Stage Door News
Stage Door News
From May 25-30, the Bad Dog Theatre Company is thrilled to present the return of Toronto’s premiere celebration of improvised theatre, unscripted experiments, and large-scale mischief: the 2015 COMBUSTIONfestival. Back after a four year hiatus, this week-long comedy party will bring together some of the most exciting, talented, boundary-pushing, genre-bending, industry-leading improvisers in North America and beyond - to showcase what they do best and to collaborate on festival-exclusive projects and shows.
WHEN: May 25-30, 2015
Drop-in workshops every night at 6pm
Shows at 7pm | 8pm | 9:30pm | 11pm
WHERE: Bad Dog Comedy Theatre - 875 Bloor St. W. (upstairs)
HOW MUCH: $5-15 (a limited number of full night and full festival passes available)
WHO: featuring more than 50 artists from over 15 companies, 9 cities and 2 continents including...
Festival guests:
Big Ol’ Show (Dad’s Garage - Atlanta), Junior Varsity (Magnet Theater - New York), Easy Action (Montreal Improv - Montreal), Dark Side of the Room (Dad’s Garage - Atlanta), Folk Lordz (Rapid Fire Theatre - Edmonton), The Amie & Kristen Show (Philly Improv Theater - Philadelphia), CRUSH improv (Ottawa), the Bad Dog Repertory Players (Toronto) and a festival superteam including performers from Buenos Aires, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal & Atlanta.
All of our guests will be showcasing their own work & respective styles and then mixing it up with some of Toronto’s top performers to take on improvised projects specially amped up for the COMBUSTIONfestival.
Festival highlights include:
•an incredible contingent of improvisers from Dad’s Garage in Atlanta, including Amber Nash (the voice of Pam Poovey on the hit FX series Archer) and the Canadian premiere of Dark Side of the Room whose signature improvised format reimagines a classic flick chosen by the audience - answering the question: what were the black people doing during that movie?
•the first Toronto appearance of Edmonton’s Folk Lordz with an unscripted show that draws its narrative style from the heritages of troupe members Todd Houseman (Cree) & Ben Gorodetsky (Russian), both recently returned from a research trip to Yellowknife where they studied oral storytelling traditions under Dene & Inuit elders
•the North American premiere of Un día cualquiera (Any given day) starring Feña Ortalli of Global Impro (Argentina) - who will be offering public workshops in both English and Spanish while in Toronto for the festival
•award-winning, high energy superduos: The Amie & Kristen Show from Philadelphia and Easy Action from Montreal who have delighted audiences in headlining sets at over a dozen North American improv & comedy festivals
•Bad Dog’s own house cast remounting their sell-out hit Toronto, I Love You for one night only - reuniting the original cast which includes current members of the Second City mainstage (Etan Muskat & Kyle Dooley)
•unmissable festival collaborations including the immensely-popular multimedia Doppelganger Video Project, Sean Tabares’ mischievous Pandora’s Box and the live improvised film re-voicing: The Dub, curated by Kris Siddiqi
About the COMBUSTIONfestival:
Originally produced by the Canadian Comedy Award nominated Toronto improv collective: PROJECTproject, the COMBUSTIONfestival was first staged in 2008 and was the inaugural event held at Bad Dog’s sister venue: Comedy Bar. Past festival guests include: CRUMBS (Winnipeg), The Sunday Service (Vancouver), Parallelogramophonograph (Austin), 4TRACK (New York), Ted & Melanie (Chicago), Picnicface (Halifax), !nstant Theatre (Vancouver) & Uncalled For (Montreal).
Combustion Festival 2015
May 25-30
Tickets online or at the door.
All Weeks Pass $70
Night Of Passes $25
Shows $5-$15
2015-04-21
Toronto: Bad Dog Theatre Company presents the 2015 COMBUSTIONfestival May 25-30