by Jeff Catanese

Ahh, Valentine's Day. What better time to go out for a romantic candlelight dinner with your honey and reminisce about the night you first met? Or maybe, you can actually relive it. In fifteen cities around the world you might have that chance. Whether you're a couple that is straight, gay, old, young, liberal, conservative, bizarre or mundane, your courtship might be put on display in this worldwide improv show.

Based on a simple improv premise (couples describe their early coupling while improvisors play it out), "How We First Met" will allow couples to see their early courtship performed, and perhaps sung or danced, on stage. Jill Bourque, the show's creator says, "When we hit upon universal truths about love and dating, it just reverberates with the audience, rocking the house with laughter."

The idea for the format came from Keith Johnstone's LifeGame, but the romantic twist was borne of Ms. Bourque's gender. "In the five years I've been with Theatresports I've performed a lot of male-oriented formats, and I wanted to do something more specific to the things that interest me. I'm a girl. I like romantic comedy, so..."

The show debuted on Valentine's Day last year in San Francisco at the Bayfront Theater with Bay Area Theatresports. That successful evening was again produced as part of that group's Summer Festival. Since that time, Ms. Bourque had become intrigued by the "cross pollination" of improv and thought it would be an interesting experiment to have groups of many different disciplines and schools of thought to perform the same format. She recruited them by word of mouth and on the Internet.

A quick phone call launched an alliance with Match.com, an online dating service that was so thrilled by the idea that they offered to contact some of their successful couples in the host cities to appear in the production.

"The early stages of a romance are generally some of the most magical, and often enough the most comical moments of any love affair," said Trish McDermott, Vice President of Romance for Match.com. "Watching 'How We First Met' allows the audience, and the happy couple, to get a comedic perspective on how, and possibly why, love first happened."

Because everyone who is part of a couple (or ever has been) had to meet in some way, the interviews during the show, and the subsequent improvisations strike a cord with everybody. Whether the performers play out a scene of the first meeting, deliver a song about what they look for in a mate, or simply show the nervousness that often accompanies a first date, the entire audience can relate.

For tickets and showtimes for "How We First Met" see www.howwefirstmet.com. See box for a complete list of theaters performing this unique show, or click here to go to Improv Review's listings to see what other improvised Valentine's Day happenings are going on in your area.