Tickets Now on Sale for Magnet Theater's 5th Annual New York Musical Improv Festival, 10/17-20

Magnet Theater presents The Fifth Annual New York Musical Improv Festival from October 17 - 20, 2013 at 254 W. 29th Street, ground floor (between 7th and 8th Avenues), NYC. Tickets are available beginning October 1, 2013 at www.brownpapertickets.com or www.nymif.com. Most tickets are $10-$15 and feature performances by two different musical improv acts per show.

Over 100 performers from as far as Toronto, Chicago, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Washington DC and as close as Broadway, NYC will converge on the Magnet Theater stage to create fully improvised musical performances - ranging from traditional musical theatre fare to adrenaline-pumping rap battles. The Magnet Theater is recognized as the center for musical improv study and performance in the U.S.

Featured performers will include...

Baby Wants Candy (NYC), The Improvised Sondheim Project (Chicago), ComedySportz (NYC), The Lupones (Pittsburgh), North Coast (NYC), Happy Karaoke Fun Time! (Chicago), Vox Solo (Washington, D.C.), Trudy Carmichael's Musical Mixer (Las Vegas), Ashland (Chicago), The Made-Up Musical (NYC), BEEES! (NYC), Aquarius (NYC), Mansical (Chicago),The Jezebelles (NYC), La Donna Improvvisata (NYC), Legend (NYC), Fancy Mantlepiece (NYC), THEM ( NYC), Mint Condition (NYC), Petting Zoo (NYC), Madde Gibba (Minneapolis), The Proverbial Loons (NYC).

The New York Musical Improv Festival will also be featuring up and coming performers in the NYMIF I.P.O. (Initial Public Offering). Performing this year are Big D and the Closers (NYC), The Maple Clefs (Toronto), Yo Gloria (Pittsburgh) and Fancyman (NYC).

LIVE BAND KARAOKE - On Friday, October 11th at 11:30pm, in preparation for The

Fifth Annual New York Musical Improv Festival being held October 17-20th, the Magnet

Theater is giving everyone the chance to unleash their inner Rock Star and belt out their

favorite tunes on stage to a full LIVE BAND headed up by Frank Spitznagel.

This ONE NIGHT ONLY event is FREE to everyone. Sign-up starts at 11:15 and is first-

come, first-served.

GILDA'S CLUB BENEFIT SHOW - On Sunday, October 20, 2013, the Festival will present a special performance to benefit Gilda's Club of New York City to raise funds and awareness for people living with cancer. In honor of comedy legend Gilda Radner, the benefit will feature many of the top female musical improv artists in the

country. Headliners for the benefit include the powerhouse all-female Musical Improv troupe, "Generation G", internationally renowned "Jazz and Soul Diva", Sharón Clark and a musical performance from critically acclaimed actor, Sam Underwood of Showtime's Dexter, HBO's Homeland and FOX's The Following.

Most tickets are $10-$15 and include performances by two different musical improv acts per show. Tickets are available at www.brownpapertickets.com or by phone at 800-838- 3006. See schedule on www.nymif.com for details.

Aquarius (Magnet Theater, NYC) From a single suggestion, Aquarius spins a musical tale full of heroes and villains, highs and lows, dreams and nightmares, something and its opposite. Delight in their fantasies! "Water" you waiting for?

Ashland (Second City, Chicago) is a one-woman musical that begins by taking a suggestion from the audience to inspire an opening. From that opening, Ashley organically draws scenes, games, and other moves to bring both the dramatic and comedic to the stage. Many characters will come to sing their hearts out, but only one woman will take the stage.

Baby Wants Candy (NYC) has established itself in New York and Chicago as the only musical improv group to perform a fully-improvised one-act musical with a full band. Based on a single audience suggestion of a title, the actors and musicians work together harmoniously to deliver a hilarious evening of entertainment.

BEEES!!! (Magnet Theater, NYC) spontaneously creates a longform narrative musical based on an audience member's suggestion. Every song, line and hip gyration is improvised on the spot as BEEES!!! brings you to a world full of melodrama, complex relationships, and fun times.

ComedySportz (NYC) is fast-paced, family-friendly improvisational comedy, played as a sport. Two teams take turns making up scenes, playing games and singing songs - and the audience votes on which team they like the best. It's all presided over by a referee, who keeps things moving, calls the ComedySportz fouls and takes suggestions shouted out by the audience before each game.

Fancy Mantelpiece (NYC) performs musical monoscenes: mini plays with made-up music! They pride themselves on their vocal harmonies, snazzy dance numbers, fantastical characters, and frequent tap breaks!

