BEAUTY LOVE TRUTH Improv Music Show to Play at Peoples Improv Theatre 4/05

Beauty Love Truth, a show in which guest musicians inspire improvised scenes, plays on Thursday, April 5, 2012 at 9:30pm. This show will play at the Peoples Improv Theater (123 East 24th St. between Park and Lex). Running Time: 60 mins.

Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased by calling 800-838-3006 or online at www.thepit-nyc.com.

There is an adjoining bar and café with light food, so early arrival and after-hang is encouraged.

After a decade of shows at UCB, Barrow Street Theatre, Magnet, The PIT, and countless bars and venues around New York City, Beauty Love Truth’s elegant format -- improvised scenes inspired by a live musician -- returned a year ago with monthly shows at the PIT. Guest musicians provide the material and inspiration and the rotating cast of the improvisers use themes, images, words, moods, or ideas from the music. Nothing is planned; relationships are sweetly or tragically transformed, worlds created or destroyed, souls enlightened or crushed, and magic truths underscored with laughter.

For this run, Beauty Love Truth is always introduced by a writer or comedian who presents something on the topic of beauty, love, and/or truth. Another feature in this run: guest actors who do not usually improvise will be invited to sit in with the rotating cast. Special guests will often be unpublicized so join the mailing list at http://beautylovetruthtv.com. Recent musical guests include: Georgia and Ira from Yo La Tengo, The Spring Standards, Mike Doughty, Chris Mills, LiAnne Smith, and many more.

This month’s show will feature very special guest musician Bob Dorough who will play and sing his jazz compositions and perhaps even a Schoolhouse Rock! masterpiece to inspire the scenes.

This show is co-produced and co-directed by Shannon Manning and Louie Pearlman, who explains, “I was Shannon’s student, and her Beauty Love Truth was always very inspiring to me: rich, unique, and theatrical. Then I taught Beauty Love Truth to my own students, and now I’m so pleased to continue to build this incredible pool of talented improvisers!”

Show creator Shannon Manning, who learned improv from Del Close in Chicago (and at Second City and UCB, and later cofounded Magnet Theater) says, “Beauty Love Truth was a response to the tragedy and malaise a decade ago in New York. The title came from an attempt to distill ‘What is the Point of Anything Anyway’ into three words. You need to shout it to the sky when you say it. So we get to explore the images and ideas of the musicians, and celebrate the art of others, which is the heart of our philosophy of improvisation (of life!): to listen, to learn, to be of service to someone else’s ideas, to make one another look good, to serve the whole. Of course the show still sometimes goes into goofball territory but even then, there might still be tears. The music grounds the show, spiritually and structurally.”

Manning and Pearlman recently taught and performed Beauty Love Truth in Calgary, AB Canada with local musicians and improvisers, and are hoping to bring the show to more cities so people can create their own forms based on the model and foster more music/comedy collaborations.

The cast of improvisers for the April 5th performance:

Kevin Cragg (Magnet, PIT, UCB)
Elana Fishbein (Magnet, Featherweight, Story Pirates)
Roy Koshy (Yes Andersens, Magnet, PIT)
Shannon Manning (UCB, Magnet, PIT, IO Chicago, “Conan”)
Justin Moran (Spidey Project, Pope the Musical, Miranga Island)
Louie Pearlman (Story Pirates, The Spidey Project, Buckshot N Benny)
Branson Reese (Story Pirates, Comedy Expo, We’re Matt Weir)
Sam Rogal (Rooftop Comedy Contest Finalist, Comedy Shmomedy, Top Shelf Chappies)

Visit http://beautylovetruthtv.com for more information.

More Articles by This Author...