Name: Exploring the Improvised Play
Start: 2025-05-17T11:00:00+01:00
Location: Malt Cross

Welcome to the world of the improvised play. This one day workshop explores how to create self contained improvised narrative and how to bring that to life on stage. You will explore how to create rich and real worlds, populate them with believable characters and weave their stories out of thin air. This workshop will build your improv toolbox then apply it to a format devised by the course leader, Ben Macpherson. Areas of focus include characters, narrative techniques and stagecraft as well as creating a shorthand for collaborating as a group. This class looks to explore a wide variety of dramatic techniques and is not geared solely to creating comedy.
This workshop is aimed at improvisers with existing experience. Ideally you will be comfortable with long form improv ideas and have some experience performing to audiences. If you are unsure please contact the organiser.
The session will begin at 11:00, with access from slightly earlier and run until 17:30 with a short break for lunch part way through as well as break periods during the day. The workshop is at the Malt Cross, in the workshop room underneath the main bar. This space can be accessed by ~10 stairs to the left of the bar or by a lift to the right of the bar. A dedicated accessible toilet adjoins the space.

This course is led by Ben Macpherson. Ben has been improvising since 2011 and facilitating almost as long. He has performed in hundereds of improv shows including The Vox Pops which he founded, and It's a Trap! The Improvised Star Wars Show which he was also producer for. He has appeared at festivals across the UK including the Edinburgh Fringe and Robin Hood International Improv Festival. He has trained with teachers from across the world including Chicago, New York and Los Angeles as well as the UK and Europe.
This course operates looks to operate a safe space and will include discussions of boundaries. Whilst dramatic performance can lead to uncomfortable areas, student and teacher safety is paramount and everyone has the right to protect themselves on stage. Key to this is treating all involved with respect and if there are issues with a persons behaviour, including but not limited to racist, sexist, queerphobic actions and physical or emotional harassment, that individual maybe excluded from the group and asked not to return. If this happens that individual will not be refunded.