About Colorized Letters

Colorized Letters contributes to Colorized Improv, an improv movement expressing social, cultural, and personal experiences - to explore and cultivate equity and diversity. The improvisors are inspired by authors whose writings relate to culture, race, diversity, and equity. The long form show honors the universe of a written passage by exploring relationship-driven scenes that express layered themes. They weave a cultural landscape beginning with reading a passage out loud that quickly evolves into word-induced transitions and a montage with scene transformations rather than sweep edits to create shifts in energy and fun.

Official Selection. Femprovisor Festival 2016 (Apr 28 - May 1), as duo Radhika Rao and Shirley Rivera

Beginnings of Colorized Letters. Colorized Letters formed as an improv duo as part of beginning Colorized Improv. Colorized Improv began as a shared vision between Radhika Rao and Shirley Rivera, who met during the 2015 Femprovisor Festival. They shared similar observations about, experiences with, and opinions of gender equity and diversity in the performing arts. One of their conversations dove into the U.S. Census Bureau's projection of the national population expected to become majority-minority in year 2042. From this, they discovered a mutual vision they started calling Colorized Improv, with a mission to use the art of improv to bring cultural narratives and diverse perspectives to the foreground for purposeful fun - choosing points of views, creating characters, and discovering scenes related to the evolving cultural landscape.

Colorized Letters, the duo's first performance, debuted at Eth-Noh-Tec's 2016 Oshogatsu Festival in San Francisco. Afterwards, they performed at jams and were featured in local indie teams' productions. The duo's last performance was at San Francisco's 2016 Femprovisor Festival. Since then, Colorized Improv continues to evolve - influencing improvisors to infuse their play by exploring, expressing, and representing the Colorized Improv movement.

Watch Colorized Letters