Imagine a season of summer movie blockbusters with no CGI or other special effects. Is that even possible? Sure, it is. You just have to use your imagination.

Vancouver TheatreSports League’s upcoming summer show is bringing a megamovie—or a reasonable facsimile thereof—to the Improv Centre on Granville Island for a two-month run. Unlike many of the company’s productions, which feature riffs and games on a single theme (i.e., the recently completed Throne and Games or winter’s Christmas Queen), this one has a broader scope. One night you might catch a takeoff on a horror flick, another night it could be a romantic comedy, western, sci-fi, or action movie. Instead of taking the piss out of a particular film, they’ll be sending up entire genres and subgenres.

Leading up to opening night, the players were busy preparing for The Big Picture: An Improvised Movie. Yes, it’s improvised based on audience suggestion, but they still need to familiarize themselves with the specific tropes and characters of the various styles.

“We’re running the crap out of it now,” says the company’s newest artistic associate, Bill Pozzobon, during a break at the VTSL offices. “We’re going through our format getting our players used to the context of where we’re putting them, making sure everyone’s on the same page and that the show’s shape really comes together.”

Nathan Clark, another artistic associate, adds: “When you get a group of improvisers together, a group of creative people, creative things happen. We come with this format and inevitably things get tweaked and things get changed.”

The show was developed after a jam at VTSL’s annual Massacre Improv Festival in February. “It was really fun to watch, and the audience loved it,” says Clark. “We were like, ‘That was a cool idea. Let’s try to explore that a little more and see if we can make that into a full feature show.’ ”

The first half of the performance will give the crowd a taste of different movie styles through improv games. After intermission, one genre will be settled on, with elements from the first half used throughout the faux film. Scenes will have to connect and tell a story, laying a bigger burden on the improvisers than usual.

“The thing that I think is really unique about this show is it’s not as host-driven as a lot of our other shows are,” says Pozzobon.

“It’s one long cohesive story,” Clark adds. “I know we’re putting a lot of weight on our players’ shoulders with all these elements at the top, but we’ve got great players, so they’ll be fine.”

There’s no doubt about that. The VTSL company is home to over 50 improvisers and it draws on the best the city has to offer. So not only will the ersatz movies be different each night, so will the talented cast, making spoiler alerts unnecessary.

“One of the things that’s great about our ensemble is we’re fantastic storytellers,” says Pozzobon, a 20-year veteran of the company. “We are children of the narratives we watch all the time. We are all movie buffs ourselves. We are the Netflix generation.”

With a new story every night, costumes will be scaled down. As for the set, that’s problematic too, but they’ve come up with an old-school movie-theatre setting, which naturally fits any genre.

And even though most of the suggestions will come before the break, the audience will still be part of the big picture. You never know when the actors will need a stunt double, for instance. “We want to keep them involved,” says Clark. “We don’t want to just say, ‘Okay, now you guys shut up and enjoy this genius.’ ”

The Big Picture: An Improvised Movie plays the Improv Centre on Granville Island from Thursday (June 30) to August 27.