Gender Special

This Thursday's show has an all male cast: Alan, Christian, Clay, and Dave.

Next Thursday's show has an all female cast: Lyn, Mandy, Melissa, and Merrill.

Come to this week's show and you can come to next week's for just $10!

"Un-Scripted: unscripted" Opens This Week!

That's right, improv fans! The FIRST SHOW of our eighth season opens this week!

Un-Scripted: unscripted -- an improvised improv show.

This is a shortform show that we've done before, and we've had a great time -- and so have audiences. Basically, the goal is to challenge, surprise, and delight ourselves, each other, and the audience -- from the time the show starts, the improv doesn't stop. (Well, except for intermission, silly.) We don't even pause to talk to the audience or the other improvisors, unless it's in character! (Gone are those boring introductions and explanations.) And we don't always let our fellow improvisors in on what's going on . . . watch as we all figure out together how the show will unfold! Maybe scenes will come back; maybe they won't. Maybe someone in a scene is playing one game, and someone else is playing a completely different one, and they both have no idea. Maybe a scene will last 10 minutes -- or 10 seconds. And you never know, we might start to sing.

We're having a great time rehearsing for it; you can read more about those rehearsals on Alan's blog, "Something Like a Chicken Sandwich".

The show opens on February 18, and runs Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8pm until March 13. We're in a new location for this run, the Off-Market Theater in downtown San Francisco. Check out un-scripted.com for all the show details.

We have some really fun new castmembers that we've never worked with before, in addition to familiar faces. You can read the cast bios on our web page!

And, for those of you who are our beloved Un-Scripted supporters, have we got a deal for you! Subscriptions to our Eighth Season are on sale now -- AND, if you subscribe before March 1, you get an awesome bonus. Subscriptions purchased before March 1 will include two EXTRA tickets. That's six tickets for the price of three! Follow the link now to become a subscriber and new best friend!

And what's coming up later this season, you ask? Why, two brand-new longform shows!

In July and August, it's (working-title) What If? a show that takes place in a slightly altered reality from our own. As director Dave Dyson says, "it's a world where just one thing is different." The style could be like Harry Potter, Like Water For Chocolate, Mad Max, The Martian Chronicles, or . . . anything else! You let us know what you're dreaming of, and we make it real.

In November and December, it's (working-title) A Tale of Two Genres -- an improvised musical in the style of Charles Dickens PLUS another genre supplied by you. It'll be as if Dickens and his time-travelling collaborator, whoever that might be, wrote a musical together. We had so much fun at this summer's Temporary Improv Festival when we mixed Dickens and John Hughes (plus tragedy and horror), that we figure everything goes better with Dickens. Just in time for the holidays, come join the fun!

Leakesville!

Opening night, November 27, a lovely family was in the audience from Leakesville, MS. Their town ended up being the suggestion that night. You can read a summary of the show here.

A few weeks later we received a care package from them! They sent us food, books, the local Coffee News, autographed photos of local beauty queens and a wonderful note:






So we made a little "Thank you" video for them:

Tara in Kellyville!

Back in 2004, the first year we did Let It Snow, our second show was set in Kellyville, OK. It featured what to this day is one of the catchiest opening choruses (if I do say so myself) in "Kellyville, so close to being famous. Kellyville, so close!" In the audience that night was Tim Bauer, who years later would perform with us in the Great Puppet Musical, and his wife who was with him gave us the suggestion Kellyville.

Flash forward to 2008 and Tara McDonough (who directed Let It Snow in 2004, 2005, and 2007) while driving across country goes right through Kellyville and snaps this photo!

From an Audience Member

We had our first performance of Let It Snow! last night. You can read all about it and the town we featured over on my improv blog. Here's what an audience member had to say about last night's show:

I had so much fun at the show last eve. I'd never seen anything like it and was completely enchanted and awed by life unleashed on the stage by the simple suggestion of an audience contribution. I could appreciate how you all worked together to create brilliant flow with moments poignant and schmaltzy. Too, with the awkward times, the teamwork was heartening and a beautiful reminder of the humanity that lives in all our lives, improvisational as they are.

May you have a successful run . . .
Looking forward to future performances and, perhaps, another Let It Snow this season . . .

Thanks for being part of making this kind of experience possible.

A Let-It-Snow Letter from the Past!

While creating the program for this year's Let It Snow!, previewing this Thursday and Friday and opening the day after Thanksgiving, FYI,I came across the first program for the first Let It Snow! back in 2004, and re-read Tara's original director's note. It's a great reminder of the show's original concept, direct from the show creator!

