I have problems with impro and Theatre Sports as anything more than a training medium.
And before anyone asks I have a degree in Educational Theatre having studied at Adelaide University under Frank Ford and yes Impro was a major part of the training but as a tool not a means to an end, which is what it has become.

Is that all there is? Well if that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing.
www.tonymoore.id.au

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Tony, I don't understand the point you're trying to make, and you probably ought to explain yourself. Otherwise you are coming across as unnecessarily negative, obtuse...and wrong!

Impro and Theatresports is a popular theatre form of entertainment that brings paying audiences. Surely that statement alone should end the argument!

The Big Hoo Haa in Perth (in which Glenn Hall is a regular performer) is an improvised comedy show which has been filling a 100 seat theatre every Saturday night for 7 and a half years and is still going strong. The players come and go, but the format remains popular. Our annual birthday specials have brought houses of over 600, and we obviously have to hire a bigger venue.
The same company has begun a mid-week show involving a more experimental, long-form impro, and while audiences have started small (but steadily building), the response has uniformly been enthusiastic.

The beauty of improvisation done well is it can bring repeat audiences like no other form of theatre. It's rare that you will buy tickets to see the same play by the same company over and over again. Fans of stand-up comedy soon realise that comedians re-use their material, and so they wait a bit before returning to the same act, to allow the comic to develop new jokes. But Impro is always new, original, and in-the-moment, so it develops a fan base who will turn up week after week throughout the year.
There's also the element of the audience influencing the show by their suggestions, which is appealing to many. Quite often the cleverness of the audience is a significant part of the entertainment on the night. The audience throws a challenge to the improvisers, and it can frequently be awe-inspiring how they are able to rise to and conquer that challenge. This is live interactive entertainment!

In Perth, the impro scene has been a development ground for a good many performers who now dominate the professional theatre scene. Many of them started as absolute beginners in workshops exactly like the one Glenn is offering above. Two that Perth audiences will probably recognise are Xavier Michelides (now based in Melbourne) and Jimmy James Eaton, who both now make a permanent living out of stand-up comedy and improvisation, and are in demand as MCs for corporate events, have created their own solo shows, hosted TV shows, and performed at festivals worldwide as well as still performing in conventional theatre. They were both highschool students who attended impro workshops in which Glenn was a main tutor. Others I could name drop are Claire Hooper (from Good News Week) who was a performer in the Hoo Haa for many years, Luke Ryan (from comedy duo Luke and Wyatt) who attended Glenn's classes at WAAPA and then joined the Hoo Haa, and you might at least have heard of Tim Minchen, who was a regular part of Glenn's early Spontaneous Insanity performances before going on to create his world-dominating solo shows. And of course you'd know of Andrew Denton, who was a Sydney Theatresports player in his early days...those skills influenced all of his subsequent TV series and his witty confident interviewing style.

So I won't deny that it is an excellent training medium.
Actors who have excellent improv skills are the most sensitive at reading an audience. They can think fast on their feet, and deal with any unforeseen mishaps which might otherwise distract and flounder an actor without those skills. They know how to listen to others (I mean REALLY listen), whether it be fellow actors or directors. They support their fellow cast mates, getting them out of trouble and making them look good. They are the best at responding to direction, taking new input and making it work. They are the best to have in the cast in creative development of new works. In auditions and screen tests they usually shine. Many of them are excellent stand up comedians. Quite a few I know of are successful voiceover artists.

Yet you can't see it as anything more than that training medium? Surely training like that is value enough!? But, wait, there's more..

A few years ago when I was thrust into taking over a major role the next day, it was entirely due to my fellow cast mate (Sean Walsh, another regular Big Hoo Haa player) that I was able to get through the performance, having barely learnt the lines and blocking overnight! His impro skills enabled him to see when I was struggling, guide me into safe territory, even patch up when I got horribly lost, all without skipping a beat of his own performance or letting the audience lose sight of the story. (He deservedly won a best supporting actor award at this year's Equity's). His excellent impro skills have helped earn him his success. And I have never been more confident as a performer than when I am surrounded by fellow improvisers in the cast.

Without mentioning any specific shows or years, there are straight plays I have been involved with in the past where quite frankly the professional improvisers (in non-improvising roles) wiped the floor with the other performers.

