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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,
improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
, 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 The Drama-Logue Award was an American theater award established in 1977, given by the publishers of Drama-Logue newspaper, a weekly west-coast theater trade publication. Winners were selected by the publication's theater critics, and would recei ...
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 (; ; ) was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as , , and . Charact ...
on the main stage of the Renaissance Pleasure Fair in Novato, California. Called La Famiglia Bologna (the Bologna Family), they performed together for two years. Richard Dupell founded Fratelli Bologna (originally i Fratelli Bologna) in 1981 with four other actors from the original troupe: John X. Heart, Christopher Beale, Jack Tate and William Hall. Fratelli Bologna, with two additional members of La Famiglia Bologna, Ed Holmes and Drew Letchworth, was cast as the Press Corps in Philip Kaufman's movie '' The Right Stuff''. From 1998 – 2002, Fratelli Bologna was the theater in residence for San Francisco’s Idea Factory founded by
John Kao John Kao (born 1950) is an author and strategic advisor based in San Francisco. His work concentrates on issues of innovation and organizational transformation. Life and career Kao was born in 1950 to Chinese immigrant parents. An accomplished ...
, author of ''Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back''. The group was fundamental in the founding of
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 know ...
and its approach is based on the work of Keith Johnstone, author of "Impro" and "Impro for Storytellers."


References

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External links


Fratelli Bologna Official site History of BATS Improv
Theatre companies in San Francisco Performing groups established in 1979