The ensemble of the VIIF

The Festival Ensemble

The Vancouver International Improv Festival Ensemble is an opportunity for individual improvisers the world over to spend a week workshopping new and new–to–them improv forms. Dozens of performers apply for a handful of spots and work with guest directors to create evening performances live for you, our audience. This year's directors are Mark Sutton and Joe Bill, co–founders of the Annoyance Theatre and stars of the world–renowned Bassprov, and acclaimed New York instructor and member of 4Track, Christian Cappozoli. To read bios of these directors, or to find out how you can take a public workshop with them, check out the Workshops page.

This year's Ensemble includes performers who live in Toronto, New York, Atlanta, Edmonton, Berlin, Halifax and Vancouver, who have toured across Canada, across the US, and internationally, who are writers, actors, directors, musicians and stand up comedians (when they're not improvising, of course). They are television stars, Artistic Directors of theatres, comedy and theatre award winners, teachers, friends and lovers. They're also all gifted improvisers, and they're all here to entertain you.

One thing is certain — the Festival Ensemble is a group of people who will likely never all work together again. In some cases, you'd have to travel pretty far to see any of them on their home turf. Now you can enjoy all of them, on one stage, at one time, without even leaving your seat.

Convinced? Good. Visit the Schedule page to find out when you can see them in action.

Frank Bonomo : New York City

After being convinced by a coworker to "take an improv class" back in 2006, Frank Bonomo took the plunge and has been performing ever since. Having trained at the Magnet Theater in NYC and abroad, Frank has had the pleasure of studying with improv luminaries Armando Diaz, Pat O'Brien, Bill Arnett, Rachel Hamilton, James Eason, and Christian Capozzoli. He has performed on Magnet improv teams, Skosh, Oswald, Your Code Name is Jonah, and more recently, CRUSH.

Denise Jones: VANCOUVER

Denise has been improvising for 8 years and has been a main stage player with Vancouver TheatreSports League for 6 of those awe inspiring 365s. She's jammed out the long form and the short at festivals in Vancouver, Miami, Seattle, Chicago, and Edmonton… so far, but the year is young. She's played around with improvised rock operas and science documentaries and has just started performing in a unitard and face paint with Kissprov: Yes, it is what you think it is.

Denise believes in the power of positive thinking but not in recycling.

Tim Daugulis: TORONTO

Tim Daugulis has been improvising since late 1987 after firing his crack scriptwriting team led by James Downey (Saturday Night Live, David Letterman) and Tom Wolfe (The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Bonfire of the Vanities). Since then, Tim has become proficient at making shit up, notably with the Canadian Improv Games and Kingston's The Improv Show.

He lives in his Lake Tahoe compound with his wife Melinda Gates.

Barbara Klehr: BERLIN

Barbara Klehr studied acting, singing and dancing at "Berliner Schule für Bühnenkunst". She completed singing studies at the private Jazz Music Institute of Reggie and Cornelia Moore, Berlin. After working at different theaters she decided to become a freelancer. Since 1998 she has worked in various theaters and music groups. She learned improv and became part of "The Gorillas." Her most important teachers have been Randy Dixon, Trisha Brown and Dennis Cahill. Her specialty in improv is "creating songs in the moment."

Mark Little: HALIFAX

Mark Little is a Halifax–based improviser, stand–up comic, and a member of the Canadian Comedy Award–nominated sketch troupe Picnicface (nominated for Best Troupe, 2008 and 2009). He has written for This Hour Has 22 Minutes and was named Halifax's Best Comedian in 2007 and 2008. Mark recently won the 2009 Yuk Yuk’'s Great Canadian Laugh Off and the 2009 Just For Laughs Homegrown Competition. He's super excited for his third year at VIIF.

Rene Dellefont : Atlanta

René is a walking contradiction.

He has been improvising for over a decade; 8 of which have been as a member of the ensemble at Dad's Garage Theater Company in Atlanta, GA. René has directed several seasons of the improvised soap opera, Scandal! at Dad's Garage and curated & directed The Saturday Morning Pajama Jam, – an improvised throwback to the Saturday morning shows of the 1980's that featured the world's only improvised cartoon.

René is an awkward pause and something that should have began. He founded The Doug Dank Project in 2006, a long–form improv show which pays tribute to the long–forgotten storyteller Doug Dank. In 2008, he curated The Last Seen Improv Festival which brought improvisors from Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, and Vancouver together to work as an ensemble. He recently launched the American premiere of Toronto's Catch 23 Comedy Deathmatch.

René raises a fist to life. During the summer of 2006, he performed at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival and took the Saturday Morning Pajama Jam to the Edmonton International Fringe Festival where it was compared to MTV's Wonder Showzen.

