The 5^th Annual Improv Festival Oklahoma!

Red Dirt Improv is proud to announce the Fifth Annual Improv Festival Oklahoma! This three day event will be held July 12-14, 2013, at the Sooner Theatre in Norman, Oklahoma (101 E. Main St. Norman, OK 73069).

This year, Improv Festival Oklahoma is pleased to welcome special guests Jill Bernard, Asaf Ronen, and Karen Wight!

Additionally, the Hideout Theatre (visiting from Austin, TX) will be directing Maestro, a comedic elimination style competition featuring several improvisers.

The following acts have been invited to perform in IFO5:

After School Special (Kansas City, MO)
The Band Wreckers (Dallas, TX)
David & Terry (Dallas, TX)
Drum Machine (Minneapolis, MN)
Everybody and Their Dog (OKC, OK)
Fun Grip (Dallas, TX)
The Hideout Presents: Maestro (Austin, TX)
IMP (Austin, TX & NYC, NY)
Improv in the Dark
In Our Prime (Austin, TX)
KC Improv Company (Kansas City, MO)
One State Two State Red State Blue State (OKC, OK)
OU Improv (Norman, OK)
Red Dirt Improv (Norman & OKC, OK)
Red Letters (Tahlequah, OK)
The Victims (Dallas, TX)
¡ZARZAMORA! (Austin, TX)

Congratulations! Stay tuned for full show schedules!

Improv Festival Oklahoma debuted in the summer of 2009 as a way to bring together the growing Oklahoma improv community and introduce audiences in Oklahoma to a variety of forms of improvised theater. Improv Festival Oklahoma is produced and hosted by members of Red Dirt Improv. Questions or comments about the festival? Email us at improvfestivaloklahoma@gmail.com.

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About Jill Bernard

Jill Bernard has been performing with ComedySportz-Twin Cities since 1993, and is a founding member of HUGE Theater in Uptown Minneapolis. Her one-woman improv piece, Drum Machine, has been featured in over forty improv festivals, including the Chicago Improv Festival, the Toronto Improv Jamboree, the Miami Improv Festival, Philadelphia Improv Festival, and the ComedySportz National Tournament, among others. She has taught and performed improv in Norway, Canada, and over thirty of these United States, in cities that include Juneau, AK; Spokane and Seattle, WA; Washington DC; Bowling Green, KY; Phoenix, AZ; and also on an episode of MTV “Made.” She is one-half of the duo SCRAM with Joe Bill of the Annoyance Theater and an Artistic Associate of the Chicago Improv Festival. She's also the voice of God, the Holy Ghost, the Virgin Mary and other religious figures in a series of confirmation videos for Sparkhouse. Jill also performs with Asaf Ronen in the duo SWITCH.

About Asaf Ronen

ASAF RONEN is the creator and Editor-in-Chief of YESand.com, a website devoted to improvisation, and is the author of Directing Improv: Show the Way By Getting Out of the Way. He has been involved in improv since 1990, starting in college and working with Theatresports, ComedySportz and directing his own longform improv troupe, Hiatus, where he helped create original formats.

Asaf has taught improvisation in Canada, Great Britain, Norway and in twenty-two of The United States. His directing credits include the all-girl group goga, the improvised comic book adventure show Ka-Baam!!, and Death in the City, a dramatic longform improv piece, at the NY Fringe Festival. He was a producer on Trust Us, This Is All Made Up, a documentary on legendary improvisers TJ & Dave that had its world premiere at Austin’s South by Southwest Festival and was a writer on the soon-to-be-released Days of Delusion.

Asaf has taught throughout NYC’s public school system as a resident artist through LEAP and New Horizons and as part of Weist-Barron’s ACTeen. In 2000, Asaf worked with Cirque du Soleil as a scout for improvisational talent.

About Karen Wight

Karen Eleanor Wight is a NYC-based actress, dancer, improviser, and teacher. She most recently co-starred in the Off-Broadway production of "The Screwtape Letters", a two-person play in which she created and performed the role of a demon-creature, Toadpipe, as well as 7 additional characters all portrayed using physical transformation. Karen also performed "The Screwtape Letters" at the Lansburgh Theatre in DC and on tour. Karen has been improvising for 17 years and is one-half of the wordless improv duo Imp with Asaf Ronen--think Chaplin meets Looney Tunes. Imp performs long-form improv at festivals around the country including the Mainstage at CIF, Seattle Festival of Improv Theatre, San Francisco Improv Festival, and many others. In addition to performing, Karen teaches improv at Magnet Theatre in NYC as well as festivals including Seattle, Toronto, New Zealand, Austin, Baltimore, Providence, Oberlin, Miami, and Los Angeles. Karen currently studies acting with Alice Spivak. For clowning and corporel mime, she has studied with Christopher Bayes (of Julliard, Kennedy Center, and NYU) and Christopher Eaves (student of Marcel Marceau) respectively.