It's back! Announcing . . . IMPROVATHON 2020!
That’s right! Bright Invention’s feat of “extreme improv” returns for Philly Theatre Week 2020!
L - R: BENJAMIN LLOYD, BRIGHT INVENTION EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR; CHRIS BARTLETT, WILLIAM WAY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR; BOB STINEMAN, BRIGHT INVENTION ENSEMBLE AND DIRECTOR OF FINANCE PRESENTING CHRIS HIS CHECK AND OUR FUNDRAISING THERMOMETER!
Last year, our band of over-caffeinated inventors and special guests improvised their butts off to meet their goal of raising $500 for The William Way LGBT Center. And you responded! We doubled our goal and were able to present William Way with a check for nearly $1000.
This year, we will improvise non-stop raising money for The West Philadelphia Skills Initiative (WPSI).
The West Philadelphia Skills Initiative (WPSI) was created in 2011 as an innovative response to the dichotomies of Philadelphia’s economy. In spite of large swaths of substantial growth driven by anchor institutions and private employers, Philadelphia remains the poorest big city in America. Our work bridges this gap by building a talent management solution that connects Philadelphians seeking opportunity with employers seeking talent.
WPSI works closely with its employer partners to understand their talent challenges and aspirations. We recruit, assess, select, train and place residents in career-ladder jobs that offer stability and opportunities for advancement.
Since WPSI’s inception, program participants who had previously been unemployed for an average of 53 weeks have gone on to earn more than $30 million in collective wages while increasing employers' productivity and excellence.
Partnering with WPSI was an obvious choice for us, since we have been providing workshops for their program since 2015. Over the last four years, Bright Invention has delivered nearly 25 workshops to various cohorts moving through the WPSI program. Using our Creative Corporate Training program, we design and deliver scenarios dramatizing real-life challenges the cohorts may face when on the job.
ENSEMBLE MEMBERS KIERSTEN ADAMS, ERIC WALKER, JR AND LEAH HOLLERAN DELIVERING A WPSI CCT WORKSHOP!
We are still putting together the details of this year’s IMPROVATHON, but here’s what we know:
our goal is to raise $1,000 for WPSI
The event will be on Saturday February 15th
Location to be announced shortly
It will begin at 10 AM and end . . . when we raise a grand for WPSI!
the format will be similar to last year’s IMPROVATHON. Each hour will feature a special guest who will play in with us in a “genre spoof”, then the ensemble will perform one of our own forms.
we are hoping that luminaries from WPSI and their parent organization University City District will be our guests, as will as graduates from the program!
So mark your calendars! The event is free, but you will be able to reserve tickets for various hours of the show during the course of the day. Ticketing will be available through the Philly Theatre Week website in January.
We hope to see you there, as we push our creativity to the edge supporting a great cause!
HAPPY (AND EXHAUSTED) INVENTORS AT THE CLOSE OF LAST YEAR’S IMPROVATHON!
