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BATS Improv
{{Primary sources, date=January 2008 BATS Improv (formerly known as "Bay Area Theatresports") is a non-profit improvisational theatre company in San Francisco. Founded in 1986, their unique style of acting-based improvisational theatre is well known in improv circles around the world. BATS is the largest improvisational theatre company and school in Northern California. BATS takes its inspiration from the work of Theatresports creator Keith Johnstone and from San Francisco's own tradition of experimental improvisation. BATS is known for the quality, depth, scope and variety of its improvisational theatre programming. Since 1986, BATS helped create and define a unique San Francisco style of long-form improvisation—a single-story 2-hour show, complete with intermission—which is distinct from improv seen in much of the rest of the country. BATS is in residence at the 200-seat Bayfront Theater at historic Fort Mason Center in San Francisco and performs and offers classes year r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Improvisational Theatre
Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script. Improvisational theatre exists in performance as a range of styles of improvisational comedy as well as some non-comedic theatrical performances. It is sometimes used in film and television, both to develop characters and scripts and occasionally as part of the final product. Improvisational techniques are often used extensively in drama programs to train actors for stage, film, and television and can be an important part of the rehearsal process. However, the skills and processes of improvisation are also used outside the context of performing arts. This practice, known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatresports
Theatresports is a form of improvisational theatre, which uses the format of a competition for dramatic effect. Opposing teams can perform scenes based on audience suggestions, with ratings by the audience or by a panel of judges. Developed by director Keith Johnstone in Calgary, Alberta, in 1977, the concept of Theatresports originated in Johnstone's observations of techniques used in professional wrestling to generate heat, or audience reaction. Derivatives ComedySportz, started in 1984 in Milwaukee, WI, tends to emphasise the sports competition format more than Theatresports, for example by having a referee who awards points and administers fouls. The Australian shows ''Thank God You're Here'' and ''TheatreGames LIVE'' follow a similar format to these shows. New York City's Face Off Unlimited has also adapted the concept to numerous productions. Two similar formats, Ligue nationale d'improvisation and Canadian Improv Games both also officially debuted in 1977 in Quebec and Ont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keith Johnstone
Keith Johnstone (born February 21, 1933) is a British and Canadian pioneer of improvisational theatre, best known for inventing the ''Impro System'', part of which are the Theatresports. He is also an educator, playwright, actor and theatre director. Life Born in Devon, England, Johnstone grew up hating school, finding that it blunted his imagination and made him feel self-conscious and shy. After teaching at a working-class school in Battersea, London in the early 1950s, Johnstone was commissioned to write a play by the Royal Court Theatre in 1956. He subsequently became a play-reader, director and drama teacher there, where he chose to reverse all that his teachers had told him in an attempt to create more spontaneous actors. In the 1970s, Johnstone moved to Calgary, Alberta to teach at the University of Calgary. He is featured in the book '' Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking'' by Malcolm Gladwell. Work Johnstone co-founded the Loose Moose Theatre, and invented his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort Mason Center
Fort Mason, in San Francisco, California originated as a coastal defense site during the American Civil War. The nucleus of the property was owned by John C. Frémont and disputes over compensation by the United States continued into 1968. In 1882 the defenses were named for Richard Barnes Mason, a military governor before statehood. Fort Mason became the headquarters for an Army command that included California and the Hawaiian Islands from 1904 to 1907. In 1912 the Army began building a port facility with piers and warehouses to be a home base for ships of the Army Transport Service serving Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippines and other Pacific Army posts and focus of Army supply for the Pacific. On 6 May 1932 that port facility was designated the San Francisco Port of Embarkation, modeled on the New York Port of Embarkation which supplied U.S. Army forces in World War I, to serve the Pacific. Fort Mason then became both the headquarters of the command that was the San Francisco Po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of California cities by population, fourth most populous in California and List of United States cities by population, 17th most populous in the United States, with 815,201 residents as of 2021. It covers a land area of , at the end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second most densely populated large U.S. city after New York City, and the County statistics of the United States, fifth most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. Among the 91 U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco was ranked first by per capita income (at $160,749) and sixth by aggregate income as of 2021. Colloquial nicknames for San Francisco include ''SF'', ''San Fran'', ''The '', ''Frisco'', and '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greg Proops
Gregory Everett "Greg" Proops (born October 3, 1959) is an American actor, stand-up comedian and television host. He is widely known for his guest appearances on the U.K. and U.S. versions of ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?''. He has also voiced the titular character on the U.S. version of ''Bob the Builder''. Early life Proops was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and raised in San Carlos, California, a suburb south of San Francisco, attending San Carlos High School. He attended the College of San Mateo and spearheaded the comedy duo "Proops & Brakeman". Later, he took courses in improvisation and acting at San Francisco State University, though he never finished college. Career Improv comedy After college, he joined an improv group with Mike McShane. Both Proops and McShane impressed producers Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, who put them on their show, ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?''. He frequently instigated jokes concerning various idiosyncrasies and differences between British English an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masi Oka
