BATS Exclusive: Get Insight on Upcoming Shows From This Month’s Show Directors

Need a weekend full of improv fun? Join us every weekend in August to see Arabian Nights, directed by Basel Al-Naffouri, and Snapshot, directed by Tim Orr. Hear from directors and check out a special messages they put together just for YOU!

Snapshot

From Tim Orr:

I came up with the idea to do Snapshot as a show with someone I perform with in Europe, Inbal Lori, in 2015.  We did our very first show at the improv festival in Amsterdam in front of 350 people, and it was (whew!) a big hit! (We call the show Click when we perform it as a duo, by the way.)

I had seen shows that used photos in them, but followed by asking questions of the audience members who sent in the photos.  I wanted to do something where the inspiration for the scenes was visual rather than verbal, and I didn’t want to know what the photos were “really about”. Images, not facts. I really enjoy the potential variety in this format, the myriad of ways that we can use an image:  literally, or as a memory or dream, a tattoo, a billboard, etc., etc., etc.  As improvisers, our minds need to be very opento anything and everything, which is always a state of being that I cherish while doing shows.

Hope you enjoy it too!

Arabian Nights:

From Basel Al-Naffouri 

When I started my improv journey 17 years ago, it was a thrill. I practiced a hobby that was not only fun, but also extremely creative, collaborative and spontaneous. I knew that I had found my creative home.The one missing element from my newfound hobby was my identity. I never much related to the content I was creating. I grew up in the Arab World, but was doing scenes/playing characters that were western in nature. So in 2009, I set on an ambitious project to bring a small part of my identity to my craft.

I created "Improvised Arabian Nights": spontaneous stories of Alf Laila wa Laila (a thousand and one nights). But for me this was not going to just be another show with different content. We wanted to create a whole experience that is much more representative: from costumes, backdrop, set to Arabic Music. The result for me is often as magical as the stories themselves.

I'm excited that we are bringing the show again on the BATS Improv stage. Every Saturday in August at 8pm. The show is a lot of work to put on, but it is a labor of love. And I hope you can all come watch it!

Visit www.improv.org to reserve your seat for this weekend's shows!