Muprov Musings: Exceptionally Average Improv

Dr. Mark Smith joins the podcast for the first episode of our GOATs Series, where we interview great improvisers to try to understand how they got to where they are today. Mark is the artistic director of the Liverpool Improvisation Festival, has a very substantial body of work in improvised and scripted theater, and he wrote his doctoral thesis on how improvisation can be applied to devised theater. If you are interested in the blending of improvisation and theater, this episode is for you!

A duo show, recorded live at the Unscripted Shakespeare Festival featuring Hal Munger and John Mistele! This is the audio of the show that we are bringing to the Edinburgh Fringe this year. Julian is adjusting to his new job, so he will be back on the podcast soon to begin an exciting new series but in the meantime I hope you enjoy the Flicker of the Flame:
Video Version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyOKc7C5lu0

For the final episode of our A New Play series, Julian interviews Hal about directing A New Play. 

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

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 

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!

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 
 
 

Lana Tleimat, the assistant director, producer, stage manager, costume fabricator, and pain sink of A New Play puts on one final hat: podcast guest. 

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!

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.