By Jesse Laufer
Festivalgoers in Victoria can expect the unexpected — Tuesday kicks off the Paper Street Theatre Company’s first Improv Festival.
“I thought it’s our fifth birthday so let’s do something,” said Dave Morris, Paper Street’s artistic director. “We run a season of three shows a year, and now were going to put them back up again.”
Celebrating five years as a company, the local theatre outfit is showcasing the best styles and shows they’ve produced.
Running Apr. 12 to 16, the festival will have one show a night, each with two themed performances.
But Paper Street isn’t celebrating alone.
The Kinkonauts from Calgary and Seattle’s Unexpected Productions will be in town to get in on the action. In all, 19 performers are expected to take the stage, including Morris.
Paper Street has a new studio on Fort Street, but the shows will be preformed at Intrepid Theatre on Blanshard Street to increase capacity.
“Its nice to have a 50-seat theatre opposed to a 20-person room,” explained Morris.
With over a week until the festival kicks off, the shows are almost half sold out from people buying festival passes. Individual tickets are still available online for $15.75 each.
Morris said he’s excited for the opportunity to show older work to a newer audience that wasn’t around five years ago, and to look back at some of the styles they did then.
Once the festival’s finished, Paper Street will get to perfecting The Playful Eight for the Intrepid Fringe Festival. The Playful Eight is a Tarantino-inspired sequel to Paper Street’s pick of the Fringe winner, An improvised Quentin Tarantino, which concludes this week’s improv festival Saturday at 8 p.m.