I began 2024 by taking another term of the excellent “Makin It Up” course at Nottingham Playhouse, run by the wonderful Lloydie. This was the seventh term I’d taken since starting in January 2022, and yet Lloydie still succeeded in making things feel fresh and new and exciting. A mix of old and new faces helped to keep things lively, as Lloydie helped us develop a new format which we referred to as “book group”.
We had previously played around with the “book group” idea as a mid-term exercise, designed to help us get used to large group scenes, working out how to navigate a scene with a big number of people and avoid talking over one another. The idea was simple – a book club got together to discuss their latest read. The twist? The audience were in charge of dreaming up a fictional book title.
We quickly realised that the best way to sell this idea was to focus on character, rather than the book. As with most improv, the idea from the audience merely forms an initial piece of inspiration, and should not take over the entire show. We played around with scenarios where characters would disagree on the quality of the book, and other scenarios where everyone was on the same page (if you’ll pardon the pun!). We found that scenes where characters agreed tended to be harder to pull off (a bit of conflict can help to create a narrative) but generally more fun to watch, so we focused more on this “peas-in-a-pod” routine.
Prior to our end of term show, we were invited to perform as a supporting act for “The Much Ado’s”, a recently formed improv troupe in Derby, being taught by Adam Hodgson. This was an opportunity to try out our “book group” routine with an audience for the first time, and I was in charge of picking the suggestion from the audience. Looking back, I potentially made a mistake by taking the first suggestion (“Enola Gay – where is she now?”) given that the majority of us didn’t even realise that Enola Gay was a WWII bomber, but we were able to craft a show from it regardless, getting incredibly sidetracked by “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”.
Our end of term show the following week saw Rachel and I pretending to be rabbits on Richard & Judy, and Maggie getting married to a King Edward potato…? (Honestly, I remember very little from this show, but that’s what the out-of-context texts in the Makin It Up Whatsapp tell me happened…) The format was deemed a hit, with plenty of opportunity to break out into smaller scenes within the full group setup.
Having been cast in “Romeo and Juliet” with Derby Shakespeare Company, I took a break from Makin It Up, but still kept regularly attending Loose Goose events at the Organ Grinder, and Ram Jam events, run by Adam in Derby. Unfortunately, as the year has gone on and I’ve become involved in “Hamlet: The Rest is Silence”, I’ve found myself unable to make regular improv events. It’s something that I definitely want to do more of next year. I think improv is a skill that you need to continually practice in order remain confident at it.
We did a further show as part of the Playhouse Participation night in July (which was particularly badly organised and saw us emerge onstage around 40 minutes later than planned, and forced us to cut down the act to just a few minutes). Still, it was a fun experience performing improv for a generally uninitiated audience, and we even dragged a BSL interpreter along for the ride. Although I must apologise for making her sign “Santa’s ball sack” (yes, Santa was giving out balls as Christmas presents in July).
The rest of the group revived the book group for a show as part of the Robin Hood Improv Festival (and again at the Theatre Royal’s Christmas improv night), whilst I was invited to be part of “Sherwood: Improv in Tights” with a group of improvisers from across the world. The show, based around the legend of Robin Hood, saw the actors take on various characters from the Middle Ages. I played Friar Godwyn, a religious figure who gave terrible advice to everyone and made up Latin phrases to make himself sound important. The show was a lot of fun (if a little nerve-wracking), and was also the first time I’d done any improv where props and costume were involved.
There were many other enjoyable improv shows as part of the Robin Hood festival, but one that sticks in my mind is “Living. Dying. Dead”, which told a story of a young woman who found out she had a terminal illness, and offered a very frank and eye-opening insight into the character’s final months. This was improv like I’d never seen it before – deadly serious and incredibly character driven, although the cast still managed to find some comedic moments within the bleak storyline. Another favourite of mine was the infamous “Sexy Yoga Improv Boys”, which saw Lee Kennedy put his clowning skills to good use, alongside Diarmuid Webber and Laurie Owen. The clowning aspect meant that the show lacked a storyline and was instead full of randomly linked skits, which saw the three actors leaning on aspects of their own personalities as a way of creating a show. A very interesting take on improv, and something I would be intrigued to learn more about in future.
The “book group” ended the year with a Christmas-themed night of improv at the Nottingham Theatre Royal. I was gutted to miss out on this (I’d already agreed to review “Twelfth Night” at the RSC) but I look forward to seeing further shows from this group in the new year, and hopefully dipping my toes back into improv at some point too!
Tom Morley, December 2024
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