Laughing at Unreality: the 2nd Annual Beijing Improv Interactive Arts Festival

The virtues of having a sense of humor in Beijing: rush hour traffic is seen as a burlesque of modernization; event organization is a comedy of errors (with emphasis on comedy); weekends at Sanlitun are sitcoms in and of itself; a baby pooping on the curb... funny for its own reasons; but most importantly -- the ability to appreciate the work of Beijing Improv, currently preparing the 2nd annual Beijing Improv Interactive Arts Festival, a two-day mishmash of theater, art, photography and fashion starting this Saturday at Penghao Theater.

Beijing Improv began in November 2006 as a way for founders Lottie Dowling and Jonathan Palley to have some fun with friends but quickly expanded into an institution that currently holds an impressive streak of sell-out shows. Like much good comedy, many of their skits (all improvised on the spot, of course) put spins on the topical issues of the day, rounding out the edginess of everyday life with the putty of laughter. The Interactive Arts Festival is the group's biggest event of the year, a collaborative effort featuring performances from Beijing Dance, Swing Beijing and Cheeky Monkey Theater, among others. The festival will also mark the debut of Bilingual Improv Group (BIG), formed out of Beijing Improv's weekly bilingual workshop.

Jack Smith, a magazine editor who joined Beijing Improv a year ago (he's part of the 10-person Mainstage English Players, Beijing Improv's primary performance team), spoke with us about the art of improvisation.

Why should people come to the festival this year?
If you've ever wanted to participate in any form of art, regardless of what it is, you'll find something at the festival to inspire you. The whole idea of the festival is participation, so we want people to get involved. Even if you have no concept of what something is, you'll have the chance to try it out. It's a brilliant way of networking and getting an overview of the cultural scene in Beijing, particularly if you're a new arrival, and it should just generally be fantastic fun.

This year's festival seems like more of a collaborative production.
Absolutely. We're working very closely with all of the groups involved, and we call it the Improv Interactive Arts Festival rather than just calling it the improv festival because it's representing a cross-section of different arts disciplines, from performance to fine arts. We wanted to make it as broadly appealing as possible to widen the audience base, but also to give platform to the number of talented people in Beijing. There are so many talented people here now who've been drawn to China because of its rise, we just felt like these people needed more recognition in broader society, so we're really glad that the festival has given them a chance to have that.

What training have you had in the improvisational arts?
I did very extensive research into acting, method acting in particular, and I discovered that in the schools of method acting, like Laburn and Stanislavski, part of their training for actors was improv. And I've been in several theater troupes while I was living in the UK and every single one of them focused on improv as an essential skill. It was a way of developing a psychology for your character.

I became fascinated by character-based theater and drama, and so when I started improv I realized this was the perfect way to get all of the characters I've come up with up on stage. It's a bigger challenge than doing scripted work in a lot of ways, and I love characters -- the human condition is fascinating.

Do you have to have a certain type of personality to enjoy improv more than scripted work?
I think you need to be the type of person who's willing to make a fool of yourself. I'm actually in real life a very quiet and inhibited person, but I find that on stage that disappears. I think it's mostly because of the unreality of being on stage. The incredible thing about improv is, the people who are good at it are not necessarily the best actors or the most theatrical people; the people who are best at improv are people who, when they step on stage, step out of ordinary life. And the great thing is that can come from anywhere. We've seen housewives perform as well as professional actors in auditions at Beijing Improv, and it's just a question of mindset. The key thing is you have to have a good sense of humor about yourself and the world in general.

The 2nd annual Beijing Improv Interactive Arts Festival begins at noon this Saturday at Penghao Theater (35 Dongmianhua Hutong, between Nanluogu Xiang and Jiaodaokou Nandajie) and concludes with a Beijing Improv Mainstage performance starting at 7:30 pm on Sunday.

Tickets: RMB 30 for day-pass, RMB 50 for entire weekend. All proceeds go to the theater NGO Hua Dan.
For more information, please contact info@beijingimprov.org.