rticle_Thumbnails/JoeandJill1_7-06x10-58cm.jpg" />Improv Festival Oklahoma
7 p.m. Friday/7 p.m. Saturday
Lyric Theatre
1727 N.W. 16th
Individual show tickets are $15; festival passes are $50
As Cueless prepares to open the second annual Improv Festival Oklahoma, you can't help but notice how far the troupe has come in a year.
Beginning in the summer of 2009, the Stillwater-based troupe gathered 20 people at the Town and Gown Theatre to practice "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"-type skits. Dawn Wilson, who is directing the group at the festival, said everyone got to know each other while practicing and playing around onstage.
"We made it a comfortable environment with short games, and we learned a lot while playing with each other," she said.
Now Cueless, which will feature six performers from its core group of 12, will open IFO at 7 p.m. Friday at Lyric Theatre, 1727 N.W. 16th. The festival continues 7 p.m. Saturday.
Despite being one of the most inexperienced groups to have its application accepted by festival organizers, Wilson said she doesn't think her group will be intimidated by Oklahoma improv staples like The MiDolls, Red Dirt Improv, Villain: The Musical, Everybody and Their Dog, OU Improv, and other local, regional and national acts.
"It's a little nerve-racking just thinking about all the experience they have, but we have worked with some of them and seen them, and it's kind of a community where we support each other," Wilson said. "They have embraced us and helped us along and helped give us a voice, and with the big arms of the improv community they have in OKC, they have made us feel very welcome."
Individual show tickets are $15; festival passes are $50. For more information, visit www.reddirtimprov.com. "?Adam Kemp
photo Jill Bernard and Joe Bill of "Scram."
