Sarasota Improv Festival brings laughs back to FST after four-year pandemic break
After a four-year break caused by the COVID pandemic, Florida Studio Theatre is preparing to welcome back more than a dozen improvisational comedy groups from around the world for a weekend of spontaneous laughter at the 13th Sarasota Improv Festival.
The three-night festival, which began in 2009, will be presented July 20-22 in multiple spaces on FST’s downtown Sarasota campus. The theater hasn’t held an in-person festival since 2019, though there was a virtual version in 2020.
The headliner is the British comedy performer known as MC Hammersmith, who will make his Sarasota debut as he creates rapid raps based on audience suggestions.
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“He was a long-form improviser. He has a few hip-hop personas and did an improvised Harry Potter show,” said Will Luera, the theater’s director of improvisation. “I was kind of tracking him through COVID and beyond and seeing how he was bringing down the house in his various gigs. He puts on a really good show.”
In one of his fast-rap YouTube videos Mc Hammersmith says he “represents middle class West London.”
The festival also marks the return of 2-Man No-Show, a duo act of Ken Hall and Isaac Kessler who create outrageous characters getting involved in daring and sometimes dangerous physical situations. They were featured in the 2019 festival.
“They are one of the most physical acts on stage. They make my workman’s comp brain go crazy,” said Managing Director Rebecca Hopkins, who started the theater’s own FST Improv troupe and the festival.
FST Improv serves as the host for the festival, which will include such returning favorites as Available Cupholders, Parallelogramophonograph, Big Bang Improv, Dad’s Garage, North Coast Improv, SAK Comedy Lab (from Orlando), the Miami troupe Just the Funny, the all-female Busted! and the Sarasota group Early Bird Special.
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Several troupes also will make their Sarasota festival debuts, including HERE: The (Improvised) Musical; Improv U from West Palm Beach; and Ripley from Los Angeles. Among other Florida newcomers are Impromptu, which features performers who took part in FST improv classes; Lakeland’s Swan City Improv, the St. Petersburg company Wet Bandits, and the Tampa-based Wallares, featuring two performers who also appear with FST Improv.
On Saturday, some of the performers will lead workshops focused on different aspects of improv. The festival will close with its traditional All Play program, featuring as many improv artists who will fit on the Gompertz Theatre stage with fast-moving games and sketches.
The festival returns to a changed improv festival landscape, Luera and Hopkins said. A number of other events across the country have not yet come back after the pandemic, including the Chicago Improv Festival and the Del Close Marathon.
“We’re one of the biggest ones now,” said Hopkins.
They said restarting the festival feels like a mixture of something new and familiar.
“Part of it is like riding a bike. We’ve done this a few times,” said Luera. “But speaking to the large improv community, that part feels like we’re starting out all over again. Nationally, internationally, locally, we’ve hit a reset. Even the local scene from here to Tampa has changed a lot in the last few years. Groups that were longtime touring troupes have stopped touring. For some of the groups, the festival will be the first time they’re back in a major festival setting.”
Hopkins said the theater may have to reintroduce the festival to the audience and even her staff.
“There are so many people who just weren’t here when we last did the festival. And there are so many new people in the community,” she said.
Sarasota Improv Festival
July 20-22, Florida Studio Theatre, 1241 N. Palm Ave., Sarasota. Festival passes are available for one to three nights for $20-$79. Single tickets are $10 for most performances and $25 for MC Hammersmith. For more information: 941-366-9000; floridastudiotheatre.org
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: International improv comedy troupes return to Sarasota festival
