Throughout 2023, I have been taking part in the “Making it up” series of workshops at the Nottingham Playhouse. These sessions, run by Lloydie (and occasionally by Lee and Hannah) are 10-week courses, each starting from the basics of improv but building to something a little bit different each time. Lloydie always finds a new style of improv form for the group to try, and an influx of new members at the start of each term means that every time I retake the course, it continues to feel fresh and different.
Spring term built to us performing an improv form called “Close Quarters”, where the group take a suggestion of a place, and the subsequent scenes are all set there. The twist is that all scenes take place at roughly the same time, meaning that each scene features a different set of characters. For our final performance, our suggestion was “airport”, so we had air hostesses serving board games to passengers and people employed to sweep the runway between planes landing. The format allowed us to prioritise character over plot, since there was no need for an overarching story and the scenes only needed to be loosely linked.
In Summer term, we were introduced to the “Evente” form. This format began with a huge scene involving every member of the cast. Subsequent scenes would focus on individual characters one-by-one, usually telling more of their story through flashback, before the final scene would be a repeat of the first scene, albeit now featuring characters that the audience (and actors) knew more about. Large group scenes are always difficult because everyone has to be aware of each other, and avoid talking over each other. It is very easy to accidentally have multiple conversations running at the same time, especially when there are 8+ people on stage. For our final show, which formed part of the Playhouse’s summer showcase with all community groups, we split into two smaller teams, which made the group scenes easier to manage. Our show was set at a music festival, and ended with Siena and I dancing to Beyoncé – something I certainly never thought I’d be doing on the Playhouse stage!
For Autumn term, we were playing with deconstruction and tag runs. Our performance was split into three sections. The first scene of each section was a longer, two-person scene that allowed us to build some interesting characters. Then one of those characters would be “tagged out” and replaced with a new character, put into a new situation etc. Various tags would happen, and then a swarm edit (which I first played with in Autumn 22) would lead us into the second section. The second section ran similar to the first, with the first scene attempting to mirror (but not replicate) the first scene of the first section. All leading to the third section, where the tag run allowed us to bring back characters from previous scenes. By far the most complicated form we had done, and we definitely didn’t stick to the planned format in the final performance, but lots of fun nonetheless. The final show gave us the suggestion of “Christmas tree”, which led to Alistair being a magical Christmas tree, and something about a museum of Ancient Egyptian artifacts…?
Alongside the Making It Up sessions, I have also been a regular attendee at the “Loose Goose” sessions on Tuesday evenings at the Organ Grinder. Each week, a different set of people form the “gaggle”, who perform an “Armando”. This means that, based on the suggestion of a word, one person in the group gives a monologue, re-telling something that has happened in their real life. The play that follows is influenced by this monologue (although invariably ends up turning into something very different!), but the format is extremely loose, allowing people to play with different things such as narration and flashbacks. I love being able to play with a different set of people each week, and have definitely done some of my best (and my worst!) scenes at Loose Goose.
I was also lucky enough to take part in the Robin Hood International Improv festival, which saw improvisers from across the world descend on Nottingham. I was involved in one of the ensembles that performed on the final night of the festival. We had a full day of coaching with Mara Joy (who regularly performs with the Spontaneous Players). This session began with several games in the morning, allowing us to get to know each other and have a chance to play together. I definitely felt thrown in at the deep end – whilst I am used to performing in grounded scenes (not exactly realistic, but with elements of realism thrown in there), some of the improvisers were clearly fans of more absurdist comedy. It was fun to try something new although it was a challenge to force myself to simply forget my inhibitions and just “go with it”.
Mara had a very different teaching style to Lloydie, preferring to spend a lot of time analysing scenes after we had performed them – which meant lots of talking and discussion, but not a lot of opportunities to rehearse. If something didn’t quite land or didn’t feel “right”, Mara wanted to explore why it hadn’t worked, which led to some really interesting conversations. In “Making It Up”, we tend to focus more on want went well rather than what didn’t – which is good for building your confidence! It was useful to properly deconstruct each scene that we’d improvised, although I think I’d have preferred the chance to do a few more runs before the show!
Our show, which was the biggest audience I’d ever performed for (Nonsuch was sold out for the finale of the festival!), was as absurd as can be expected. Possession was definitely a recurring theme – people throwing out old possessions, possessive girlfriends and lots of ghosts. I can remember feeling a little disappointed with the final show (I think we relied too much on quick jokes rather than actual characters), but the audience seemed to love it, which was the most important thing!
I’m looking forward to lots more improv during 2024, hoping to push myself more than ever, and find lots of new and fun improv techniques to try out. People always say that they’d find improv too stressful, trying to think up things on the spot. I think it’s the opposite though. Yes, it can be stressful, but the stress only lasts for the few minutes that you are on stage. When you’re doing a scripted piece, the stress lasts for weeks and weeks, trying to learn lines, gather costumes, writing the script. Improv means that you can “forget” about the show until you’re literally on the stage – which, in my opinion, can make it a lot more fun and liberating!
Tom Morley, December 2023
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