BATS Improv

San Francisco’s Bay Area Theatresports (BATS) is the region’s premier improvisational performance company. The 20 members of BATS main stage company (10 men and 10 women) perform original long-form improv shows every Friday and Saturday night for 12,000 people a year, two-thirds of whom are under 40 years old. The company, founded in 1987, also conducts year-round classes for 1,300 adults at all levels of acting experience. The organization supports its $550,000 annual budget by generating earned income through ticket sales, tuition and by conducting team-building workshops for corporate clients eager to train staff how to work collaboratively, think creatively and respond to new information quickly. The company also offers free improv classes and shows to people living with chronic, life-threatening illness through its Laughing Stock program and in 2008 initiated a Youth Performance Series that brought 620 children from San Francisco’s public schools to see performances at the company’s theater in the Fort Mason arts complex of San Francisco’s Marina District. BATS is a local leader in getting teens and audiences in their 20s and 30s to have a positive theater experience and theerby build an appetite for further cultural encounters. Renewed support for the organization will enable it to expand and diversify its audience, develop its board and increase compensation for artists.