Improv Formats: Past, Present, and future
We love to explore and invent new improv formats... formats being the structure and style of show we do on any given night. Here are just a few of the ones we've done and/or will do in the future.
GRIMM: Improvised Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales
In GRIMM we bring new tales in the style of the Brothers GRIMM to life.
Everyone knows that Disney took some liberties with the stories collected by the Brothers Grimm when they made Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and such into movies. But the truth is still startling. Not only are the original Grimm's fairy tales dark and disturbing, but they're also crazy, surprising, and at times completely baffling. Hundreds of years of passing on stories from generation to generation by voice and memory alone has shaped and warped these tales into bizarre gems... with everything from talking animals, severed heads, anthropomorphic sewing needles, random visits from the Virgin Mary, and yes, fairies thrown in... sometimes all into the same story.
Remember, these are the tales that peasants told each other in the night, when the lights had all gone out and Darkness wrapped them in her velvet shroud.
These stories are not neat. They are not clean. They are not safe.
"Just saw this. Report: Pgraph keeps finding new gears to shift to. They are like Steve McQueen in Bullitt, but they are four people and they are doing improv. SEE. THIS. SHOW."
-Curtis Luciani
Some Like it Improvised
'Some Like It Improvised' combines the comedy of mistaken identities, culture clashes, and mismatched couples into a fun night of improvised theatre. Fast-talking female reporters, out-of-touch aristocracy, independent heiresses, and percolating romance in close quarters form the backbone of these screwball plots. PGraph captures all of the charm and nostalgia of the 1930s and '40s screwball comedies and presents hilarious improvised plays that are as heart-warming as FDRs fire-side chats!
"That was an awesome show... Suddenly I remembered the movies that I watched as a kid. And especially how fast the dialogues were... Sweet! More!"
-Andreas Fabis
Villainy
Villainy delves into the dark side of the human condition and tell stories that focus on the villains and anti-heroes we all love to hate.
Villainy explores the thousand faces of evil, cruelty, and hatred, all in one comical, theatrical bundle. The good, sensible person in you will tell you to look away, but you won't. Indulge in your darker side while we indulge in ours.
"it's a testament to their commitment to the craft and and their comfort on stage that they managed to sustain a rapt audience through laugh-free periods. You know, like good theater tends to do."
-The Austinist
French Farce
French Farce is an exploration of the latent comedy in social status. Infidelity, insecurity, and insatiable appetites for wealth and power collide with riveting consequences. No topic is taboo; No neurosis too absurd.
Rich in physical humor and word play, French Farce is a delight to watch. We turn a blank stage into a French salon, a blank script into sharp social commentary, and "improv comedy" into "théâtre improvisé".
"The characters were well-developed in a truly farcical manner. Each actor had their moment(s) to shine. The format was so deftly handled that it practically wrote itself."
-Orf, of Orfan Brewing
Family Portrait
No story is worth a damn unless it has great characters. In many ways, a story is its characters, and vice versa. Family Portrait centers around the life of a different family in each show, showcasing what exactly makes every family both unique and familar at once.
Family Portrait is a looser, more character-driven show than some of our other formats. For you improv nerds, it's a deliberate blend of Austin-style narrative and Chicago-style character work. We think you'll find that the humor comes from a deep, real place.
"if you haven't seen the graph in a while, you should revisit them. they are sweeter than ever now. a nice blend of the good parts of each style, and very quotable."
- Jeremy Lamb, producer of the Out of Bounds Improv Festival
PGraph Presents: The 1930s
From Great Depression comes Great Comedy. The 1930s run was our first foray into heavily researched improv. We each went off and learned as much about the Great Depression as possible to plan for this four show run. The goal was for our stories to be grounded in the reality of the 1930s, rather than being a cartoonish distortion of the time.
Each show took on a different theme. They were: 1) Gangsters and Prohibition, 2) The Dust Bowl, 3) Riding the Rails, and 4)Changing Times and Technology
These are still some of our favorite shows, and you can bet we'll be revisiting the 1930s sometime in the future.
"I just saw one of the best Improv shows ever. Tonight was a very special night for it placed the spotlight on nature's loveable vagabond, the hobo. The show had me laughing from the minute the lights came up. It had everything."
-Mike Kinald, Improv for Evil
After School Improv
After School Improv consists of a fully improvised after-school special like you used to watch when you were an awkward teenager... only this time it's funny on purpose.
Each show focuses on a different, audience-suggested problem faced by teens. Just a few of the issues we tackled in our first run include teen pregnancy, running away, being weak, and betrayal.
"If every show we did was as much fun as Parallelogramophonograph's Afterschool Improv show last Thursday [...] we would be beating people away with sticks."
-Andy Crouch, Manager of the Hideout Theatre
The Traveler
Sometimes in a story, the journey of the hero is metaphysical. He or she overcomes personal struggles of the mind and soul and emerges out the other side a better person for it. Not so in The Traveler.
This format literally sets the main character off on a physical journey, whether it be to go vote, to find a lost sibling, or to acquire some spending money in Paris. The action follows the hero as he or she travels, meeting a large and ever-varied cast of characters along the way... all played by the other 3 members of PGraph, of course.
The Traveler is one of our most playful formats, but still focuses on rich characters and good storytelling.
"The audience suggestion they exploded from was "building a doghouse," and it led to vignettes involving a pair of identical twins building an anti-chihuahua fence, a man unhappily bearing the burden of his late father's hardware store, a municipal bus being chased by very fast cows, and so on, with all of it adding to the highest of jinks."
-The Austin Chronicle
And More...
There are countless other formats as well, including The Interview, Rainy Day, 5 Units of Separation, and Chairs! And there are formats that are still being concocted, like The Western Show. But we'll leave the telling of those for another time.
302 Shows So Far!
and counting...
What Comes Next?
The Spectacle
with The Starter Kit!
day: Friday
date: 7/9/2010
time: 10:00PM
The Hideout
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What is Improv?
Improv, or improvisation, is a form of live theatre in which the acting, plot, dialog, and characters of a story or scene are made up in the moment.
