about us
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the festival
Nowadays »IMPRO« is Europe’s biggest festival for showcasing impro theatre. Each March since 2001, we invite impro artists from all over the world, to test new impro formats as well as perform tried and tested formats at high international level. The festival is a celebration of improvised theatre across several Berlin theatre stages. The range of shows extends wide, from improvised radio play to a musical to theatre piece created in the moment on a bus or in an actual workshop.
We have a few regular venues, aside from the Gorillas home ground the »Ratibor Theatre. Such as the »English Theatre Berlin | IPAC«, the »Mehringhoftheater«, and various other locations. The Berlin Improfestival does not receive any financial funding, it is only financed by the tickets sold and the workshop fees. It can only maintain its high level by the fact that the participants work for a small fee in view of the artistic exchange with other colleagues of this genre that takes place in Berlin.
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the gorillas
»Die Gorillas« have been improvising as an independent theatre ensemble in Berlin since 1997. We believe in the »philosophy« of improv: acceptance, trust, saying yes, flexibility, listening and continuing others’ ideas. We are working on methods for anchoring improvisation sustainably in social, intercultural, educational contexts and those for the public interest. The result is lots of regular and also new projects for the further development and dissemination of our way of working. For all of us, improv has become an integral part our artistic expression.
Today we run Berlin's largest school for improvisation, where we give courses for amateurs and acting colleagues. We support companies and their employees in trainings with improvisation techniques and improvise business theater shows for company parties and conferences. We organize the largest European festival of this genre, the Berlin Improfestival »IMPRO«, annually in March and produce long-standing international theater collaborations funded by the EU. We use impro in educational and therapeutic settings, and of course continue to perform improvised theater ourselves on several stages in Berlin and Potsdam (about 230 performances annually).