Though it is likely to cause an overload of wit or an assured split side for anyone who attends both, the Edge Improv troupe is putting on back-to-back shows at Bainbridge Performing Arts this weekend.
The first, at 7:30 p.m. July 7, is the troupe’s next installment of their monthly performances which have been going on like clockwork at BPA since 1996, much like the troupe itself. The Edge carries confidence and a bouquet of experience that’s just about as colorful as its commentary.
Starting at 5 p.m. Sunday, a special event — also much like the troupe itself — will wrap the Edge’s antics into a family-centric first annual fund-raising event called Families on the Edge. It’s a benefit for BPA’s theatre school which instructs adults and children in theatrical demeanor and practice.
However, tickets are $50 for adults, $30 for kids, and the event’s main attraction, beyond the Edge, a picnic and raffle is a short live auction during intermission with items like a Seattle Aquarium Tide Pool experience for up to 32 people, a slumber party for up to 10 at BPA and a picnic lunch with actress Elizabeth Mitchell (of “Lost” and “The Santa Claus II and III”) up for the highest bid.
On the other side of the coin, admission to the Edge’s regular monthly show Saturday night is $10.
Both performances are guaranteed to be completely conceived at the time being. And they’ll probably be making it look easy.
“We seem to rarely disappoint,” said Edge member and co-founder John Ellis.
As an improv group, the Edge has been together virtually since the days of the street performers of 16th and 17th century Italy, to whom the origins of improv have been traced.
OK, that may be a slight stretch, but at very least The Edge has probably acted it out.
Every show is new unto itself, Ellis said, as the settings and suggestions of plot and character come from the audience and are immediately set into motion.
“We never know when we walk into the theatre what stories are going to play that night,” Ellis said. “You just have to be prepared to take whatever comes and go with it.”
The Edge has been running with it for 12 years now, after fusing its beginnings from a Bainbridge Island workshop as a group called HA!
Many members have maintained impressive tenures including co-founders Ellis and Frank Buxton as well as director Ken Ballenger who still regularly perform with the group.
“We’ve got to be the oldest improv group in the world in that we’ve got a 70-year old and a couple of 50-year olds … We’ve got people that have done a hell of a lot of improv,” Ellis said.
The Edge’s newest member’s name is Chris Soldevilla, a 30-something actor hailing from Los Angeles who has made a living in improv, commercials, TV and film.
As a group, the Edge has been playing all over the Western Washington map since its inception. In addition to its monthly gigs at BPA the troupe has flexed and fit itself into numerous corporate functions, conferences, benefits and schools, not only performing and entertaining but also teaching improv as a social and business skill.
And Sunday they’ll be using the improv as a fundraising mechanism – very crafty, these Edge improv folks.
Bainbridge Performing Arts
200 Madison Ave.
Bainbridge Island
(206) 842-8569
www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org
The Edge Improv
www.theedgeimprov.com
