1 of 2
Courtesy ComedySportz Improv Theatre
(Clockwise from top left) Ray Green, Amy Berlin, Starlet Knight, Betzi Heckman, Emily Arnold, Pat Raines, Jeff Clevenger and Ingrid Young
2 of 2
Courtesy ComedySportz Improv Theatre
(From left) Jeff Clevenger, Pat Raines, Emily Arnold and Betzi Heckman
What’s taken a year to plan and will only happen once?
It’s the ComedySportz Improv Theatre’s InstaPlay. And it’s one of those feats of imaginative derring-do that improvisational groups are prone to: In this, case, through Sept. 14, inventing an entire play as they go along.
Director Amy Berlin explains, “In terms of plot and scenes, it’s all made up every day. Our goal is to make it look like a play and hopefully for a few in the audience to not realize that we just made it up and it’ll never be this way again. Maybe someone will be fooled.”
Berlin is an experienced writer, director and improviser. And improvisation, like painting or drawing, creates something where nothing existed. “It’s like being in a playground,” Berlin says. “We’re not constrained by a text.” She adds that this isn’t necessarily family friendly (depending, of course, on your family), nor is used as an excuse to work blue. “The point is to both not limit ourselves and entertain an audience.”
Berlin has assembled a fine cast of performers that blends straight theater actors with improvisors. Besides Berlin, the company includes: actor Ray Green, recently seen in Leaving Iowa at Chamberlayne Actors Theatre; musician and singer Starlet Knight; certified fight choreographer Emily Turner and Ingrid Young, an opera singer whose recent credits include Virginia Rep’s Music Man, The Sound of Music and My Fair Lady.
The improvisor crew includes improv teacher/coach Jeff Clevenger, founder of Take 5 Comedy Troupe and member of ComedySportz; Chicago-, New York- and Richmond-trained Betzi Heckman, who has toured her stand-up across the country, Pat Raines of Take 5, Random Acts and ComedySportz, and ComedySportz performer and teacher Emily Arnold.
Matt Treacy provides live improvised music underscoring the performances. “He’s practiced with us to get the rhythm of the shows,” Berlin says. Treacy brings a keyboard, electric guitar and percussion, “It’s really like a give and take having the live music, it can fill holes and give a little direction.”
Prior to InstaPlay, most of those with a theater background hadn’t done improv and attended a form of improv boot camp to get the style and climb over the fourth wall.
InstaPlay is in a limited run at CSz Richmond Theater, 8906-H W. Broad St., with Sept. 9, at 8 p.m. designated as a discounted theater/improv/playwrights industry night. Otherwise, performances will be held Sept. 4, 5 and 11 at 8 p.m., Sept. 6 and 14 at 2:30 p.m., and Sept. 13 at 9:30 p.m. Advance general admission is $18, and it’s $20 at the door. Students and seniors, $15. Tickets available at cszrva.com or by calling 266-9377.
