Longform improv performed within the conventions of a specific genre — film noir, horror, Western, rom-com, musical. Genre knowledge becomes the structural framework: the audience's familiarity with the genre creates a shared vocabulary that performers can fulfill, subvert, or heighten.
How genre knowledge becomes an improv tool:
- Playing conventions straight — audiences delight in recognizing familiar tropes executed in real-time
- Subverting conventions — twisting expectations once they're established
- Heightening conventions to absurdity — taking genre tropes to their logical extreme
- Genre-specific scene painting — using cinematic vocabulary (camera angles, lighting, soundtrack) to evoke the world
The Movie format: Developed by The Family under Del Close; one of the "Three Mad Rituals" alongside Harold and Deconstruction. Cast scene-paints three locations using screenplay terminology, announces a title, then performs scenes rotating through locations. Backline calls camera directions: close-up, pan, split screen, slow motion, soundtrack cues. Genre conventions drive the scene work. Matt Besser later taught this at UCB as "Feature Feature."
Baby Wants Candy (improvised musical): Founded in Chicago, the world's most prominent fully improvised musical company. Format: audience shouts a title for a musical that has never existed. 4-7 performers and a live band (keyboard, guitar, drums) create the entire show on the spot — story, characters, music, lyrics, choreography. Over 4,000 improvised musicals performed. Song structures rely on two fundamental forms: verse/chorus and lastline tagline.
BATS Improv: San Francisco's BATS (founded 1986) pioneered 2-hour single-story genre-driven shows with intermission — improvised plays in genres including RomCom, Kung Fu, Film Noir, Broadway Musical. A distinctly San Francisco approach to genre longform.
What it demands: Deep shared genre literacy across the ensemble. An ensemble that doesn't share knowledge of noir conventions will produce shallow pastiche rather than smart genre play. Also demands physicality, space work, and environmental specificity — genre worlds need to be built, not just referenced.