“Totally Improvised, 90210” coming to Gnap! Theater Projects

[Andreas Fabis]

If you lived through the ‘90s, chances are you either loved it or loved to make fun of it: Beverly Hills, 90210 was a phenomenon. Now Gnap Theater Projects is resurrecting it -- the rich, angsty teenagers, the high-waisted jeans and shoulder pads, the electric guitar-punctuated emotions -- but without a script. This show is entirely improvised; each performance is an episode that has never been written before.

Totally Improvised, 90210 opens Friday, Aug. 5, at Salvage Vanguard Theater, and continues every Friday and Saturday night in August at 8pm.

The show has been a longtime dream of prolific Austin improvisers (and former roommates) Lauren Zinn and Shana Merlin. “When Shana and I were living together back in 2001, we both had jobs that started later in the day. So we’d wake up and watch two hours of 90210 reruns on FX every morning over breakfast,” said Zinn. “It was such a deliciously bad show. We couldn’t turn it off; there was something really compelling about these characters.”

In addition to directing the show, Zinn plays the role of Brenda Walsh, while Merlin plays nerdy girl Andrea Zuckerman.

“It was such a joy to cast the perfect people for these roles -- [Bryan] Cruz, for example, who plays Dylan. He has the facial expressions, the eyebrows, the mannerisms down -- but he also gets what makes Dylan tick in the context of the story. So every choice he makes as we improvise this thing... you watch it going, ‘Holy crap, that is so Dylan!’”

Totally Improvised, 90210
Aug. 5-27: Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm
Salvage Vanguard Theater
2803 Manor Road, Austin, Texas 78722

Cast: Shana Merlin, Lauren Zinn, Bryan Cruz, Jesse Overright, Courtney Hopkin, Colin Bates, Michael Thomas, Katie Thornton, Mark Snacker, Kimberly Cox, Peter Rogers, Amy Averett, Kevin Miller


Venue:
Salvage Vanguard Theater
2803 Manor Road
Austin, Texas 78722
(512) 474-7886

Press photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnaptheate ... 124047454/

More info and tickets:
http://gnaptheater.org/

About Gnap! Theater Projects
Gnap! Theater Projects produced the Out of Bounds Improv Festival and Miniature Golf Tournament from 2005 to 2008, produces shows by the improv duo Get Up, and various theatrical events and endeavors around town.

[happywaffle]

Eeeeexcellent.

[AmyA]

My favorite line from last week's rehearsal: Mark Carpenter, while walking through the girl's bathroom at West Beverly HS:

"Ladies! These souffles are not going to make themselves!"

[sara farr]

GREAT JOB matching the original cast photo!

[shando]

This is tonight!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdr0FRSZz_s[/youtube]

[smerlin]

More 90210 this weekend!