The Baltimore Improv Group (BIG), Baltimore’s longest running and largest comedy theater company, is

celebrating a special anniversary. July 25-31 marks the 10th Year of the Baltimore Improv Festival, a week of

performances and workshops by top improvisational performers from around the region and across the

country. This year there will be 11 shows featuring 34 performing troupes, and 9 workshops taught by

nationally known instructors from Philly, NYC, DC and LA.

This year’s Headliner is Paul Vaillancourt. Paul is a giant in the world of improvised theater. He is the co-

founder (with Charna Halpern) of the iO West and has been teaching and performing improv for close to 30

years. In that time he has appeared all over the country including such notable venues as HBO’s Comedy Arts

Festival in Aspen, Chicago’s iO (where he studied with the immortal Del Close), and New York’s UCB Theater,

to name a few. Paul is also a member of the legendary Improv troupe, Beer Shark Mice, whose members

include: David Koechner of Anchorman and SNL fame and Neil Flynn (best known as the janitor on Scrubs).

Other Featured performances during the Festival:

Monday July 25: Special $5 Festival opening show with CommuniKate: Art Alive! Kate Billingsley’s solo show

featuring three characters created from the Audience’s favorite art pieces. This show was first developed while

she was a member of BIG, and further extended during her performances in France and Spain.

Tuesday July 26: All Baltimore Night with three BIG MainStage troupes as well as independent troupe, Remote

Possibilities creating an improvised TV show.

Thursday July 28: All Musical Show. Three separate troupes improvising scenes and songs, headlined by

iMusical from Washington DC. iMusical is led by accompanist, Travis Ploeger, who helped develop musical

improv as a theater form during his years playing with Chicago City Limits (oddly enough in NYC) as well as his

more than a decade of work in DC.

Friday and Saturday July 29 & 30: Three performances per night at 7, 830 and 10pm. Friday nights’ shows are

headlined by The Cast from the Magnet Theater in NYC. They will present an improvised play where you see

the action happening onstage and backstage. And on Saturday, Man v. Movie, will feature headliner, Paul

Vaillancourt, creating an entire movie off of one line suggested from the audience.

Sunday July 31: The closing night show will be led by BIG’s show, Improvaret. Cabaret performers, Babs and

Midge, take the audience on a whirlwind tour of their musical careers, completely invented on the spot.