Improv Insider

Playback Theatre is improvised theatre where audience members share personal stories and actors immediately play back those stories on stage. Playback Theatre is musical, dramatic, creative, insightful and contrary to popular belief, funny.

Playback Theatre Sydney actor and trainer Thanassis Boulis talks to us about what it is, how it works, and the differences between the Playback style and the Sydney impro style.

After the interview, you can go watch their next stage show which is 5pm on Sunday 15th March 2015 at the King St. Theatre in Newtown (near St. Peters train station, it’s the bottom theatre of the two on King St).

Episode13-PlaybackTheatreSydney.mp3 (68.7 MB, 48m 28s)

Recorded on 9th February 2015

The Home Front (formerly “Holding”) is a long form show developed in Canberra by Catherine Crowley and Heidi Silberman, about the lives of the women holding the home front in WWI. Cathy and Heidi talk about: the development of the show; drawing on research and historical materials; paying respect to the characters; and their plans for the future.

For me this is the most exciting improvised show in this country over the past few years. It’s funny, intelligent, deals with strong emotional subject matter, plays for truth, and is uniquely Australian. This is where I’d like to see improvisation in Australia heading next.

Their upcoming season was developed in association with The Street Theatre, thanks to project funding from artsACT. You can (and should) buy tickets online from The Street Theatre ticketing website.

Episode12-TheHomeFront.mp3 (65.9 MB, 37m 59s)

Recorded on 23rd March 2014

Rue de la Rocket are an artist collective who’ve devised several performance works using improvisation, including their much lauded Sydney Fringe shows Tits Up in 2011, and This is my box in 2012. We talk to members Karena Thomas and Karli Evans about improv, acting, and devising theatre, which if you’re familiar with some of my works, are things very dear to my own heart.

Episode11.mp3 (73.7 MB, 53m 38s)

Recorded on 23rd October 2012

What started out as an interview with Cale Bain, this year’s Cranston Cup Director, about his vision for this year’s season, turned into a history of the Cranston and all it’s quirkiness, with Cale and Impro Australia’s Artistic Director Marko Mustac. Oh, and we find out if Cale has a vision. The Cranston Cup is a Sydney Theatresports institution, listen in to find out how it started and where it’s headed.

Episode10.mp3 (67.8 MB, 44m 38s)

Recorded on 19th September 2011

One of Sydney’s more prolific producers of improv comedy, this episode we chat with John Knowles about IMPROZAC, the 1990s show he created with Adam Gelin. John and I have been trying to make this happen for almost a year now, and I think it’s turned out as a pretty good tribute to the show and the concepts and mechanics behind it. Aside from the hour spent on IMPROZAC, we also make passing reference to Scared Scriptless, chain saws, the Harold Park Hotel and flower arranging.

Episode9.mp3 (80.2 MB, 1h 10m 54s)

Recorded on 26th November 2010

Not so much an interview, but a group chat with Pink Ladies. While I did have a quite structured list of questions, and had only planned to raise gender at a certain point, it seems you just can’t ignore what is still unfortunately the elephant in the room, and thus the issue of it being a troupe of women is raised within the first minute, and stays pretty much the focus until the end. They joked, they laughed, they drowned each other out for much of it, but what lies within is a great insight into why, regardless of gender, troupes are so important for the continued development and reinvention of improv in Sydney. We are in exciting times indeed.

Episode8.mp3 (46 MB, 57m 4s)

Recorded on 11th September 2010, after their final rehearsal before opening night, with a small child running around at the time. So, situation normal. Pink Ladies interviewed were Linette Voller, Sophie Long, Cindy Tonkin, Jess Mallett, Jane Simmons, Karena Thomas, Louise McManus, Lucie Booker, Linda Calgaro and Erin Foy.

Our interview with Lisa Ricketts, a professional improvisor and one of Sydney’s favourite players, chatting about how to get cast in the Sydney scene (kind of), female improvisors, Explosive Minds, improv festivals, growing balls, and breaking into the U.S. You can visit Lisa’s blog at Improv Bootcamp.

Excuse the odd wind effect, I left my wind screen at home.

Episode6.mp3 (66 MB, 48mins)

Recorded 19th June 2010.

Chicago and New York improvisor Ed Illades was visiting Sydney for a few months for personal reasons, so we dragged him into a series of workshops and an interview, chatting about Chicago, sketch vs improv, being in the moment, and short form vs long form.

We’ve also taken the leap to stereo and full length interviews, so the files are bigger, but still small enough to be downloadable. Use your pause button if want to hear it in smaller chunks.

Episode5.mp3 (71 MB)

Recorded 20th May 2010.

Here’s part 2 of our interview with Peter Lead, continuing with Peter’s production history, and finally ending with a few production tips, the original point of the interview.

Episode2.mp3 (27 MB)

Recorded 22nd January 2010.

Our first episode is part 1 of our interview with Peter Lead, which was going to be about producing your own improv show, the tricks and the traps, but instead turned into a history of Peter’s work and the Sydney improv scene.

Episode1.mp3 (14 MB)

Apologies for the embedded field recording, we did the interview in my backyard, due to this being the first house I’ve had which doesn’t have a quiet recording space. I should have checked that before buying.

Recorded 22nd January 2010.