Cottonwood News – Giggle away the holiday blues with Zenprov Comedy’s completely improvised show “Christmas in the AMAZON!” on Saturday, Dec. 17 at 7:00 PM at the Old Town Center for the Arts in Cottonwood. Purchase tickets at OldTownCenter.org
“We are taking aim at over-commercialization of the holidays and how Amazon has supplanted Santa Claus,” said Derek Dujardin, the director of Zenprov Comedy. “From petty family dramas to mindless consumerism to workers who can’t unionize, it is all fair game. Help us lampoon the cardboard juggernaut that none of us can live without!”
The troupe will perform a sleigh full of new games, including “Toy Stories,” a short, improvised play similar to the movie Toy Story. The actors will take on characteristics of neurotic, misfit toys coping with life in the closet. The audience will yell out their favorite toys and games, and actors will create them on the spot.
For more than a decade now, Zenprov Comedy has tapped into the rich source material that comes from living in a community steeped in spiritual seeking, UFOs, vortexes, self-help gurus, psychics, radical vegans and endless roundabouts. Coached by a famed Second City director from Chicago, their otherworldly performances are grounded in the fundamentals of rock-solid improv work, inventive satire, and their constant search for grand truths hidden within the great Cosmic Giggle.
If you’ve never been to one of their live performances before, Zenprov Comedy is similar to the popular improvised TV show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” The troupe performs a mix of fast-paced improvised scenes created in the moment based on audience suggestions and Chicago-style, “long-form” improv, where scenes and characters interconnect. Unlike sketch or standup comedy, nothing is scripted or prepared ahead of time, so it’s never the same show twice.
Zenprov Comedy embraces the Del Close method of improv acting, which emphasizes the “group mind” that mysteriously develops during a performance. Miraculously, the player’s minds fuse to create a “super mind” where they practically finish each other’s sentences—and often do. Laughter ensues.
The super minds of Zenprov Comedy are Derek Dujardin, Shaeri Richards, Shaunn Cochran, Chris Redish, Betty Testa, Linda Roemer, Nathaniel Montgomery, and Mary Carder.
Tickets are $18 pre-sale, $20 the day of the show and $25 for first three rows. This one-night-only performance may sell out so please purchase tickets early. Get tickets online at www.OldTownCenter.org
Old Town Center for the Arts is located in Old Town Cottonwood at 633 N 5th St, Cottonwood, AZ 86326. Doors open at 7:00 PM. Shows are family friendly (rated PG-13) and run approximately 90 minutes. Visit www.ZenprovComedy.com to learn more.
Tickets for this special event are available online at OldTownCenter.org or in Cottonwood at Mount Hope Foods and Mysterium, and In Sedona, you can find tickets at The Mary D. Fisher Theater. For ticket prices and more information about these and other upcoming events, visit www.oldtowncenter.org, or call Elena Bullard at 928 634 0940.