Jim Cranna

The San Francisco Improv Festival is proud to announce that it has chosen Jim Cranna as the 2011 recipient of the OCIC Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Improv Community.

Jim Cranna is one of the guiding lights for improvisation in San Francisco. Improv legend Del Close discovered him in 1967 and brought him into The Committee, where he performed until they closed up shop in the 70’s. Jim performed with other seminal Bay Area improv troupes through the years, but possibly the greatest contribution he made was his drop-in workshop on Saturday mornings at Ft. Mason which continued nearly uninterrupted for over 25 years, training and mentoring thousands of Bay Area improvisors & keeping the spirit of The Committee alive in San Francisco.

Jim’s work as a member of The Committee, National Theater of The Deranged and other influential improv groups is certainly enough to earn him the respect and admiration of his peers. It is, however, particularly for his work as a teacher and mentor for thousands of improvisors in the Bay Area through his Saturday morning drop-in workshop at Fort Mason (which ran for over 25 years) that we honor him. His philosophy and outlook on the art exemplify some of the finest traditions in improvisation in the Bay Area and the wider world. We are proud to recognize his achievements with this award.

We will be honoring and celebrating Jim Cranna on Sunday, August 21st at 5:30PM. There will be a short reception and then a screening of an abbreviated version of the documentary on Jim’s Fort Mason class (“Hug Everybody, Tell Them Your Name” by Ian Hadley) and some short remarks from those who have been fortunate enough to work with and know him.

The San Francisco Improv Festival warmly invites you to come and celebrate Jim Cranna and his work at this free event.

Read the SF Gate article on Jim’s last class at Fort Mason.

See Jim in performance with The Committee at the 2010 San Francisco Improv Festival.