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.