Muprov Musings: Exceptionally Average Improv
Muprov Musings: Exceptionally Average Improv, is a podcast that teaches Long-form, Narrative, Theatrical, Improvisation, or as we call it: Muprov. The hosts, Hal Munger and Julian Bernado are experienced and innovative Muprovisors, who are excited to spread the word about their favorite ways of doing their favorite activity. On the show they provided practice plans that you can use for your ensemble, teach fun formats, and chat with guests who bring a wide variety of perspectives! Intro Music By Sebastian Blue Hochman
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Why Mu?
1) Mu is the greek root of words like muse and music. Ancient poets would invoke the Muses before telling an Epic story. Like an Epic, our shows are long and follow a continuous narrative.
2) Mu is a statistical symbol that represents the population average. We come from a lineage of students of Patricia Ryan Madson, who teaches the improv maxim: Be Average.
3) Mu is an important word in Zen Buddhism, meaning nothing or no. While most improv centers Yes, we believe that sometimes the best was to say Yes is to say No. Our practice involves emptying our minds to that we can be present and react our stage partner.
A NEW PLAY
Our 90-minute improvised stage play, The set, costumes, props, music, lights, and sound are all created on the spot!
Episodes
3 days ago
3 days ago
So how do you improvise a show where the structure itself is improvised? Simple... Know all structures!
Sunday Mar 16, 2025
Sunday Mar 16, 2025
Anna W is back by popular demand to talk about her signature move: monologues! She is truly a monologue master so listening to her talk is pure joy. Monologue's ended up being one of the defining features that distinguished ANP-prov from regular improv and I am so glad we were able to do such a deep dive on them. Such a nice episode!
Sunday Mar 09, 2025
Sunday Mar 09, 2025
TW: Child abuse and sexual assault.
This episode is a rare LIVE interview with two of the most brilliant impro minds out there! Impro Amsterdam reliably curates the best improvised shows that I have seen anywhere in the world, and standing out from the pack this year was Festen. Based on the movie by the same title, Festen takes place over the course of a family dinner during which one member of the family reveals that they were abused by another as a child. The show is political, dramatic, healing, and unlike anything that I had ever seen improvised before. I was lucky enough to interview the show's creators, Aymeric Desjardin and Charlotte Méniére in a nearby wine store.
If you want to find more of their incredible work you can visit the website for their Théâtre de L'Esquive in Bordeaux or go to Aymeric's website.
https://theatredelesquive.fr/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAabYuhqmODz1i0pcBKLBWAB64tOHx8zpFHZXtifBzDgTiuNZaZ1v5w5KGnY_aem_sOb4FUCO-hLXv-1teDKzlw
https://www.aymericdesjardin.com/
Sunday Feb 23, 2025
Sunday Feb 23, 2025
In practicing for A New Play we sought to expand the world of what is possible to improvise! To do this we broke away from the traditional "rules" of impro and rebuilt our own looser guidelines to play by. In this episode we also talk about how you can safely explore and expand the comfortable boundaries of of contact, combat, content, and intimacy. I you are interested in having your shows feel more like scripted theater, it is important to adapt the safety procedures from theater so that they work in an improvised setting!
Monday Feb 17, 2025
Monday Feb 17, 2025
In this episode we explore the subtle difference in thought process the separated A New Play improvisation from other types of improv. If you are wondering why this is such a challenging form, here is your answer, but the payoff for learning to play in this way is enormous :)
Sunday Feb 09, 2025
Sunday Feb 09, 2025
Sasha Sokolova joins the podcast to talk about the biggest innovation of A New Play: The Physical Improvisors. If you want some brilliant insights in to how to add movement, visual artistry, and technical elements to your improv, tune in to here what Sasha has to say!
To apply to take the 3 day workshop at the UnScripted Shakespeare Festival, got to https://www.thornandpetalstick.com/festival and fill out the individual application!
Sunday Feb 02, 2025
Sunday Feb 02, 2025
Read along with this one: https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/5/25851/files/2016/02/taoteching-Stephen-Mitchell-translation-v9deoq.pdf
or listen to the full text:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7sIyojwbx9eaKqkoPL3DDH?si=1dadcab6edf44c79
Sunday Jan 26, 2025
Sunday Jan 26, 2025
At the far reaches of the possible, A New Play, is unlike any other improvised piece of theater. In this first episode we break down the vision for creating the show, and the ways in which we dreamed of expanding the the art form of improvisation. If you also have the dream of elevating improvisation into the realm of theater, tune in to this season to see how we tackled each problem and made this dream a reality!
Check out the visuals here:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=861yDZ1jwwk&t=186s
Apologies to the Brave Little Toaster, which, as it turns out, was a book.
Monday Jan 20, 2025
Monday Jan 20, 2025
Everyone's favorite award show :0
This one is a little self indulgent, but was delightful to make! Congrats to everyone who won a Mu-ie this year!
Thanks to Limited Resources for inspiring this episode (and honestly the whole podcast)
Also, I realized we missed the Tesuji of using the delayed Tesuji point to bring it to a tie... That is why it is such an important concept.
Monday Jan 13, 2025