BATS Improv And LA's Impro Theatre Present Two Special Nights Of Improv Theater

BATS Improv, the Bay Area's premier improvisational performing company and improv training school and Impro Theatre, the critically acclaimed improv theater company from Los Angeles, will collaborate in a "California Noir-Off" for two nights at the newly remodeled, historic Presidio Theatre.

Two of the premier practitioners of full-length improvised plays pay tribute to the Godfathers of California Noir: Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler in a two night-festival of unscripted noir.

Impro Theatre from Los Angeles reunites with the company that spawned it, BATS Improv, for a split-bill of dames, detectives and double-crosses. Friday night they face off as The San Francisco team fashions a spontaneous homage to Hammett and L.A. improvises in the style of Chandler. Both companies will join forces Saturday night for an improvised noir musical created and directed by BATS musical director Joshua Raoul Brody.

"BATS Improv and Impro together represent the country's best live improvisational theater and we are thrilled to have the Noir-Off as one of the first events in the newly transformed Presidio Theatre!" said Robert Martin, Executive Director of the Presidio Theatre. "What a great opportunity for the public to see not one, but these two amazing companies come together."

"BATS and Impro Theatre have such a long wonderful history together, with some of BATS founding members going to LA to form Impro theatre," said BATS Artistic Director Ken Robertson. It parallels the path of the film noir literary tradition, which started with Dashiell Hammett's detective Sam Spade in San Francisco, then rose to new heights with Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled LA detective Phillip Marlowe. Noir's origins are irrevocably tied to both cities."

Public Information: Ticket prices range from $20 - $30. To purchase tickets or for more information visit www.presidiotheatre.org or call 415.392.4400.