René thinks it's stupid that he gets paid to jump around… it's what he lives for and swears he'll never touch the ground. He has performed at The World Domination Tournament at Dad's Garage Theater (2000 - 2009), Improvaganza at Rapid Fire Theater in Edmonton (2002 - 2008) where he was a member of the Improv All Stars team in 2007, The Catch 23 Tournament of Wonders in Toronto (2005, 2006), The Winnipeg IF Improv Festival (2007), The Providence Improv Festival (2008), The Charleston Comedy Festival (2007, 2008), The Vancouver International Improv Festival (2007, 2009), The ProjectProject Combustion Festival in Toronto (2008, 2009), and the VTSL St. Valentine's Day Massacre (2009). In June of 2008, he joined forces with Instant Theatre's Alistair Cook and toured Canada performing together in Toronto, Regina, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver.

He used to have a dog named Mitchell.

Kayla Lorette: TORONTO

Kayla Lorette is a member of Ghost Jail Theatre as well as a co–producer of Toronto's Catch23. Improvising since high school with the Canadian Improv Games, Kayla moved from her home province of British Columbia to work with Second City's Education and Touring companies. In Toronto, she has been a member of many improv companies, including PROJECTproject and Impromptu Splendor (both Canadian Comedy Award nominees.). She has participated in multiple improv festivals, including Rapidfire's Improvaganza, PROJECTproject's Combustion Festival, and the Chicago Improv Festival, where she performed alongside Joe Flaherty.

She is happy to return for her third time to the Vancouver International Improv Festival. This multiple Canadian Comedy Award nominee can be seen this fall on YTV's new sketch comedy show, That's So Weird [http://thatssoweird.ytv.com].

Dave Morris: VICTORIA

Dave Morris is a storyteller and improviser. He's performed at Festivals around Canada and the world including, but not limited to, Winnipeg, Seattle, Chicago, Berlin, and of course Vancouver. Living in Victoria, he spends his days teaching classes, performing his one–man improvised storytelling shows, and acting as artistic director of "Thinknot." He also spends a lot of his time working for the Canadian Improv Games teaching high school students and generally being awesome! [www.davemorrisisa.com]

Craig Anderson: VANCOUVER

Craig has been performing in Vancouver for 3(ish) years, chiefly with !nstant Theatre, VTSL, and Bronx Cheer. He recently returned from a tour of the east coast which included shows with Picnicface, The Montreal Sketch Comedy Festival, Laugh Sabbath and The Combustion Festival. Craig has studied with lots of amazing improvisers, most notably (to him) Craig Cackowski and Bill Arnett from iO. He does a lot of comedy in many forms, but to him, improv has always been the most rewarding and provided the most joy. He loves being a part of this festival.

Mike Fly: TORONTO

Mike Fly has been improvising since the early 90's. He's traveled across Canada and into the United States and even London, England, performing and taking part in festivals. He's a founding member of General Fools Improvisational Theatre and is also the creator of Improv Monologue Project [http://www.improvmonologueproject.com].

Steve Sim : Winnipeg

Steve has been improvising since the dawn of the 90's as well as being a writer, stand-up comic, actor, producer, director and whatever else he needs to be (he is also pretty handy with a mop). He is the Artistic Director of the Winnipeg IF… Improv Festival. He leads master classes in improvisation across Canada and throughout Europe. Stephen was a member of team Canada at the FIFA World Cup of Improv in Germany in 2006 which marks the first time that Canada has won anything at a FIFA event.

Amy Shostak: EDMONTON

Amy is a performer, writer and improviser from Edmonton, Alberta.

She is currently performing in her seventh season with Rapid Fire Theatre, and is the Associate Artistic Director. She can be seen weekly in Theatresports, as well as in CHiMPROV, Rapid Fire's longform show. She is a trainer and judge for Rapid Fire's high school tournament, The Wildfire Festival, and has also begun teaching in the pilot verison for Rapid Fire's Aboriginal Education Project.

Improv has taken Amy many places. She is so pleased to have attended the Winnipeg Improv Festival (IF), the Berlin Impro Festival, The Dad's Garage World Domination Theatresports Tournament in Atlanta, and Vancouver Theatresports League's St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Ken Lawson : Vancouver

Ken Lawson has been a performer with the Vancouver TheatreSports League for 5ish years and occasionally plays with other tasty groups around town. He has been lucky enough to perform at festivals and tournaments all over North America. Happily, this is his third VIIF. Ken was recently seen on tv playing a guitar around a campfire asking his friends for change. He is currently hoping that the pilot he shot where he is a ukulele–playing homeless person asking for change gets picked up. He likes festivals and the people that are in them… please give him some change.

