to our conference component, which is a gathering of improvisers who have taken the principles of improv theatre and have used it as a method for facilitating learning events including corporate and organisational settings. In partnership with the Applied Improvisation Network which counts Gabe Mercado as the very first Filipino board member, this is the second year we are incorporating this particular track to the festival, after a well-received run in Casa San Pablo, Laguna in 2013, having 30 applied improv practitioners from London, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States and Manila in attendance. Apart from a mutual exchange among participants on their experiences on the myriad applications of improvised theatre techniques ranging from the fields of the visual arts, to education for learners with special needs, delegates experienced the rich culinary culture and the centuries-old craftworks of Laguna.

This year, we have chosen Silliman University, Dumaguete as our venue for the conference to highlight two things from this destination- their distinguished literary heritage and the pristine beaches lining the province. Needless to say, our international delegates were drawn to the promise of sea and sand, as we expected them to be.

The PETA-PHINMA theatre will be home to our festival performers and have been quite invested in our preparations. Our joint marketing efforts is poised to attract at least 5,000 guests to the 25 performances we have scheduled, and about 500 delegates to the workshops we have meticulously curated together with our international performers. Concurrent with our performances and workshops, we have exhibitors present at the venue that will showcase their products and services to our festival guests.

For more details and updates, you may check out SPIT via
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/spitmanila
Twitter: @spitmanila
Instagram: spitmanila

For ticket and workshop inquiries contact:
Jay Tipayan of PETA Theater Center
Tel. (02) 726-6244 / 0927-3917379