is a Japanese actor, producer, and digital effects artist who became widely known for starring in NBC's ''Heroes'' as Hiro Nakamura and in CBS's ''Hawaii Five-0'' as Doctor Max Bergman. Early life Oka was born in Tokyo, Japan, to Setsuko Oka. His parents divorced when he was one month old; he was raised in a single parent family and has never met his father. He was six years old when his mother and he moved to Los Angeles from Japan. At age eight, he appeared on the CBS-TV game show '' Child's Play''. In 1987, a 12-year-old Oka was featured as one of several children on the cover of ''Time'' magazine, for the article "Those Asian-American Whiz Kids." Though he was not featured in the article itself, he was acquainted with the photographer who conducted the shoot. In 1988, he placed fourth in the California state MATHCOUNTS competition and was one of the four students to represent the state of California in the national competition. Oka attended Brown University, where he was musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerri Lawlor
Gerri Lee Lawlor (May 16, 1969 – January 28, 2019) was an American actress, voice actress and homeless advocate. She was the co-creator, along with Marc Gimbel and Stephen Kearin, of the fictitious Simlish language used in ''The Sims''. Lawlor was the voice of numerous Sims in ''The Sims'', '' The Sims Livin' Large'', '' The Sims: House Party'', '' The Sims Makin' Magic'', ''The Sims 2'', '' The Sims Life Stories'', '' The Sims: Superstar'', and ''SimCity 4''. Lawlor played the "Vanna White" hostess in the 3DO game ''Twisted''. In her spare time, Lawlor was a homeless advocate. In the #BeRobin campaign of 2014, Lawlor performed improvised music and comedy on the street to raise money for the homeless with Margaret Cho Margaret Moran Cho (born December 5, 1968) is an American comedian, actress, LGBT social activist, and musician. She is known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially regarding race and se .... Som ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Hall (actor)
William Hall is an American actor, director, trainer and mask maker in San Francisco, California. He is the editor of ''The Playbook, Improv Games for Performers''. Hall first became involved in acting when he took a drama class while attending Maggie L. Walker High School in Richmond, Virginia. He went on to obtain a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from Boston University, where he was classmates with Geena Davis. After graduation, Hall came to San Francisco to pursue theater. He has appeared in film and television including '' The Right Stuff'', '' Twisted'', ''Howard the Duck'' and '' Midnight Caller''. He was one of the Nazis in the final ark scene in '' Raiders of the Lost Ark''. Hall is one of the founding members of BATS Improv, an improvisational theatre Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
True Fiction Magazine
True most commonly refers to truth, the state of being in congruence with fact or reality. True may also refer to: Places * True, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States * True, Wisconsin, a town in the United States * True, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland People * True (singer) (stylized as TRUE), the stage name of Japanese singer Miho Karasawa * True (surname) * True O'Brien (born 1994), an American model and actress Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''True'' (Avicii album), 2013 * ''True'' (EP), a 2012 EP by Solange Knowles * ''True'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album), 1996 * ''True'' (Roy Montgomery and Chris Heaphy album), 1999 * ''True'' (Mika Nakashima album), 2002 * ''True'' (Spandau Ballet album), 1983 * ''True'' (TrinityRoots album), 2001 * ''True'' (TRU album), 1995 Songs * "True" (Brandy song), by Brandy Norwood from ''Human'' (2008) * "True" (Concrete Blonde song), 1987 * "True" (Ryan Cabrera song), 2004 * "True" ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
3 FOR ALL
3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societies. Evolution of the Arabic digit The use of three lines to denote the number 3 occurred in many writing systems, including some (like Roman and Chinese numerals) that are still in use. That was also the original representation of 3 in the Brahmic (Indian) numerical notation, its earliest forms aligned vertically. However, during the Gupta Empire the sign was modified by the addition of a curve on each line. The Nāgarī script rotated the lines clockwise, so they appeared horizontally, and ended each line with a short downward stroke on the right. In cursive script, the three strokes were eventually connected to form a glyph resembling a with an additional stroke at the bottom: ३. The Indian digits spread to the Caliphate in the 9th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fratelli Bologna
Fratelli Bologna is a business theater company based in San Francisco. The group brings their theater skills to the business world through engaging trade show presentations, creativity training, improv training, meeting facilitation and theatrical interventions during conferences. Fratelli Bologna combines scripted material, original music, improvisational theatre, improvisation, and dramatic visual imagery to convey complex messages to a wide range of audiences including the leaders of major corporations in the United States and Europe. Clients include Dow Corning Corporation, Lucent Technologies (now Alcatel-Lucent), CHRISTUS Health., Ernst & Young’s Center for Business Innovation, Round Table Pizza, and Disneyland. They won the Drama-Logue Award for best ensemble in 1987. History In 1979 a group of ten men and women performed the Italian masked comedies of the Commedia dell'Arte on the main stage of the Renaissance fair, Renaissance Pleasure Fair in Novato, California. Calle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
