Every year impro­visers gath­er in Wel­ling­ton to cel­eb­rate the New Zea­l­and Improv Fest­iv­al (NZIF), but this year impro­vis­ors from over­seas have been COV­ID-19-blocked. Fest­iv­al dir­ect­or Jen­nifer O’Sullivan says, “We have built the fest­iv­al on a plat­form of col­lab­or­a­tion and con­nec­tion, reach­ing nation­ally and inter­na­tion­ally and bring­ing togeth­er amaz­ing tal­ent and per­spect­ives. Of course, the cur­rent situ­ation has thrown a lot of our inter­na­tion­al work out the win­dow, at least for this year – but instead we’ve got this won­der­ful oppor­tun­ity to really explore and cel­eb­rate what’s hap­pen­ing in our city; to high­light the people and com­pan­ies mak­ing work year round and push­ing the art form into new excit­ing places. I’m so proud of the pro­gramme we’ve gathered.”

Return­ing to its roots with a Close to Home pro­gramme, the 2020 NZIF fea­tures sev­en­teen shows by Wellington’s most innov­at­ive impro­visers. The smal­ler, more intim­ate fest­iv­al will give Wel­ling­to­ni­ans a great chance to be a part of the thriv­ing loc­al impro­visa­tion com­munity. With a diverse pro­gramme cov­er­ing mul­tiple cul­tures, genres and forms of improv – the 2020 NZIF will be a short and sharp show­case that cap­tures the spir­it and aroha of Wel­ling­ton theatre. From a darkly goth­ic romp, to envir­on­ment­al­ist storytelling, to a music­al with­in a music­al, the 2020 Fest­iv­al cel­eb­rates the diverse work cre­ated by our loc­al artists and the loves, laughs, tears and tan­trums we’ve all felt this year. 

The fest­iv­al is not just focus­sing on strictly improv-based per­form­ances and is also delving fur­ther into wider the­at­ric­al styles. “We wanted to not only include the purely improv per­formers in Wel­ling­ton, but also bring in work and cre­at­ors who use the frame­work of improv and spon­taneity to sup­port more tra­di­tion­al theatre and per­form­ance,” O’Sullivan says, “It’s so valu­able to see how our work over­laps and how we can learn from each oth­er­’s pro­cesses.” 

If you’re new to improv try the open­ing show­case Here’s a Thing and then book one of the oth­er shows via the BATS Theatre web­site. More inform­a­tion about each show on the Fest­iv­al web­site.