SEQUIM — Olympic Theatre Arts will once again welcome a Bainbridge Island improvisational comedy group, “Imagined Reality,” for their second appearance at OTA at 7 p.m. Saturday.
The production will be in OTA’s Gathering Hall, 414 N. Sequim Ave. General admission tickets are $10. Tickets can be purchased in advance online at Olympic TheatreArts.org, at OTA’s box office, by calling 360-683-7326 or at the door if available.
Since 2016, Imagined Reality Improv has been conjuring comedy out of thin air by taking audience suggestions and making up scenes on the spot.
The seven members come from all walks of life — a scientist, two lawyers, a classical musician, a human resources guru, a marketing expert and even a teenage student — and each member brings something different to the performances. Imagined Reality Improv’s home stage is the Frank Buxton Auditorium at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA).
Improvisation, or improv, is a form of live theater in which plots, characters and dialogue are made up in the moment. Performers take suggestions from the audience to get themselves going, and then rely on fellow actors to keep the comedy rolling.
One unique aspect of improv performance is that they are all just that —unique, said organizers.
Slated to perform Saturday are:
• Michelle Allen, whose nine-year stage resume includes acting, writing, directing, producing, stage management, improv and teaching. Prior to that, she worked as a scientist.
• Nancy Peterson, a professional clarinetist who has spent most of her career performing the works of others. She found her inner “funny” through improv while living in Southern California.
She performs with Imagined Reality and directs an improv group in Port Ludlow. With music still a lifelong love, she also performs with the Port Angeles Symphony and Toot Sweet, a Victorian-costumed clarinet quartet.
• Marybeth Redmond has been acting, singing, dancing and being silly on stage for the past 10 years in Kitsap County. She has appeared with Bainbridge Performing Arts (BPA), Ovation!, Jewel Box Theater, Island Theater and NW Actors Lab.
• As a herdsman in a school play, Patrick Ryan fell from the stage, garnering laughs from the unexpected pratfall. Undaunted, his stage career continued with plum roles such as “townsfolk” or “background.”
He even spent a summer after high school telling jokes at Astroworld, an amusement park in Houston, Texas.
• Rose Weaver is 13 years old and has lived on Bainbridge Island her whole life. She started acting when she was 5 and has loved it ever since.
• Tyler Weaver had been doing improv for many years when he invited a bunch of friends to his basement with the idea of forming a group which became Imagined Reality.
He still has his day jobs as a father and a litigation consultant, though. Weaver plans to retire once he finally gets those royalties for inventing the “Walter White” look years before the TV show “Breaking Bad” existed.
• Andrejs Sommers spent his youth hyping up crowds as the announcer and owner of a touring action sports show. He also played The Wheedle, a mascot of the Seattle Supersonics NBA team.
A number of years ago, he began doing improv with his son, Talis, an emeritus member of Imagined Reality. Outside of improv, Andrejs works in the advertising world.