And while (as you no doubt have gathered from my history on this site) I am rarely without work in the theatre, you might not be aware of how much of my rent is paid by impro-related performances. Because corporate events have large entertainment budgets, they pay significantly better rates than standard theatre wages. While I may do mostly standard theatre throughout the year, I often earn more through the smaller number of corporate impro gigs...thanks to Glenn Hall at Spontaneous insanity.

Now I WASN'T about to ask, actually, but since you volunteered the information I have to ask in return - what does your degree in Educational Theatre really have to do with the topic?? Okay, impro might not have been a big component of your degree. But there is no logic in you concluding that impro is therefore not important. That's an uncharacteristically poor argument from you.

You said "Impro was a major part of the training but as a tool not a means to an end, which is what it has become."
I don't actually understand what you mean by this - a 'training tool' and a 'means to an end' sound like exactly the same thing to me - and besides that I disagree...in all the examples I have already been talking about, improvised performance is a valid end in itself, as much as any other type of performance art is a valid end.

I can only conclude that at 28 minutes past New Year you got on the net without quite shaking the fog of your celebratory Cognac.

Perhaps Tony's problem is simply that he has never really experienced truly EXCELLENT improvisers like the ones I speak of, who have skills that ordinary actors should be clamoring for. I guess that if all the improvisors he has known have been mediocre, it is understandable he might be jaded.

And that is simply all the more reason to attend Glenn's classes!

I will be.

Cheers,
Craig

~<8>-/====\---------

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I hope you enjoy it and get a lot from it but it should only be part of your journey not the destination.

Is that all there is? Well if that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing.
www.tonymoore.id.au

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"but it should only be part of your journey not the destination"....The destination is in the eye of the beholder. It is not for you nor anyone to determine that for someone else. How very arrogant to presume to know what someone else's journey should be.

Just because you view this process/training/performance poorly (beyond it's utility as a training tool); presumably as an inappropriate or undesirable "destination" in the context of performing arts(?), does not make it so.

After all we are talking about the environment of unpaid community participation here. Frankly, particularly in WA (although I'm pretty sure this would apply in SA and Aust wide), anything that brings the community together in this way and give people challenge, pleasure and a sense of community is a good thing. Not to mention getting them up there exercising their often poorly utilised brains and creativity.

They're not smoking crack! Nor are they going to suffer any other ill effects from participating or have any detrimental impact on the nature of performing arts in this town, much less any other. So what's the problem?

I would contend that the only "problem" with improvisation and Theatre Sports being the "means to an end" comes from an exclusive and elitist attitude towards performing arts and what it should be.

I think it's brilliant that these opportunities are out there in the Perth community. I don't think you are aware just how disenfranchised and isolated many adults in Perth and elsewhere are. And evidently you are also not aware (or aren't concerned) about how intimidated and excluded many people with an interest in community arts feel in Perth; because 'the scene' is perceived to be so inaccessible to so many who might love to participate. And in fact those who slog away behind the scenes and front of house and many in the audience would love to 'get up there'. But they simply don't have the confidence and certainly don't feel encouraged to do so.

These workshops and the season may empower some of those people to feel that they really can be part of something. I have been saddened to see people on this site say they don't feel they should even audition for community productions in Perth because they standard of auditionees is so high they don't feel like they are in the same league.

It's wonderful that we have such a rich and diversely talented theatrical community in Perth, that give of their talents to produce work that is frequently indiscernible from professional productions. BUT, I think we need to consider at what cost that comes and to quote your byline we need to ask "is that all there is?"

Do away with the myopic elitist view and consider the bigger picture. The non-'theatre' picture. The benefits of these workshops and the flow on Theatre Sports event are enormous. Far greater than any alleged disadvantage you many have postulated with Frank Ford and cronies. (And not that it should be relevant, but like you I have been fortunate to have had the experience of excellent training and education in theatre with skilled and respected professionals and am now studying psychology.)

/end rant
PS. Sorry it's New Years Day. This time of year sucks for those of us who for one reason or another are very isolated. Tends to produce a heightened sense of outrage around these sorts of attitudes. Although the role of Perth's COMMUNITY Theatre Scene in the Perth community is something I am very passionate about always. I fear that it is losing touch with its roots for many of the main players. Turning one's nose up at an opportunity such as this and cautioning others that it should not be the "destination" is a shining example of that IMHO. I know you are in SA not WA, but the principles are the same and there are those here with similar attitudes.

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