FST Improv Presents JUST DESSERTS! 10/1

FST Improv is ready to unleash a sugar rush with the premiere of a brand new comedy show: JUST DESSERTS! Created by Rebecca Hopkins and Jeremy Lamb, JUST DESSERTS is a competition of wits that is anything but sugary sweet. Four improv artists are duking it out on the Gompertz stage in a full-on showdown complete with short scenes, sketch comedy, and games... Which
team will the audience choose as the ‘sweetest treat' of the evening? The audience will cast votes for the winning team, and the losing team not only loses - but will be punished.

JUST DESSERTS opens in the Gompertz Theatre on Saturday, October 1 at 8:00pm and will run for five weeks on Saturday nights. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased online at FloridaStudioTheatre.org or by calling the box office at (941) 366-9000.

The cast of the JUST DESSERTS show will include Jeremy Lamb, Adam Ratner, Christine Alexander, and Steve Turrisi. Director Jeremy Lamb had this to say: "Audiences will love the competition aspect of JUST DESSERTS. Actors and directors are all competing against each other in an effort to win the night's big delicious dessert prize. And it's all up to them, so audiences will also love the fact that they are in charge of who gets rewarded and who gets punished. It's improv schadenfreude to the max! Come see who gets their Just Desserts!"

The new show comes with an expansion of the FST Improv program, an expansion that is ripe for the under-taking. Rebecca Hopkins, FST's Managing Director and director of the Improvisation program, has been on the verge of expansion since 3 years ago when the Sarasota Improv Festival was initiated.

"Our FST Improv program has grown and grown, and it seemed right to expand the program to offer year-round shows that are unique and of course, hilarious," said Rebecca Hopkins, FST's resident funny girl [and Managing Director]. "The opportunity to collaborate with Available Cupholders director Jeremy Lamb on this new show is exciting. He brings great ideas to the table, and no doubt the Sarasota audience is ready for new and innovative forms of Improv."

Sarasota audiences will recognize Lamb from his appearance in all three years of the Sarasota Improv Festival, as part of the Austin, TX group "Available Cupholders." Lamb will be a guest artist with the FST Improv program this fall, as both the director for JUST DESSERTS and a teaching artist for the Improv education program. He will be apart of the Improv teaching team that will teach all levels of Improv as part of FST's Adult Theatre Labs.

Lamb's new class in the Adult Theatre Lab schedule, The Improviser's Guide to the Galaxy, will dive right into the art of Longform Improv, including scene structure, storytelling, character creation, and the ensemble narrative. This class begins September 21 - enroll online at FloridaStudioTheatre.org.