ImprovBoston
Completes An Unfinished Script
In "Playbook"

Before your very eyes, an elite team of improvisers from ImprovBoston will do in 75 minutes what it takes most playwrights years to do. In "Playbook," running Friday nights from March 15 - April 12, some of IBs top improvisers will complete an unfinished script from a known playwright. ImprovBoston is located at 40 Prospect Street.

Using the first page of an unfinished script as inspiration, these quick-witted improvisers will create a complete one-act play. The show will open with the cast seeing the set and script for the very first time with the audience helping to cast the roles on the first page.

The actors will then read the lines on the first page, drop the scripts and continue along without missing a beat. This inventive form relies as much on the skills of the improviser as it does on the improviser’s knowledge of play structure and theater presentation. The goal is to put on a show that is both hilarious and consistent with the tone and style of the playwright.

The "Playbook" cast includes: Jackie Arko, Michelle Bonanno, Scot Colford, Anne Colpitts, Christine Cuddy, Chris Duffy, Sasha Goldberg, Emily Holland, Alex LeBaron, Bryce Read, Lori Strauss and Ben Walsh.

Playbook will be directed by ImprovBoston’s Artistic Director Emeritus Will Luera, who also conceived the form. The show was first produced at ImprovBoston in 2002 and has appeared at festivals, including the 2009 Del Close Marathon at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

ImprovBoston Artistic Director Mike Descoteaux commented, "'Playbook' is a unique opportunity for audiences to explore the intersections of art and comedy, improvisation and writing, head and heart. We are thrilled to join forces with some of the most exciting playwrights in America to push the limits of improvisation as we know it."

Playwright Schedule:

March 15
Jami Brandli
Jami Brandli is an award-winning playwright who has had her work produced across the country. She was a Visiting Artist at the Kennedy Center Summer Playwriting Intensive, a contributing writer for the Elliot Norton Award-Winning production of "PS: Page Me Later," a finalist for Disney - ABC's TV Writing Fellowship, and a Visiting Playwright for the 2009 ATHE Conference.

March 22
Faith Soloway
Faith Soloway has been hailed as one of the best and brightest of the Boston area's singer-songwriters. What distinguishes her from the rest of the pack in this crowed scene is the theatrical nature of her shows. Whether singing with her animated, energetic band, The Faith Soloway Crisis, or creating and performing in one of her many comedic "Schlock Operas," Faith has built a very large and very devoted following because she provides the folk-scene with attributes it so desperately needs: humor, showmanship and, most of all, humility.

March 29
James Ferguson
With over twenty years of experience, Boston-based James Ferguson has been hired to write numerous screenplays, blogs and sketch comedy projects; his plays have been produced across the United States and in London. He is also the author of two novels. In October of 2012, his short play "Ori & Addison" was one of 40 plays selected (from more than 900 submissions) to participate in The 37th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival at The Beckett Theatre in New York City.

April 5
Jeff Sweet
Jeffrey Sweet is an American writer, journalist, songwriter and theatre historian. Sweet has been a playwright, screenwriter, lyricist, critic, journalist, teacher, theatre historian, and sometime songwriter and director. He is a resident member of Chicago's Victory Gardens Theater, where thirteen of his plays -- including "Flyovers," "The Action Against Sol Schumann," "The Value of Names," "Berlin '45," "With and Without," "Court-Martial at Fort Devens," and "Bluff " have been produced. Sweet is also the author of Something Wonderful Right Away (an oral history of Chicago's The Second City).

April 12
Melinda Lopez
Boston's own Melinda Lopez, playwright and actress, was the first recipient of the Charlotte Woolard Award, given by The Kennedy Center to a "promising new voice in American Theatre." Her play "Sonia Flew," which was developed and premiered by the Huntington Theatre Company, won the Elliot Norton Award for Best New Play and two IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Awards for Best Play and Best Production. It has subsequently been produced at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Laguna Playhouse, Ariel Tepper's Summer Play Festival (NY), the Milagro Theatre (Portland, OR), and Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. The play has been broadcast on NPR's "The Play's The Thing!" in a production by L.A. Theatre Works with a cast that included Elizabeth Peña and Hector Elizondo.

Since 1982, ImprovBoston has used a fresh, funny approach to comedy, showcasing today’s best performers and training tomorrow’s stars.

For tickets and information, visit www.improvboston.com.