Continuing a 14-year tradition of comedy improvisation on Wednesday evenings, actors will take the Grange Hall stage every Wednesday night from July 2 to August 20. This year, the cast of 10 includes the IMPers, the teen professional troupe, as well as the newly reincarnated WIMP.
The new WIMP consists of former IMPers now in college. Don’t miss the troupe called “one of the standout groups” of the 2007 Chicago Improv Festival by the festival’s artistic director. This group performs instantaneous skits based on audience suggestions.
On a Wednesday evening in July, members of Island groups the IMPers and the newly re-formed WIMPs walk through Grange Hall in West Tisbury seeking that proof of spontaneity which is customary to any improv show: suggestions from the audience.
“We need a playwright,” they say.
Confident he has the perfect answer, a little blond-haired boy shoots up his hand and yells, “Harry Potter!”
The performers accept Tennessee Williams, but the kid fights on.
This much is known about WIMP, the adult improvisational theatre troupe: they are funny, they like funny and they like being funny. Equally important and much less known is this: they are generous, they like generosity and it was through their own generosity that their troupe formed nearly 15 years ago.
On April 4, laugh with WIMP and get the IMPers to the Chicago Improv Festival. The IMPers, Martha’s Vineyard’s teen professional improv troupe, scored an invitation to perform at the international Chicago Improv Festival alongside headliners from major motion pictures and television shows like Mad TV and Saturday Night Live. In the history of the festival this honor has only been extended to a handful of teen troupes. This is the second group of young improvisors from the Vineyard to receive this honor.
Ed Cisek, longtime company member of WIMP and IMP Improv, received the news this week that every improviser dreams of: he is now a performer on a Harold Team at the iO Theater (formally ImprovOlympic) in Chicago.
He was chosen as one of 15 performers from a group of 80 who completed the iO training program. At the end of his summer teaching at IMP Camp, Ed will join an impressive list of actors such as Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Neil Flynn, Rachel Dratch, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Adam McKay and Amy Poehler, to perform at iO.
