Hideout Theatre Prepares Third Annual Improvised Play Festival

The Hideout Theatre is gearing up to showcase the point where theatre and improv meet with their Third Annual Improvised Play festival. Each year, the Hideout hosts local improv theatre companies and companies from around the country for a weekend of improvised one-act plays. This year the festival runs from Thursday April 11-Saturday, April 13. Tickets for each show cost $5-$12 and are available online at www.improvisedplayfestival.com or in person. The Hideout Theatre is located at 617 Congress Ave.

This year's schedule is packed with The Hideout's own repertoire of shows, exciting new shows from other theaters in Austin, and special out-of-town guest troupes from London, New York, Montreal and Dallas. The weekend features improv in the style of Philip K. Dick, pulp adventures, H. P. Lovecraft, Mamet and more.

The festival kicks off with an evening that is highlighted by Ten Thousand Million Love Stories from the United Kingdom. On Thursday, April 11th at 9 p.m. and Saturday, April 13 at 7 p.m., Heather Urquhart and Jules Munns from The Maydays present their new two-person show. Ten Thousand Million Love Stories is about love, what it means and how people succeed and fail in it. The show is not just about meeting the right person, but living with them, growing old with them, getting frustrated and then rediscovering them. Childhood sweethearts, one night stands, ill fated affairs or lifelong soulmates this show focuses on love in all its glory and farce.

Saturday, April 13 at 9 p.m. also features a performance of It's Not You, It's Me from Montreal. This show is a first. The director, Vinny Francois, is from Montreal Improv. He will be guiding a local cast in this improvised tragedy about the birth, life and death of a romantic relationship.

Following at 10 p.m. is a performance by Confidence Men. The Confidence Men, a skilled and seasoned group of improvisers, will take the stage and created a two-act play in the style of David Mamet - right before the audience's eyes. This Austin based troupe boasts a unique rhythm, style, tone, and willingness to go serious and possibly dark. Called "a beautifully played bit of Mamet pastiche, sharp and fast as mob gunfire, that nails it to the f*cking wall," (Austin Chronicle)," these guys relish every opportunity to push the quality and scope of their show even further. They've toured extensively and picked up numerous awards along the way, including a B. Iden Payne in 2010 (it's like the Tony Award of Texas), and were selected for the Seattle, Twin Cities, and Providence Improv Festivals.

"At the Hideout, we believe that improv is theatre, and that improvisers are just actors who improvise. To that end, we created this festival to marry the skill, purposefulness and techniques of scripted theatre with vitality, spontaneity, and 'nowness' of improvisation," said Hideout Artistic Director Roy Janik.

Improvised Play Festival Schedule
Thursday, April 11th
8PM
Past Lives / Pulp Friction
A brand new show kicks off the Improvised Play Festival... Past Lives, an exploration of reincarnation and karma. Followed by Pulp Friction, an improvised Tarantino film.

9PM
Ten Thousand Million Love Stories (London)
All the way from the UK, Ten Thousand million Stories is about love, what it means and how we succeed and fail in it.

10PM
Local Genius Society / In Our Prime
Two wildly different takes on the open-ended improvised play from two local groups.

Friday, April 12th
8PM
Downstairs: False Matters
Improvised, trippy science fiction stories in the style of Philip K. Dick, from Gnap! Theater Projects.

Upstairs: Dice Theater Company (NYC)
Dramatic improv from New York City

9PM
Downstairs: Get Up
Shana Merlin and Shannon McCormick improvise epic stories with dozens of characters, and a dramatic score.

Upstairs: Goat / The Escorts
Tragic improv from Goat and an improvised one-act play from The Escorts

10PM
Downstairs: Parallelogramophonograph
Award winning, internationally touring improv company PGraph presents their "New Works" format.

Upstairs: Fun Grip (Dallas) / Miller & Purselley
It's TWO two person shows! One wild, one patient. One from Dallas, one from Austin. Both fun-loving and playful.

11PM
Downstairs: Available Cupholders
Austin improv legends The Available Cupholders return to show what a group that keeps pushing the envelope can accomplish. Always hilarious and surprising.

Upstairs: The Tribunal
A raw, tense experience you will not soon forget. Only the second time this has ever been performed.

Saturday, April 13th
7PM: Ten Thousand Million Stories (London)
All the way from the UK, Ten Thousand million Stories is about love, what it means and how we succeed and fail in it.

8PM
Downstairs: Strange Worlds
Pulse pounding, improvised tales of action and adventure set in the thrilling worlds of the pulp heroes

Upstairs: Fitzgeralds for Hire
Kaci Beeler and Curtis Luciani portray F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald... as international spies.

9PM
It's Not You, It's Me (Montreal)
A first for the festival... a project cast locally, but directed by a vistor, Vinny Francois, from Montreal Improv. The show will be an improvised tragedy about the birth, life and death of a romantic relationship.

10PM
Downstairs: Confidence Men
Improvised plays in the style of David Mamet. This touring, highly praised group is from right here in Austin, TX.

Upstairs: The Black Vault
Improvised tales of cosmic horror inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft

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