BonnerSprings.com

After being open for more than two years now, the owner of the Roving Imp Theater thinks it’s about time he does something that’s never been done before in Bonner Springs.

“We have our anniversary in April, so I really wanted something on the other side of the year,” owner John Robison said of this weekend’s ImpFest 2009, an improvisational comedy festival he will be putting on at the Roving Imp – the first of its kind to be seen in Bonner Springs. “And this is a big event that people will flock to the theater for – people outside and inside the improv community. It gives me a chance to bring in very talented improvisers from other cities.”

Robison has secured a number of improvisational groups from throughout the Kansas City metro area to perform throughout the weekend, including Improv-Abilities – a 10-person group out of Mission – and Tantrum – an 8-member group out of Kansas City. One of the headlining acts will include Brownies Don’t Lie, comprised of nationally-renowned improviser Jill Bernard, from Minneapolis, and Trish Berrong, from Kansas City. Robison’s own Dictionary Soup – a two-person group that includes himself and fellow improviser Keith Curtis – will also perform.

The groups will perform in five shows throughout the weekend, starting Thursday night and running through Saturday. Robison has also included three sessions of improvisational workshops to the weekend lineup, where participants will get a chance to learn more about the elements of improvisation and performance from experts in the craft. One workshop, taught by Bernard, will be over the concept of fireball theory.

“It will teach you how to come on stage like a fireball and ignite an audience right away,” Robison said.

Another workshop, which Robison will teach, will be over how to utilize emotion to keep the audience laughing.

“Because if you can make an audience care about you, they will laugh at you a lot more,” Robison said of why emotion is important in any comedy routine. “I think one of my best tips as far as that goes is to, in a scene, say something emotional about the other person to show the audience that your character is a person and has emotions and warrants being cared about themselves.”

A full listing of shows and pricing information can be found at rovingimp.com.

More of this story can be found in this week's Chieftain, out Oct. 22.

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