Making it up as they go along: Montreal Improv Theatre celebrates its second anniversary

Brent Skaford and Marc Rowland are Easy Action
Photo by Alex Tran

Those mourning the close of Just for Laughs, never fear. This weekend marks the 2nd anniversary of the Montreal Improv Theatre, and to celebrate they’re hosting a four-day festival of totally unscripted fun.

Montreal’s home of bilingual improvised comedy programming, founded in 2010 by Kirsten Rasmussen, Marc Rowland, François Vincent and Bryan Walsh, is inviting hometown favourites and touring delights for a series of night-time shows and some afternoon workshops.

Uncalled For, Way the Hell Off-Broadway (an improv musical!), Les Enfants de Molière and Easy Action (featuring the Bitter End’s Brent Skagford and Marc Roland) make up the roster of popular locals, while the festival is proud to invite New York’s Magnet Theatre Touring Company, who will stage two shows and a workshop.

Montreal Improv’s Marc Rowland describes the festival as above all a celebration, of Montreal’s rich improv community and of the space that houses much of it. But he also sees the weekend as a bit of a homecoming for that community, since many performers are away over the summer touring season.

“We take a large break before and during the Fringe festival,” he says, “our regular programming stops, and then we have a little bit of a vacation just afterwards, and then there’s Just for Laughs, so it is a bit of a ‘welcome back! Let’s get back into it.’” ■

Montreal Improv’s anniversary weekend festival goes down at Montreal Improv Theatre (3713 St-Laurent) August 2-6, with events between 10 p.m. and midnight. $8 for one show, $12 for a double-header. See details at montrealimprov.com