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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!
IMPROVATHON! It's a wrap!
9 improvisers. 6 hours of #improv. 6 special guests. Many cookies/donuts/pringles. And . . . we shattered our goal! $1,025 raised for The William Way LGBT Community Center! Thank you to Arch Street Meetinghouse for being such generous hosts, lots of audience dropping in throughout the day, and our amazing Inventors! Improvathon 2019 has come to an end with great success!
Here’s a slide show! Click on the image to go to the next one!
IMPROVATHON Update!
For Philly Theater Week 2019 we are presenting THE IMPROVATHON! to raise money for the William Way LGBT Community Center. On Saturday February 9th at Arch Street Quaker Meeting House, we will begin improvising at 10 am and won’t stop until we have raised $500 for William Way!
THE WILLIAM WAY LGBT CENTER LOCATED ON SPRUCE STREET, PHILADELPHIA.
Saturday, February 9th, 10 am - ???
Arch Street Meetinghouse, 320 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA. 19106
Here is our schedule of Special Guests!
10 am - 11 am. Tara Demmy! Tara Demmy is a comedian, theatre artist, and teacher straddling both Philly and DC. She trained at the Upright Citizens Brigade NYC, Philly Improv Theater, and completed her Lecoq training at Helikos: International School of Theater Creation in Italy. She is a proud company member of Tribe of Fools where she performed in Fishtown – A Hipster Noir, Antihero, Zombies with Guns, and Shut Your Wormhole. She is a writer and performer with ManiPedi Sketch Comedy. Tara received her masters from
Villanova University and is currently pursing her PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies at University of Maryland. tarademmy.com
11 am - 12 noon. Michelle Pauls! Michelle Pauls is a theatre artist, artist educator and mom. She has worked for many years in the Philadelphia area doing theatre, film work, cabaret singing and improv! In fact, she was one of the founding members of Bright Invention. She also teaches theatre and the like in the college setting. www.michellepauls.com
12 noon - 1 pm. Ed Miller! Ed Miller is an actor, director, and writer from the Philadelphia area. He has worked with the Arden Theatre, Theatre Exile, Swim Pony, The IRC, and Secret Room Theatre. Ed spent 3 years living and teaching in South Korea where he also made time to act, direct, and serve on the board of Seoul Players. He was a founding member of SCI: Seoul City Improv and graced the TV screens for young "English-hungry" Koreans on such programs as "Story Time", "T-Girl!", and "Cooking with Red Hood”. Ed is a current proud member of Tongue and Groove Spontaneous Theatre.
1 pm - 2 pm. Brian Anthony Wilson! Brian has been on numerous Philly stages, feature films like The Postman, Creed and Limitless; and TV shows The Wire, Hack and Law and Order.
2 pm - 3 pm. Sharon Geller! Sharon Geller is a comedic actress who has appeared on Saturday Night Live 4 times. In addition to performing in the national touring company of the off-Broadway show “Old Jews Telling Jokes,” Sharon does radio and TV commercials and teaches improv at the Walnut Street Theatre. She trained with Chicago City Limits. www.sharongeller.com.
3 pm - 4 pm. Joy Wier! Joy Suzanne Weir has been an improviser for the last seven years. She is a company member of Tongue & Groove Spontaneous Theatre. Some of her favorite scripted roles include Leonardo's Wife in Philadelphia Artists Collective's performance of Blood Wedding and Blackberry in Simpatico Theatre Project's Watership Down. She has also been a teaching artist for various companies including Bright Invention's sister company, White Pines Productions. She is very excited, and a little scared, to be part of the Improvathon. Let's get weird.
Each hour will feature:
fun with our special guest!
a spoof of a popular film or TV genre!
Bright Invention’s long form The Sun and its Planets!
The Arch Street Meetinghouse, 320 Arch Street Philadelphia. Site of THE IMPROVATHON!
Free parking - enter on 4th street between Arch and Market!
Complimentary light refreshments served.
Wheelchair accessible.
Stop by any time; see some, leave, and return; BRING FRIENDS!
Donations for William Way accepted in person with cash, check or online through Facebook Donate button located here: donate online.
The Improvathon is a part of Philly Theater Week! Please check out all the other amazing shows being presented - click here!
Bright Invention will be part of another great event the very next day! Rehearsing Improv: It’s not an Oxymoron! Co- presented with Tongue & Groove Spontaneous Theatre, this is a fun and free “peek behind the scene” to see how improvisers create shows! Click here for tickets!
The IMPROVATHON returns!
THE BRIGHT INVENTION ENSEMBLE
BLANKA ZIZKA SPANKING BENJAMIN LLOYD ONSTAGE AT IMPROVATHON 2014
In order for them stop improvising – Gritty must show up! That’s right! Achieving their philanthropic goals is not enough! Philly’s new mascot sensation must appear at this feat of creative endurance in order to save them from improvising themselves into an early grave!
What will happen on February 9th? Will Bright Invention raise enough money for Philly’s LGBT champions? Will the great orange-bearded monster appear? Will members of the ensemble expire from exhaustion, giggle fits and hallucinations? What special guests will appear on stage to support them?
In December of 2014 the improv group Bright Invention accomplished the unthinkable: they improvised for 24 hours straight in Philly’s first Improvathon! At that historic event, they were joined onstage by Philly arts and culture luminaries such as Brian Anthony Wilson (Creed, The Wire), Sharon Geller (Saturday Night Live), and Blanka Zizka, Artistic director for the Wilma Theatre who spanked Bright invention Artistic Director Benjamin Lloyd on stage during an improv!
Now for Philly Theater Week 2019 they will bring the Improvathon back, this time to raise money for the William Way LGBT Community Center. That’s right on Saturday February 9that Arch Street Quaker Meeting House, they will begin improvising and won’t stop until they have raised $500 for William Way!
But wait – there’s more!
THE WILLIAM WAY LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER, PHILADELPHIA.
Click here for tickets!
Don’t miss this epic improv event!
Date and time:
Saturday February 9th, 10 am - ?
Location:
Arch Street Meeting House, 320 Arch St. Philadelphia, PA 19106
ARCH STREET QUAKER MEETING HOUSE, 4TH & ARCH STREETS, PHILADELPHIA: THE LOCATION OF THE IMPROVATHON 2019!
Tickets are free – donations accepted for The William Way LGBT Community Center
Contact:
Benjamin Lloyd
877-674-8338