Susan and I are directing it this year, and since we're different people from Tara, the show will be different, even though Susan and I have both been in the show all three of its previous runs. Doing the show so many times means we get to kick it up a notch, so we've been focusing on more singing and dancing, and we have Kind Of A Set (step unit, door, and windows!) in the minimalist spirit of Our Town.

We like to shake things up and keep on growing -- BUT, we also want to stay true to the heart of the show, and Tara's original director's note encapsulates that really well.

We love you, Tara! Stay warm in Maine! Enjoy your letter from Tara From the Past!

A Musical for the Holidays

I grew up in Maine, one mile up on a dead-end road, with our nearest neighbors a quarter-mile away. My parents were two city-slickers from Boston (I refer to my dad as the “gentleman farmer,” which I think amuses him), and every Thanksgiving, carloads of city relatives would make the two-hour drive for a “real New England Holiday.” They delighted in collecting pine cones from the side of the road, taking walks in the crisp autumn air, and being made to wear bright orange outside—it was hunting season, after all! I don’t even think they minded the year an ice-coated hill necessitated an ad-hoc end-of the-road parking lot and a shuttle service from my dad’s aged Jeep
truck.

At the time, these country thrills were pretty much lost on me. As a teenager, I focused more on the fact that all my friends’ phone numbers were toll calls, a short trip to the mall could take all day, and safety orange was definitely not a flattering color. But now, I remember those Thanksgivings with a soft-focus warmth that tricks me into forgetting all the bad stuff. And isn’t that what holidays are all about?

That’s the sort of world we’re trying to create in Let It Snow! Living someplace where everybody knows you, where things are simple (at least they seem that way), where there’s a happy ending just around the corner. Sure, that world doesn’t exist, but it seems a little closer at this time of year.

And now, here’s the rub—we’re making this all up. Nothing that you’re about to see has ever been seen before. We’ll get some suggestions from you to start us off, and from there we’ll create a classic Broadway-style musical in front of your very eyes. We’ve been studying musicals, listening to soundtracks, even practicing a few dance moves. But we don’t know what’s going to happen any more than you do. So sit back, relax, and enjoy as we build a little snowflake of a musical for you. It fades away almost as soon as you can catch it, and every one is different.

Enjoy the show!

—Tara McDonough, director [from Let It Snow! 2004]

Let It Snow FAQ and East Bay Class

With the first previews of Let It Snow just two weeks away, we thought it was time to answer some of the questions we’ve been getting about the show.

1. Yes, this is the fourth year we’ve done Let It Snow, but we’ve never done the same show twice. We’ve never even featured the same town twice. It’s always new, every night.
2. No, the show is not about any specific holiday, but meant to capture the feeling of the season as a whole. Although, we did do a show once that featured a town’s annual Halloween cross-dressers ball.
3. No, I’m not kidding (Madrid, NM, performed 11/26/2005).
4. Yes, we also did a show once about the Indian holiday Diwali (Fairfield, IA, performed 11/24/2007). So yes, occasionally a specific holiday creeps in there.
5. No, you don’t have to wear parkas, scarves, or mittens to come to the show. Although you can if you want to.
6. Yes, the show is improvised. We don’t have any scripts, songbooks, or carefully rehearsed dance numbers. Every word of dialogue, every song, and every dance number is made up as we go.
7. Yes, we will have free popcorn before the show and $1 fresh baked cookies at intermission.
8. Yes, tickets for the two preview performances are just $15 general and $8 student/senior.
9. No, the SPECIAL 25%-off coupon code is no longer valid, but…
10. YES! We’ve activated our economic stimulus package coupon. Use the code STIMULUS to get 15%-off tickets purchased online through our website now until the end of the day November 18!

Let It Snow!
November 19 – December 19
Thursdays & Fridays at 8pm
Saturdays at 3pm & 8pm
(No shows 11/21 or 11/26)

SF Playhouse, Stage 2
533 Sutter, 2nd Floor
$20 general/$10 students & seniors
Previews 11/19-11/20: $15 general/$8 students & seniors
www.un-scripted.com

Every Day Improv
with Susan Snyder

Enjoy exploring the world of improvisation in a low pressure, playful environment.
Increase your confidence, improve your public speaking skills, and enjoy the experience along the way. This class is for adults wanting their first taste of improv, and those returning to deepen their range of improvisational expression. Shy people welcome.

Dates: Sundays, November 8th & 15th
Time: 3-6pm (new time!)
Location: La Pena Cultural Center, Berkeley, CA
(street parking, walking distance from Ashby BART)
Cost: $40 single class/ $60 for two

Contact Susan to register