Welcome to our 2nd Annual West Coast Musical Improv Festival (WCMIF), produced by the Un-Scripted Theater Company®! After a sold out Festival in 2016, we couldn't resist but to make it an annual celebration of made up music! The WCMIF was launched to celebrate the rise of musical improv in the Bay Area and to invite seasoned troupes from around the country to share and play together!
Un-Scripted Theater Company®, performing since 2002, has created smart, innovative, and entertaining improvised theater that delights audiences and advances the craft and art of improvisation. has staged over forty productions in a range of genres and styles: stage plays, musicals, narrative long-form, improv comedy, and theatrical experiments. It aims to expand the boundaries of improvised theater. The company performs in San Francisco and was named "Best Theater Company 2008" by the SF Bay Guardian.
Producers
Producer
Gemma has been performing as an actress, improvisor, recording artist, musician, professional jazz and cabaret singer and musical peace activist for over 30 years. She put down roots in the Bay Area in 2012 after traveling around the globe for 10 years building a Million Voice Choir for peace and providing clean water and sanitation to over 340,000 people in Asia and Africa. You can see her performing and teaching all around the Bay Area in improvised shows, your favorite musicals, original plays, jazz concerts and even in jails, rehab centers and juvenile detention halls. She is an ensemble member of Un-Scripted Theater Company®, and coordinated their 12-week With Special Guests Program from the back of a van in the bush of Uganda. She founded 2 multi-award winning international non-profit organizations and has 3 TEDx talks. Find out what Gemma's up to at gemmabulos.com
Producer
Melissa is a member of the Un-Scripted Theater Company artistic staff and co-founder of their weekly late-night improv comedy show DASH. She has performed, directed, and taught improv for 15 years in San Francisco, Boston, and New York. She is a former longtime cast member at ImprovBoston, appearing in their Nickelodeon Award-winning Family Show among many others, and has also appeared on the Upright Citizens Brigade and BATS stages.
Producer
Vanessa Speed is originally from New York but calls the Bay Area her forever home. She grew up participating in any musical that would have her, but didn't stray from scripted theater until 2009, when she began her improv training at Pan Theater. She originally thought that improv would lead her towards a career in stand-up comedy, before discovering her true love, theatrical improvisation, at the Un-Scripted Theater Company. She first performed with the company in 2011, and joined its ensemble in 2012. She enjoys bringing music, characters with unspoken histories, and dynamic relationships to her work. Her most recent improvisational efforts center around making up songs, games and stories with her one year old daughter.
Producer
Molly Robertson began her improv training at Upright Citizens Brigade while studying at Wagner College in New York. She spent two and a half years traveling the world with Up with People doing community service and performance while managing logistics and marketing. She has been back in the Bay Area since 2010 and has been pushing the limits of improvised musical theater with Un-Scripted Theater Company. When not improvising, she can be found showing visitors the best of San Francisco, Napa, and Muir Woods as a tour guide.
Producer
Dana Cory improvised jazz professionally before discovering theater improv, and has been joyfully combining both for nearly twenty years. An alumna of BATS Improv and ImprovWorks, she has guested with many Los Angeles and San Francisco sketch and improv groups, played for years with SF fave Harold troupe SNAFU, and is a cast member of the Un-Scripted Theater Company’s late-night Saturday hit show DASH. Dana produced the mid-2000s theater-to-TV show ImprovSlam Singing Contest(tm) and taught ImprovSlam workshops for two years. In addition to the West Coast Musical Improv Festival, she creates music, comedy, and improv in a variety of media.
Producer
Erin has been making stuff up her whole life. Her parents listed lying as a favorite activity in her childhood scrapbook, but she merely saw that as the beginning of her acting pursuit. After many years of watching sketch shows on TV and searching out improv schools she overcame her fierce inner critic with the help of a GroupOn that appealed to her frugal side. After that first class a passion for the art was born! Erin started at Pan Theater in Oakland (short and long form and performed on their house team Awkward Face). Erin later performed with Leela in San Francisco (as part of That One Troupe). Erin has done extensive work with David Razowsky, Rachel Hamilton, and Marcus Sams and has taken level classes at Leela and BATS. Erin loves that improv has penetrated every part of her life and has made her more present, less stressed and a better listener which all help her in her day job in Human Resources. Erin is currently performing around the Bay Area and at festivals with FOX. Erin is also a Producer for Femprovisor Fest and the San Francisco Improv Festival. By day, Erin can be found working in Human Resources.