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
4 days ago
4 days ago
For the final episode of our A New Play series, Julian interviews Hal about directing A New Play.
Sunday Jun 01, 2025
Sunday Jun 01, 2025
Apologies for the upload delay, Hal was running the UnScripted Shakespeare Festival! We are right back at it debriefing the final two nights of A New Play! Our intro music by Sebastian Blue Hochman famously comes from night four!
Night Three watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y_G9zNJv3Q
Night four watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5lApi_65io
Sunday May 11, 2025
Sunday May 11, 2025
We rewatched nights One and Two of A New Play and talked through how they went!If you haven't seen them go check them out!
A New Play Night One:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjeb4BI1o-0
A New Play Night Two:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2qDjmWah6g&t=19s
Monday May 05, 2025
Monday May 05, 2025
Our third episode about the physical improvisers gets deep into the specific techniques that we developed for A New Play. Many of these techniques never made it into the performances, so this is the first time they are available to the world!
Thursday May 01, 2025
Thursday May 01, 2025
Live interviews with the cast of Taxi Tales from the Liverpool Improvisation Festival! Taxi tales was an incredible show created and directed by Dr. Mark Smith that tells the story of twelve taxi rides over the course of one night. An enormous thank you to everyone involved with LiF for making this such a magical experience!
You can find out more by following @liverpool_improv_festival on instagram or visiting https://www.liverpoolimprovfestival.com/
Guests:
Josie Throup @josiemakesitup @Drunkclassicsmanchester
Adrià Lerma @adria.lerma
Samuel Pownall @samuelpownall
Anthony Saldana @anthonya.saldana
Diana Brown @dianalynnbrown3330
Shotgun Theater: https://thepit-nyc.com/events/shotgun-theater/
Diana's workshop:
https://www.thornandpetalstick.com/event-details/rogues-ruffians-and-wiley-wits-improvising-bawdy-characters-in-the-style-of-shakespeare
Wednesday Apr 23, 2025
Wednesday Apr 23, 2025
Lana Tleimat, the assistant director, producer, stage manager, costume fabricator, and pain sink of A New Play puts on one final hat: podcast guest.
Sunday Apr 13, 2025
Sunday Apr 13, 2025
Physical Improviser Kaelyn Ong comes on the podcast to talk about her experience working in A New Play and what she has done since. We explore the role of physical improviser as amplifier and Kaelyn talks about how she treats physical improvising like animation!
Sunday Mar 30, 2025
Sunday Mar 30, 2025
Jayda Alvarez, one of the five character improvisers from A New Play, joins the podcast to answer all of our questions! Jayda brought a lot of her theatrical knowledge to A New Play, so this episode is not too dissimilar from the early conversations we had in making it.
Sunday Mar 23, 2025
Sunday Mar 23, 2025
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!