Seattle Festival of Improv Theater
by Brandon Barney
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Seattle Festival of Improv Theater (SFIT). Wing-It Productions has managed to bring together 27 improv groups from eight cities and three countries to preform 12 shows over five days.
The first group I saw, The She Spot, is from Seattle. After receiving a few suggestions from the audience the duo performed an improvised Mexican soap opera. The idea was sound, but I don’t think it worked with only two actresses. In spite of their lively performance it was often unclear which actress was playing which part. There was no attempt at costume changes or even disguised voices to help distinguish the characters. All in all it wasn’t bad, but it could have been so much better.
The next act brought The Cat Pack to the stage, another group from Seattle. This quintet donned suit jackets and skinny ties and mimicked Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra with an opening number entitled “The Obvious Song”. Here they pointed out things about the audience, that man is wearing a hat, that woman has a scarf, and so on. It was fine at first but grew old quickly. Next they moved into the audience to poke fun at a few people, before moving onto a scene inspired from the flaws of the audience. At one point the emcee, who had been introducing each act, attempted to jump up on stage, thank them, and go to intermission. The actors on stage, however, wouldn’t leave and told her they had time for one more song. Clearly confused the emcee stepped down and the actors sang L-O-V-E until they realized they didn’t know the words. A suggestion from the audience turned the song into G-O-L-F and then into D-U-C-K. The only real comedy came when the actors misspelled duck.
The last group to preform for the night, The Amie and Kristen Show/The Kristen and Amie Show, came all the way from Philadelphia. Though a bit adult in nature, this act was clearly the best of the evening. After a suggestion from the crowd they began a scene about a Mermaid. When the scene had run it’s course, instead of ending it and asking for a different suggestion, they simply repeated the last word or phrase in the scene until it morphed into something else entirely. This method was surprising at first, but once I was used to it I thought it was a great way to move on to a new scene without breaking their rhythm.
