Get ready for five nights of unscripted brilliance as Colony Fest returns to Planet Ant! This annual improv tournament brings together some of Metro Detroit’s sharpest and most daring improv troupes for a week-long comedy showdown. Each night, new teams take the stage, and the audience decides who advances to the grand finale.
Nightly Showdowns: From June 10–13, multiple improv teams perform.
Each competing troupe will be given 20 minutes to perform.
The performance times, Tuesday through Friday:
7:30PM
7:50PM
8:10PM
8:30PM
8:50PM
9:10PM
Audience Choice: At the end of each preliminary night, anyone with a ticket votes for their favorite troupe to advance to the final night.
Each audience selected troupe will perform on Saturday, June 14th for an audience that includes a panel of Planet Ant selected judges who will select the final winner.
The winning troupe will receive a “FABULOUS, FABULOUS PRIZE!”
Their own original show at Planet Ant running Friday, October 10th through Saturday, October 25.
They will be guided and directed by seasoned Improv director, teacher, and performer, DAVE DAVIES!
Show Director: Dave Davies
Dave has been an improviser/actor for over 25 years. He has performed professionally on several stages throughout the Detroit Metro area, and internationally from Canada to Puerto Rico. He also has extensive experience teaching improv at several different venues.
His teaching has additionally extended to include several corporate workshops throughout the United States and many Detroit Public School children through the Detroit Creativity Project. Additionally, he is an adjunct instructor at WSU where he teaches theatre and improv.
Dave is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA and can be seen in movies including A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, Restitution, Needlestick, Lifetime channel’s Last Man Standing, and the final episode of Detroiters.
The winners of Colony Fest will be led by their director through what has become known as The Planet Ant Process.
Since the late 1990s, Planet Ant has been a creative home for the development of original stage productions. The first process show, directed by Planet Ant luminary Josh Funk, Sardines set the stage for a repeating and evolving process of creating comedy from improv coupled with storytelling that begins with character.
It all starts with a group of improvisers who create compelling characters and are guided by an experienced director to improvise scenes that highlight the most engaging, dramatic, and hilarious moments of those characters’ journeys.
Through what we call The Planet Ant Process, these individual narratives are carefully woven together. Stories can be an ensemble piece or can be a narrative focused on one or more central characters. As rehearsals progress, the script is continuously refined and reshaped through collaboration until the cast feels they’ve created the strongest version of the show.
After its premiere run at Planet Ant, the story doesn’t have to end there. Casts are encouraged to take their creation beyond our stage and bring it to new audiences, wherever the journey leads.
$10 per night.
Only ticketed audience members may vote
Tickets Available Now
Form Team Show
Thursday, May 22nd
There is a $30* non-refundable registration fee for each troupe payable upon finalizing your signed-up time slot. Choice of time slot is first come first served.
*Online registration is not available until AFTER May 23rd.
The registration fee increases to $40 at that time.
Online registrations can be submitted by email to colonyfest@planetant.com