The Improvised Sondheim Project (Chicago) performs completely improvised musicals in the style of Stephen Sondheim. No scripts. No sheet music. No pre-planning. Just a

Happy Karaoke Fun Time! (Chicago) is a musically improvised show. Improv and

Karaoke come together to create a world in which scenes explode into popular songs

you'll recognize (but lyrics you won't) ...made up entirely on the spot!

suggestion from the audience and the muse of Mr. Sondheim to guide them as they make up a brand new musical each night right before your eyes.

The Jezebelles (Magnet Theater, NYC) is New York's first and only all-female musical improv house team at the Magnet Theater! They rock it out with sweet harmonies and sweeter dance moves in a high energy, crowd pleasing set. Working as a unit, they tell funny stories and sing songs that will make you cry or make you jump out of your seat to dance along!

La Donna Improvvisata (NYC) Lisa Flanagan is La Donna Improvvisata (or The Impromptu Lady). Combining her experience as an opera singer and musical improviser, Lisa collaborated with Frank Spitznagel to create a solo show that explores the heightened emotions and classical archetypes of opera. Sometimes funny. Sometimes sad. Always sung.

Legend (Magnet Theater, NYC) goes behind the scenes of a seemingly ordinary place - The Brooklyn Brewery, an Olive Garden, the Louvre - and exposes the seamy underbelly beneath. They then explore the inner lives of the people who make up a place, and connect the whole thing with a narrative through line. You'll never think of [place you suggested] the same way again!

The Lupones (Steel City Improv, Pittsburgh) delight your ears and your eyes with a musical Harold. Improvisers with strong musical theater backgrounds take a single audience suggestion and weave grounded relationship based scene work with heightened emotionally charged songs.

Madde Gibba: Does Not Play Well With Others (HUGE Theater, MN) Comedian and songstress, Madde Gibba presents a completely improvised rock pop jazz-splosion of a concert before your very eyes! Based on your suggestions for their set list, Madde Gibba and her trusted band of super hip and sassy musicians give you an evening of improvised storytelling and rock pop jazz-splosive make 'em up songs.

Made-Up Musical (Magnet Theater, NYC) TMUM is a long-form improvised musical show that has been singing and dancing its way onto the Magnet Theater stage with a one of a kind musical comedy every week for over 6 1/2 years. After an interview with an audience member, the cast weaves together a full one-act musical, complete with all the songs, trappings and melodrama you'd expect from our friends on Broadway..

Mansical (Chicago) Using a single suggestion from the audience, the seven handsome men of Mansical improvise a fully realized musical joy ride comprised of scenes, songs, harmonies, dancing, rapping and wigs. Our shows do not follow a single plot but instead explore the suggestion via mad hyper-agreement, free-play and musicality.

Mint Condition (Magnet Theater, NYC) They are fresh, they are clean, they are Mint Condition! Based off of a single suggestion, Mint Condition brings you a fully improvised musical monoscene full of romance, horror, action, and adventure - but mostly comedy. Mint Condition will brighten smiles, keep mouths happy, and give full long-lasting flavor due to their strong harmonies, sense of play, and love of improv. That is Mint Condition!

North Coast! (NYC) Now that the east coast/west coast beef has subsided, North Coast! is stepping up to throw down. Watch as New York's only freestyle rapping, beat boxing, long-form improv team performs a fully improvised "hip hopera" right in front of yo mouf. You bring your favorite rap lyric and North Coast! will make your gut bust and your head bop. And if you don't know, now you know.

Petting Zoo (Secret Theater, Queens, NY) The most prolific musical indie team in New York, Petting Zoo is dedicated to making up musicals that open the heart and feed the soul. Their shows are defined by their love for each other and for musical improv itself.

The Proverbial Loons (Castillo Theater, NYC) Castillo's veteran musical improv team invites two audience members onstage for a "living room-style" conversation. The Loons get to know them, and then perform an improvised musical comedy that weaves together their affectionately embellished lives.

THEM (The P.I.T., NYC) performs a musical narrative unlike you've never seen. THEM is known for their love of the absurd, played with grounded sincerity and realness. They've also been known to do operas and musical soap operas. They also sing their faces off.

Trudy Carmichael's Musical Mixer (Las Vegas/NYC) - This late night festival favorite challenges you to try your lady (and manly) luck at making up music with some of the finest Musical Improvisers in the country! Anyone can sign up to perform - even if it's your first time. Keep your bankroll stashed because admission to the Mixer is 100% free! Hosted by Vegas Lounge Legend and Lush, Miss Trudy Carmichael and her trusty sidekick, TJ with The Magnet Musical Mixer Orchestra, a 5-piece band led by the incomparable Frankie Keys providing improvised musical accompaniment throughout the night!

Vox Solo (Washington, DC) - Jordan Hirsch, one half of the acclaimed musical duo Vox Pop, bravely soldiers on alone to perform an entirely improvised solo musical show about relationships and the people inside them.