SPIT Celebrates 20th-Anniversary at Power Mac Spotlight Center, July 9

Manila, Philippines--Third World Improv, a performing arts school focused on improvisational theater methods, honors its pioneering leaders from the Silly People's Improv Theatre via "BenteBulous," SPIT's 20th-anniversary show.

Following COVID-19 prevention and control measures, "BenteBulous" will be staged at the Power Mac Spotlight Center at the Ayala Malls Circuit Makati on Saturday, July 9, at 8 p.m. Tickets starting at P727.28, billed as "Barkada Package," are on sale at Ticket2Me.net.

Looking back, theater actor-comedian Gabe Mercado, also SPIT's founder, said, "We started SPIT in 2002 because the kind of comedy we were exposed to at that time, in our words, was a little bit destructive. It makes fun of people; it brings people's self-esteem down, and it's not respectful to [the audience and] the performers.

"So that's why we got into improvisational comedy or improv. Improv is a long theater tradition popularized in the United States in the 1960s. It is a kind of theater where nothing is scripted, nothing is prepared in advance, and nothing is rehearsed.

"Everything is built on the audience's suggestions." (TEDx Talk at Xavier School, 2014) The actors create scenes, games, and stories on the spot.

"And just between us, we heard there's a huge surprise in the works, too," spilled by show's producers.

At its inception, SPIT has become the premier improvisational theater group in the Southeast Asian region. The group has staged performances across international venues, such as the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Los Angeles Comedy Festival in California, USA, and the Hong Kong International Improv Festival in HK, among others.

During the height of the pandemic, SPIT performances were accessed online by most of us--home-quarantined audiences, too.

Photo: SPIT/Performing Arts Directory