ABOUT
NEWS
SHOWS
WORKSHOPS
GALLERY
PIP BLOG

2011 Season

The PIP (Puppet Improv Project) will be doing 4 unique shows in 2011 -- each exploring different styles of puppetry, including styles that require multiple performers on one puppet. Our hope is to offer something new each quarter both for audiences, and for performers. To achieve this ambitious goal, the PIP will be brining in experts from around the country to work with the cast and (hopefully) elevate the work to a new level. We're probably crazy to try to do all this stuff, but as you may already know, this group embraces "crazy".

	MARCH -- This March, the PIP will literally be trying something over our heads. Like in traditional puppet television, we will be using a video and monitor system and puppeteering above our heads to isolate the puppets on TV, but doing a LIVE PERFORMANCE. This new technology will give us the freedom to try some things you haven't yet seen from the PIP. A core team of PIP veterns will anchor this show, and we've got a few new faces to fill out the rest of the ensemble. The cast will use audience suggestions in a series of improvised games and scenes. Each show will be unscripted, uncensored, and unduplicated -- with a new show each week! 8pm Thursdays in "The Threefer" @ the Hideout Theatre
	JUNE -- This summer, the puppet craze is sweeping the nation! PIP proudly brings you a new, completely improvised, puppet musical the first three weekends in June — “Puppet Fever, an Improvised Puppet Musical!” Come listen to the infectious music of keyboardist Michael Brockman, as well as a cast that has succumbed to PUPPET FEVER! Each night “Puppet Fever!” opens for a veteran Gnap Theater Projects improv troupe. These shows are going to be HOT-HOT-HOT so reserve your tickets… before it’s too late! Austin Show Dates: June 4th: Puppet Fever w/ Girls, Girls, Girls — TRAVEL FUNDRAISER SHOW! June 11th: Puppet Fever w/ Get Up June 18th: Puppet Fever w/ Kunckleball Now All tickets are $5 and can be purchased online through the www.GnapTheater.org website.
	SEPTEMBER -- The third quarter brings our fall, "Puppet Katamari" (the "puppet clump”). The show will be a puppet variety show lasting 1 hour and 40 min, (with a 10 min intermission). There will be pre-filmed puppet video shorts, some games/scenes created like Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, filmed live over the players heads, and an underwater themed black-light narrative (3 acts interwoven into the show). This show is scheduled at the Dougherty Arts Center and runs for 2 weekends - last weekend in September, first weekend in October.
	DECEMBER -- The fourth quarter we will be doing a "Holiday Show" - a musical based on the idea of a holiday production gone "off script". We will have a new guest each night acting as the stage manager. At the top of the show, the manager takes the suggestion of familiar holiday story. We will then show a video explaning that the producer has "fleeced" the investors by running off with all the money for the production. The cast is left trying to produce a Holiday Musical with no script, costumes, set or props. This show is casting in October, with rehearsals beginning in November. The performance runs 8pm Fri/Sat during the first three weekends in December at the Salvage Vanguard Theater, in the Studio Theater.