IMPROVISING MUSICALS - A WEEKEND COURSE LED BY THE CREATORS OF THE SHOWSTOPPERS

In this two day course, you will get intensive training covering all the various areas that you need to create a musical on the fly.

You will learn:

• How to create characters, scenes and stories that fit into the idiom of musicals
• The stagecraft of musical theatre
• How to improvise songs - solos, duets and group numbers
• Dance and movement - how to move like you've been choreographed

For this workshop, you don't need to be a great singer or be a musical theatre performer, however, you should have a decent groundwork in improvisation. There will be a maximum of 15 people on the course. In the areas where repetition is vital (like improvising songs) we'll split the class across two rooms to maximise amount of practice you get.

COST: £150

WHEN: April 27th and 28th 2013, 10am to 4:30pm 

(you must show up at 9:45am to be ready for the start).

WHERE: The American Musical Theatre Academy in London,

Europa House, 13-17 Ironmonger Row, London, EC1V 3QG. 

http://americanacademy.co.uk/

NEAREST TUBE: Old Street

BUY IT HERE: http://www.wegottickets.com/ft/KPrSNfQwyR

The course will be taught by two of the Showstoppers - Dylan Emery, who co-created the show; and Duncan Walsh-Atkins, the show's musical director.

Dylan Emery (co-founder of The Showstoppers) has been performing, teaching and directing impro for more than 10 years. He has performed at The National Theatre, The Royal Court, the Bristol Old Vic, Latitude Festival and many times at the Edinburgh Fringe; he has also performed for BBC Radio 1, 7 and chaired the Showstopper Radio 4 series. He is a founder member of comedy impro troupe Grand Theft Impro and a member of 'hard-bardics' improvisers The School of Night. He also runs the UK improvisation news website www.thecrunchyfrogcollective.com.

Duncan Walsh-Atkins (musical director of The Showstoppers). He was MD of the UK tours of The Blues Brothers Party, Round The Horne and Peter Pan at The Capitol. Other credits are the Flanders & Swann tribute At The Drop Of A Hippopotamus, Mitchell & Webb's Macbeth & The Beanstalk, Noel Coward's Words & Music, Mad About the Musicals. For Radio 4 he recorded September Tide with Jonathan Firth, A Portrait of a Lady and the Tina C series with Christopher Green. He recently co-wrote the musical Tailor-Made Man, which is running in the West End.

The London 50-hour Improvathon is nearly here!

There are only a couple of days left to get the Earlybird Season Passes for the full 50 hours, so if you fancy the challenge/experience of 50 straight hours of improvised theatre, we'd highly recommend you book them now. And we reckon you should do the full 50 hours. Here's why:

‘It's like nothing you’ve seen before. It’s made up on the spot: a hilarious 50-hour non-stop soap opera. Early morning joggers and late-night clubbers unite!’ Time Out

This year the London Improvathon sees about 50 improvisers creating a massive piece of theatre set in Cairo in 1926. The classiest tourist destination of the day filled with adventurous icons, the discovery of Tutenkhamen's tomb, shady back street dealing, the curse of the mummy... all these, I'm sure, referred to with as much historic accuracy as you should expect. It's a classic, sumptuous setting with epic possibilities.

The cast will include some of the best improvisers around; a whole bunch of brilliant UK-based performers including a handful of Showstoppers, a bucket of Austentatious, most members of ProjectTwo and more.
They will be joined by some phenomenal folk from Die-Nasty and Rapid Fire theatre companies in Canada, and more besides.

'Fearsomely able improvisers.'
Ian Shuttleworth, The Financial Times.

The 50 hour Improvathon is a brilliant experience for the audience as well as the cast. After this long without sleep or rest the mind will start playing tricks on you. Performers tap into weird and wonderful parts of their psyche, and a whole new way of improvising arrives. You will see improvisers battle their own wits, lose their minds, then regain them in glorious victory.

And you as audience experience the same. It's cathartic, it's madness, it's brilliant. Take it from me, I've watched the last two all the way through. Once as an audience member, once as the lighting technician. There's not really anything I can compare it to. You have to try it for yourself.

Audience members who are there for the full 50 hours are regarded by the cast as a massively important part of the community of the show. The Improvathon is very much a two-way process, and the insane, sleep-deprived community that emerges bleary-eyed at the end are made of heroes. Cast and audience alike.

'It’s absolutely incredible. This isn’t theatre, it’s bloodsports.'
Michael Coveney, Whatsonstage.com

So come along. Challenge yourself. It's like nothing you've experienced before. And if you're a fan of improvisation, it's definitely something you should chalk up on your list.
Hoxton Hall is an ace venue for this show. It's got a balcony which tends to be inhabited by the 50-hour audience members; a lively community of its own, with sleeping bags and caffeine-based snacks a-plenty. It's brilliant.

Tickets are available here, starting at £7 per episode.

See you there!

The 50-Hour London Improvathon

“Absolutely incredible” Whatsonstage.com

The legendary London Improvathon returns for its sixth year. The finest improvisers from all over the world will meet in the 'Roaring Twenties' for an epic comic odyssey of romance, mystery and adventure.

Performed as a soap-opera in 25 episodes back to back over the weekend, the mix of brilliant comic brains and no sleep results in a wild, uncensored and euphoric playing style that you will not see anywhere else. With a recap at the beginning of each episode, you can drop in for a couple of hours or stay the whole weekend!

This year, as well as the usual cast of amazing improvisers, the cast will also include London Improv regulars Chris Mead, Jonathan Monkhouse and Maria Peters. 'Tis a joy, indeed.

"It's like nothing you've ever seen before"

TimeOut

WHEN: 7pm, Friday 11th January - 9pm, Sunday 13th January

COST: £10 per episode, £45 earlybird season pass. Tickets here

WHERE: Hoxton Hall, 130 Hoxton High Street, London, N1 6SH
NEAREST TUBE: Old Street

LONDONIMPROV: A REVOLUTION IN COMEDY & THEATRE

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