perform at IMPRO Amsterdam

For over 30 years, IMPRO Amsterdam has brought world-class improvisational theatre to the Netherlands (and highlighted our deep well of local talent) - and not just by staging traditional improv comedy.

From high-stakes family dramas to silent workplace comedies, improvised Broadway musicals to abstract multi-disciplinary physical theatre, IMPRO Amsterdam wants to show you something you’ve never seen before.

Each festival features approximately 30 shows that fall into four categories.

Submissions for show slots will open in early summer.

Please subscribe to our mailing list or follow our socials for exact dates and deadlines!

Ensemble shows

Every year, we bring in a number of guest directors from around the world to produce shows starring our festival ensemble. This ensemble is generally an even split between top international performers (in 2025 they represented five continents) and brilliant improvisers chosen from across the Netherlands.

In 2025, these included:

  • A time-loop comedy inspired by the movie Groundhog Day

  • An improvised Nordic spel set in the 1800s

  • A one-act play about a high school orchestra reuniting and revisiting their shared past

  • A dark, tense family drama about buried secrets

  • An organic, connected exploration of the unseen connections between people

  • A tribute to Hong-Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai, loss and longing

  • A silly trip with a small-town milkman going around his route for the last time

  • A multi-lingual celebration of diversity and locality set in a Bruin Cafe

Want to be a part of the ensemble?

  • Performers in the Netherlands: Use the contact form to tell us when you have shows coming up - someone on the team will come and watch! In 2026 we will be casting up until IMPROotje Amsterdam, our all-Netherlands mini-festival (no specific auditions), looking for the right performers for the shows we have programmed.

  • International Performers: International performers are invited by the Artistic Director and co-AD. If you’re interested (particularly if you are from Asia, Africa, Australia or South/Central America), please email arti@impro-amsterdam.nl with information about yourself, your performance/teaching history, and show tape.

Established groups

IMPRO Amsterdam recieves hundreds of submissions from established improv groups around the world. A selection of them join us every year to bring their version of improv to our stage. When making selections, we look for polish, creativity, connection, and vision - in short, something that feels like a Show.

In 2025, our established groups included:

  • Dramatiska (Sweden) presenting the absurd and hilarious Improvised Roy Andersson

  • The Wadsworth Constant (USA) with an abstract, absurdist look at the shared human condition (and a stage full of chairs)

  • Playing Dead Theatre (UK), Fringe veterans with a touching, hard-hitting and informed show about death and dying

  • Improvised Jane Austin (USA) with a joyful Regency rom-com

  • La Compagnie qui Petille (France/Belgium) with their show Secret Garden, about the truths (and lies) couples tell each other

  • Threesome (France/Malta/Portugal) with an honest (and hysterical) exploration of womanhood and sex

  • Pinch Punch Improv (UK) with their show Locomotive for Murder, a polished, crowd-pleasing murder mystery

  • Bemme & Melange (Germany/Austria) with a fully mimed Chaplinesque take on the horrors of public transportation

Late-Night

For our late-night block of shows, IMPRO Amsterdam looks for shows that push the boundaries of what improv can be. We love new ideas, collaborations with other performing art forms, unusual uses of space - basically, take a big swing!

In 2025, our late-night shows included:

  • A fully improvised musical based on Star Trek Enterprise

  • Myths, legends and story-telling using live actors and shadow theater

  • An immersive performance exploring the question, “What if these walls could talk?”

  • A hilarious send-up of academia (flipchart included)

  • An uplifting, interactive tweenage slumber party

  • An genre-pushing collaboration between a breakdancer, a contemporary dancer, and an improviser

  • A live recording of a new pop song (and the drama surrounding it) by expert acapella singers

Showcases & Jams

Showcases and jams are opportunities for EVERYONE at the festival to get onstage and play!

Showcases are performances born out of festival workshops where participants can get on stage and show off what they’ve learned.

Jams are open to everyone at the festival. We love an unusual theme, structure, or host!

In 2025, our jams and showcases included:

  • A D&D themed jam, complete with capes and dice

  • A short-form jam making the mundane a little more unusual

  • A showcase based on the hit TV show Ghosts

  • A live karaoke jam without a song list - made up songs only!

  • An all-languages jam

  • A showcase featuring handmade puppets made out of trash

  • A showcase integrating drag and improv in the context of an improvised pageant

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