Monday, July 09, 2007

PIF4

Two weeks ago was the 4th annual Providence Improv Fest.  This was my second year attending, and like last year, I wish I’d stuck around for the whole weekend.  Code Duello had a great show at the Trinity Rep Theater, and every group I saw was somehow inspirational (particularly, the legendary TJ & Dave).  As with all improv festivals my own show was booked against some of my friends and colleagues’ performances, so I wasn’t able to support the swaths of Boston improvisers who went down to play, but if the reports are to be believed, our scene was represented. Of all the festivals I’ve been attended (Providence, Chicago, Toronto, DCM), Providence has been the most well-organized, community-supported, and generally welcoming.  I look forward to next year, when I will book a goddamn hotel so I can make the most out of the weekend.

It’s been a year since Matt and I took Code Duello to PIF3, which was our first improv festival ever. I wouldn’t have guessed it “way” back then, but the improv community is damn, damn small. I’m young to the scene but the same people and performances show up everywhere. It’s nice to know I’ll see some familiar faces backstage at the UCB in a few weeks, since I still get intimidated by the blurry, hungry crowds of New York. And for the most part, improvisers are pretty good people, as eager to socialize as to talk shop. Only in the very upper echelons of the improv scene do players worry about “industry” and “agents” and acting like rockstars when they’re not on the stage. As a result, the other 95% of the community is more concerned with making friends than with competition, and nowhere is it more apparent than Providence, where there is no industry to speak of, and the only people you want to impress are your friends and peers.