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.

AUDITION! - for a new Improvised Musical at The Canal Cafe

Silly String Theory is a new improvised play with songs, to be performed at the Canal Café Theatre in December. Directed by Katy Schutte (The Maydays, Katy and Rach, Music Box) and produced by Jules Munns (Music Box, Slapdash, The Nursery), it will be both funny and serious, dramatic and downright silly. Kind of like Katy and Rach, but with five people and songs.

Rehearsals will be week beginning 28th November 10-6, Monday to Friday, then a couple of afternoons TBC the weeks of the shows. Cast members will be expected to attend every rehearsal. It's all about knowing each other's style backwards and being super super super professional.

Performances will be 8th-11th and 15th-18th December, 7.30 at the Canal Cafe. That’s right, it’s pretty much the Canal Café’s Christmas show! And with a bit of luck, it could become a regular thing.
Fee for the show is two hundred English pounds, perhaps a little more if the audiences are good.

Auditions will be held 11-5 on Sunday 13th November. Location TBC. If you want to come along, send a short email about your improv experience to julesmunns@hotmail.co.uk. We are looking with people with experience of either long form or musical improvisation, or ideally both.

Applications by 10th, please.

Musings on Musical Long-form Improv

You’re in a dark, damp tunnel under Waterloo Station. As you glance to your side, you realise that there is an auditorium so sold out that people have to stand at the back. With a mix of armchairs, sofas, kitchen chairs and velvet curtains it looks like a Terry Gilliam set (approved by David Lynch). Now comes the beginners’ call and you know that you will shortly be on stage with more than 15 people, some of whom you’ve never met. There’s not only no script, but you’re also required to make up songs in the moment. For most people this is an actors’ nightmare, but for the participants of SlapBash it is BLISS!

SlapBash is a wonderful improv event that took place last Thursday at the Old Vic Tunnels to raise money for London’s improv festival Slapdash in July. When a large group of musical improvisers turned up from different companies - many of whom had not met let alone worked together – with barely an hour in the space before the doors opened, I was thrilled. The levels of experience were quite different – from a glut of full time professionals to a couple of part-time hobbyists. We warmed up (and met) with Big Booty, Hot Spot, gift-giving and a pattern game, all of which told me that I was working with a fun, enthusiastic and capable bunch. For the show we had a possible list of mostly musical short form games, including a couple of ‘set pieces’ from the different troupes, but mostly simple set ups that anyone could join in. We had no MC and it was decided that we would just jump on stage when there was a gap to introduce any that took our fancy. I was delighted that almost every formulaic short form game was assimilated by the long-formers into a whirl of colour and movement! A blues number has a huge chorus line at it’s feet, all in perfect time and motion, a game reading from a book (and then having it taken away and continuing in the same style) is beautifully illustrated in tableaux from behind, Machines is filled out with glorious harmonies from all over the theatre. We played for two 40-minute sets in a fairly seamless ménage of music that enthralled the crowd.

It was very interesting to see how the various styles of improv fitted together. Showstopper endowed, led and directed from within, the Maydays connected with the audience using their real stories to make glorious playback songs, Music Box came from a place of character and monologue to find wonderful counterpoints, Friendly Fire spoke through physicality and sound to form abstract and beautiful theatre and Marbles kept it real with some awesome rap. Somehow all of these styles and games were brought together wonderfully. Any number of improv styles can be combined successfully if each accepts the common ground of listening, accepting and building.

I think the main difference between British and American long-form musicals is that the British say their intentions out loud, whereas Americans keep it unsaid and communicate with their group mind. The British like to see the workings, they want to be shown that it is improvised, to have storyteller and a familiar style named and called out before it is parodied rather than for someone to spot the style themselves. I for one am excited after Thursday that these are not mutually exclusive styles, they can live and breathe together for any good improviser and any audience.