Chet Siegel: NEW YORK

Chet Siegel studied sketch and long form improv at iO Chicago, The Annoyance Theater, UCBT New York, and Magnet Theater under comedic luminaries Bill Arnett, Pat O'Brien, Piero Procaccini, Joe Wengert, Armando Diaz, Rachel Hamilton, James Eason, Tara Copeland, Christian Capozzoli and others. When she's not performing with Magnet Theater's house team CRUSH, she performs with The Sleepover, The Deconstruction, and her fierce all–girl improv trio, LCJ. She is also a student at Sarah Lawrence College where there are technically no majors, but if there were, she'd be on her way to a BA in Theater and Literature.

Kirsten Rasmussen: MONTREAL

Kirsten Marie Rasmussen is a multi–talented performer currently without residence. She was born in Saskatchewan, and moved to Edmonton for seven years to study theatre. In Edmonton Kirsten acquired her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting, continued her studies in dance (jazz, modern and improv), and studied clown with Jan Henderson, Mike Kennard and John Turner (of Mump and Smoot). Kirsten was a regular in the festival scene in Edmonton performing many times at the NextFest Festival, Emdonton's Fringe. Most importantly in Edmonton Kirsten became a regular and eventually senior and touring player of Rapid Fire Theatre, improvising weekly at RFT's Theatresports and Chimprov shows. This past year Kirsten toured with RFT to festivals in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. She represented the company at the CIG Nationals in Ottawa, giving workshops on physicality and character creation. Recently she has been spending time in central Canada and has the wonderful pleasure of playing a few shows with PROJECTproject, GhostJail and Catch 23 in Toronto. And in Montreal, Uncalled For, weekly shows at Theatre St. Catherine, and a ten day run of an improvised sitcom called The Bitter End at the Just for Laugh’s ZOOfest. You can peep at Kirsten on youtube participating in Mike Fly's amazing Improvised Monologue Project (#24).

Kirsten is delighted to be part of the ensemble for VIIF, and once again on the road doing what she loves most.

Michal Grajewski: TORONTO

Born in Poland and raised in Winnipeg, Michal now resides in Toronto. A professional actor and improviser, Michal has been an active member of the Winnipeg, Vancouver and Toronto improv communities. An alumni of the Canadian Improv Games, he has taught workshops, facilitated tournaments and was the Assistant Regional Director of the Toronto tournament from 2005–2008. Michal is a core cast member of Toronto's Ghost Jail Theatre. Recent film and television credits include House Party (Comedy Network), Rick Mercer Report (CBC) and Repossession Mambo (Universal 2009), as well as numerous television commercials.

Mark Sutton

Mark Sutton is one of the most respected and sought after teachers in improvisation today. He is a founding member of Chicago's legendary ANNOYANCE THEATER and, for 10 years, was the Theater's managing director. Mark is on the faculty of both ANNOYANCE and The Second City, and has been a featured instructor at comedy festivals across the United States and Canada for the last 16 years. He helped develop the aggressive, personal power style of improvisation pioneered by Mick Napier at The ANNOYANCE. Mark's direct, personal style of teaching has inspired and enlightened thousands of students during his 20 year career. In addition to acting and teaching, Mark is also the Artistic Director of the Chicago Improv Festival.

Joe Bill

Joe Bill is one of the co–founders of Annoyance Theater, where he performed in and directed over 50 productions from 1987–2000, including smash hits "Co–ed Prison Sluts", "The Real Live Brady Bunch" and "The Screw Puppies". Bill has coached and performed with numerous ensembles at iO from 1985–1987 and 1995–present. Highlights include Georgia Pacific and the innovative lights out long–form, "The Bat"

He currently performs with the improv supergroup Weasilicious and co–stars with fellow Annoyance co–founder Mark Sutton, in the nationally touring production BASSPROV, which headlined the 2003 Chicago Improv Festival with special guest Fred Willard. BASSPROV has toured the United States since 2002, and also was named one of the top 10 comedy shows in Toronto in that same year. Bill teaches improvisation for iO, the Second City Conservatory and Training Center, the Annoyance, the Playground and around the U.S., Canada, UK and Netherlands.

He started doing improv in 1977. Joe has been performing, coaching and teaching at The Playground almost from the beginning. He currently plays with Inside Vladimir, and is the coach of American Dream.

Christian Capozzoli

Christian Capozzoli teaches at Armando Diaz's Magnet Theater in New York. He has been studying and performing comedy since 1996, and holds a BFA in Comedy Arts from Emerson College and a Masters in Literature and Education from Harvard University. He performs and tours North America with 4Track (Best New Improv Show 2007 TimeOut NY), and is insanely proud to work and direct both critically acclaimed Statues of Liberty and CRUSH.