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Silent Movie!
By The Improv Movement Project
Directed by Sean Dillon and Mark Benzel
Playing at
Show Description
What happens when you get a group of physical improvisers to make a movie – but without the sets, lights, costumes, props, crew, dialogue . . . or movie. A new genre-smashing cinematic epic each performance.
Genre and Content
Content Warnings
The creators say this show is appropriate for ages 7-11 and up
Learn How To Fringe
Seat Reservations and Show Tickets
| Add to Schedule | Date | Time | Ticket Options | Quantity | Purchase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu 08/06 | 8:30 PM | ||||
| Sun 08/09 | 4:00 PM | ||||
| Mon 08/10 BFF | 10:00 PM | ||||
| Fri 08/14 | 5:30 PM | ||||
| Sun 08/16 | 7:00 PM |
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Video Trailer
Cast and Crew
Mark Benzel
Director/PerformerMark Benzel (he/him) is a curious and playful theatre maker and teacher who seeks out collaboration on new works across disciplines through improv, movement, writing, and directing. He has been seen locally with companies such as Live Action Set, Sandbox, Four Humors, Walking Shadow, and recently at Fringe with Transatlantic Love Affair ('24 5X5), October Dandy ('25 Clown Funeral), and of course the Improv Movement Project. Check out Mark's company Simple Machines (http://simple-machines.org) for workshops and shows. You can also catch Mark in another Fringe show this year--The Winding Sheet Outfit's A Confluence of Magical Arseholes and a remount of 5x5 at the Phipps Center for the Arts this November.
Sean Dillon
Director/PerformerSean Dillon (he/him) is an improv- and theater-maker fascinated with the body and horror... sometimes together. He is the co-founder of IMP with Mark Benzel and founder of Oncoming Productions. He counts himself lucky that performance outfits like the Lincoln Center Institute, Aquila Theater Co, Park Square Theatre, History Theatre, Cape Rep Theatre, The Playwrights Center, Theatre Pro Rata, Walking Shadow Theater Co, Dangerous Productions, Ghoulish Delights, HUGE Theater, Strike Theater, and Umbrella Collective (among others) have seen fit to give him room to do his thing. He is 1/2 - 1/3 of the Fringe-award-winning improv duo/trio Dilly Dally/DillyDallHaus, amongst other improv outfits. This fall, he will be co-directing The Slender Vale Archives for Twin Cities Horror Festival with Laura Berger, and producing Dread the Halls: A Horror Holiday Together in collaboration with TCHF.
John Hilsen
Music Director/MusicianJohn Hilsen (he/him) is a composer and sought-after improvisational musician, and Music Director for the international hit stage show HYPROV, an improv comedy show created in part and regularly starring comedy legend Colin Mochrie (“Whose Line Is It Anyway”), for which he has played hundreds of shows and garnered praise from The New Yorker. He was awarded “Best Music and Soundscape Composition” by Lavender Magazine in their “Best of 2018” list for his original score of The Minotaur. He is also the creator of The Life Robotic, previously appearing at MN Fringe. His albums Lapyear and Epilogue Kids are available for streaming.
Elizabeth Dunn
PerformerElizabeth is a theatre artist, educator, and administrator. Her work has taken her from touring the Midwest with Prairie Fire Children's Theatre to studying improv and experimental theatre in Chicago, to seven seasons as a member of the Commonweal Theatre Company's Resident Ensemble (2015–2022). Now based in Minneapolis, she is eagerly exploring clown, devising, and physical theatre.
Erin Sheppard
PerformerErin Sheppard (she/her) is an improviser, dancer, and actor. She is excited to join IMP for Silent Movie and she is ready for her close up, Mr. DeMille.
Evie Digirolamo
PerformerEvie Digirolamo (she/they) is a theater artist based in the Twin Cities drawn to bizarre and beautiful collaboratively created interdisciplinary projects- and they especially love merging aerial arts and storytelling with their company The Swingset. They’re a company member with Sandbox Theatre and a teaching artist with Compas.
Gregory Parks
PerformerGregory Parks (he/him) is a clown, actor, and improviser from Minneapolis, Minnesota who has performed on four continents. A cast member of Star Trek: The Next Improvisation, he also performs mostly silent solo improv titled "Where I Am Now" and has been seen in Brujeria for Beginners, PromiseLand, The Wiz, and An Octaroon. If you've seen a 3M Blue Tape commercial with a sexy ASMR voice, that's him too. You can see him speaking as Sam in Casa BdeMakaSka at TRP during the Fringe.
Luke Fanning
PerformerLuke Fanning (he/him) is a creator/performer from Hastings, Nebraska. Returning from the Peace Corps in 2019, he took improv classes at HUGE theater. He got sucked further into the “weird performance pipeline” soon after, falling in love with clown. He made his Fringe debut in 2024 under the direction of Nathaniel Justiano (Naked Empire Bouffon Company) devising and starring in Good Ones (winner of the Artist's Pick.) He’s trained with Deanna Fleysher (School for Comedy Beasts) which he can’t recommend enough. Catch him also in the independently produced The Quiet Piggy this Fringe festival at Strike. He wants to keep making art that excites and delights.
Mandi Bedbury
PerformerRachel Buhman
PerformerMinneapolis based writer, performer, producer, Rachel Buhman (she/her) has been featured on Twin Cities stages since 2018. Her writing has been featured on The Hard Times and Trylon's Perisphere blog. When not using words, she is moving with the Improv Movement Project.
Victoria Pyan
PerformerVictoria Pyan (she/her) is a theatre artist based in The Twin Cities whose been knocking around the fringe for many years. You may have seen her on stage with; nimbus theatre, Oncoming Productions, Murder of Crones, Girl Friday productions, Theatre Pro Rata, or Frank Theatre. She is a company member with Little Lifeboats, IMP and Oncoming Productions. You can catch her in September with Fortune's Fool's "Bull in a China Shop".
More Information
The Improv Movement Project was founded by Sean Dillon and Mark Benzel in 2023, on the conviction that bodies — all bodies— are capable of beautiful, profound, hilarious communication that too often gets drowned out on stage by the primacy of the spoken word. So we've made it our mission to help the Twin Cities theater and improv scenes become more body-centric through performing and teaching word-free improvisation. We are joined in this work by a standing, moving, expanding company of artists drawn from a variety of performance disciplines — among them improv, dance, mime, clown, acrobatics, aerial silks, and devised physical theater.
Our inaugural production Collidescope was a last-minute add and a Golden Lanyard winner at the 2024 Minnesota Fringe Festival, declared "Fringey AF." We collaborated with Strike Theater on The Walls in the 2025 Twin Cities Horror Festival, and have enjoyed performing at a variety of venues across the Twin Cities and beyond.
If you would like to hear about future performances or workshop opportunities, or to invite IMP to perform, please join and/or contact us at our Facebook page.