Guide to the Winnipeg Improv Festival

Planning Ahead

There seem to be two similar sites that will likely be updated with details in the last few weeks before the event. Don’t panic if the sites aren’t updated three weeks out. The dates were indeed the correct dates even if the shows weren’t fully spelled out ahead of time. Stephen Sim was responsive on Facebook and reassured me that it was still happening, and it sure did! There are two sites to keep tabs on. The main festival page, and the Improv Company (ImprovCo) festival page which is Stephen’s company and one of the festival sponsors.

(As an aside, if you live in Winnipeg, ImprovCo founders Stephen Sim and Caity Curtis are indeed really good and I’m sure would have good classes or whatever service they offer you are interested in. They are world class judging from seeing them perform mostly and my short chats with them. As good as anything I’ve seen online or in person.)

The Festival

In 2026, there were shows Wednesday through Saturday from 7–9 pm, with Friday having a second show at 9:30. Compared with the Twin Cities Improv Festival, that’s maybe about half the shows available, which initially was a concern for me if there was enough to go see. However, the quality was very high and I did feel that it was enough, but I would have seen twice as many shows if they were on.

See the official festival page or the local 2026 snapshot for show descriptions (in case the official page updates or disappears in the future).

I personally felt like the Katy Schutte and Caity Curtis performance (suggestions of “Chamomile” and “Skunk”) was pretty great, with a three-scene story about tired village defenders, a skunk overcoming shame, and the ultimate trap of falling in love. Great work, and it was just the start.

The final show was Chris Mead and Katy Schutte as Project2 doing a show about the “coffee shop at the black hole research center”. From Chris tumbling across the stage out of a singularity and wiping minutes and seconds off the floor to Katy choosing friendship over safety, and also choosing every possibility in the universe, it was a heartfelt ride and somehow the humor shows up again and again. In the scene where reality starts to break down, the surreal expression of overlapping time loops was a joy to see and inspiring regarding what can be accomplished with improv.

Generally, I felt that these shows were good examples of embracing narrative. I don’t really have the vocabulary to describe all the shows, though nearly all of the forms felt familiar. The one form I hadn’t seen before was a sci-fi-inspired show with three directors who took turns creating a starter base reality, then took shorter and shorter interwoven turns as their cast and storylines converged to a shared finale.

There were a couple of general workshops and a shorter BIPOC-only workshop. I don’t qualify for the BIPOC one, so I don’t know about that, but can only assume it was good. Chris Mead had a workshop about adding movement and stage position to your improv. My main takeaway is to check in with how I’m feeling and find a pose and position that communicates a point of view right away to my partner. There were many games, most of them new to me, as I’m early on my improv journey right now. I’m sure a more experienced player would get even more from it. I can say I really feel that Chris was above-average at being physical in his actual play, so he does know what he’s talking about.

I would love to see more workshops throughout the week, but I don’t know if there would be enough general demand for that to work out. There was another workshop about building improv characters. I would have taken both workshops I was eligible for if I could but they were at the same time.

Staying There

For lodging, don’t reserve anywhere to stay that’s not refundable. I tried a booking-dot-com listing and it wasn’t acceptable to me and I don’t think I’m generally a fussy person. I’d be happy to stay at a clean and tidy motel like we often used growing up. Then I booked again through hotels-dot-com. Also not acceptable. If the listing says no refunds, then I would be highly skeptical. Stick to places with plenty of reviews and find a way to go deep with reviews. That would be a good task for an AI agent, maybe, to trawl all the reviews and look for credible red flags. I wish I had done that. Oh, well. I ended up staying at Mariaggi’s downtown using a hotels-dot-com deal and parlayed that into my full stay at the same rate. It was a fun adventure (after the fact), but maybe it would have been easier to stick with some well-known brands downtown or highly rated Airbnb listings. The week I went, there were several hockey games and other events that sold out many downtown hotels, so I was tempted to try those properties that didn’t work out. I lost a bit of money, which is not fun, but my loss is now your opportunity to make different mistakes than I made, at least. Looks like now there are some good Airbnb options near the theater. I hope I can make one of those work next year.

For getting around downtown, the bus is handy. Get some hard cash or even better just spring for a Peggi card. Transfers are automatic with the Peggi card and you’ll look and feel like a local. Uber and Lyft were both plentiful and I used those mostly. I experienced drivers making personal calls during a couple of my rides. Didn’t generally bother me, but I hadn’t experienced that before. Not sure if it’s a local thing or just something I haven’t happened to see before.

Winnipeg has some great places to go. Particularly, I recommend the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. I can also recommend Chaeban Ice Cream, not far from the theater. Also, I really enjoyed Nonsuch beer. Pretty good food and good beer. Plenty of good stuff in town and lots of other resources that will go into plenty of detail on that.

Summing Up

I’d love to go back next year, but also there are a few new festivals I’d like to try in 2027, so we’ll have to consider what’s in the budget. For me, being relatively local, it’s probably on the cheaper side since I can drive there. I think if I could take more workshops, that would sweeten the pot for me. This was my first trip to Winnipeg in a while, so there was a lot to do that seemed brand new. Going again next year I’d have to dig deeper for things to do. Workshops would fill in that gap nicely as there are only so many cups of coffee or local microbrews that can be enjoyed in a day. Combining the festival with a general trip to Winnipeg was just about perfect, so I wish you as great a visit as I had my first time up there.

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2026 show lineup (snapshot)

A summary of the main shows as listed on the festival site and ImprovCo’s festival page, saved Nov 1, 2026. All shows were at the Gas Station Arts Centre, 445 River Ave, Winnipeg.

• Wed, Oct 21, 7 pm

  The Home Opener Chaos Kick-Off

  Local improvisers and out-of-town guests mixed into newly formed “Chaos Teams.”

• Thu, Oct 22, 7 pm

  Snapshot

  Two duo showcases: Katy and Caity (UK and Canada), then Kristina and Mason from Montreal with their show Comedy Near Me. In the second half, the festival ensemble performed a “Snapshot” directed by Chris Mead (UK).

• Fri, Oct 23, 7 pm

  Spooky Scary Skeletons

  Two spooky sets: a funny one directed by Jenna Goldade (Bullskit Comedy, Red Deer) and an eerie one directed by Katy Schutte (UK).

• Fri, Oct 23, 9:30 pm

  Club Soda’s Spookytown

  A long-form show by Club Soda Improv, with the cast as townspeople living through a haunt chosen by the audience.

• Sat, Oct 24, 7 pm

  The Grand Finale Show

  Katy Schutte and Chris Mead performed their sci-fi improv show Project2, and the festival ensemble presented a new piece.