Last week the first festival took place at our host venue and supporter the Unity theatre, Liverpool. 

The anecdotal feedback has been extremely positive and this gives me great hope in the model that we tested in this pilot event. We hosted 12 shows from artists / companies / teams from across the region as well as four workshops. 

The plan was always to host a cross section of the improvisation community and this seems anecdotally to have been a strength of the festival and something we will continue to build upon and develop further. I am open to feedback as I know there are a number of areas to develop for the future. Throughout the two days I was taking notes and will act on these as well as the feedback from audiences and visiting artists and companies. I will share a full report (June) and response as we move forward, transparency is key and if I got something wrong I will act on this to ensure the best possible experience for everyone. 

From the outset my driving desire was to place improvisation into a theatre and thus profiling the talent that exists across the region. Secondly was for companies and artists to benefit financially, each company was on a guarantee to ensure that it covered their expenses. If they surpassed this they then took the full box office (worth 70%) the host venue took the rest - I am pleased to say that every single company achieved this. Finally, the work to be documented and shared to and for the wider community. 

I think we achieved the start of something and I thank those companies and artists who said 'yes and' and to the participants (workshops), artists, companies and teams I am very grateful for your faith and support.   

This has personally been a huge undertaking - I have invested a huge amount of time and money in organising this first festival single handedly. This is not sustainable for the future and thus I will need some support (volunteers) who have expertise in marketing, social media, logistics as liaising with the Unity, press, artists and trying to market the festival has taken its toll. Please feel free to get in touch via wingimpro.ms@gmail.com if you can spare some time to lift up and grow your community. 

Peace and love 

Mark 

This is a copy of the review from Robin Winters - the original can be found via this link Talk to the Hand - Unity Theatre, Liverpool - The Reviews Hub

The Unity Theatre in Liverpool hosted their first-ever improvisation festival this weekend. In the upstairs space (Unity 2) along with a packed audience a new piece of work from Liverpool company, Wing It – Impro was presented. Talk to the Hand is a combination of puppetry and improvisation and the tone for the work was set from the pre-show with interactions between the performers and audience. However, my eyes were only drawn to the purple puppet perched upon a waist-height platform.


The set-up for this improvised play is simple, the company ask the audience three simple questions. A location, a problem and a character flaw and from this stimulus, the company create a full story. The introduction was led by the calm and assured Mark Smith who listened to the numerous suggestions shouted out by the enthusiastic audience, finally he picked out the play’s location of Atlantis.

Jo the protagonist operated by Alice Rowbottom and Lisa Chae is questioned by the very funny Trev Fleming (the doctor) and from this short interaction, the flesh out the audience’s suggestions and lay out key moments from which we go back and see how events unfold. Laid out on three chairs are the ensemble’s other puppets or I should say puppet parts. These consist of eyeballs, hair, gloves and various costumes. It is from this that the company can switch and change characters with remarkable speed.


With a swift lighting change the company dive under the water bringing to life this tale of love, water, fridges and political machinations. Each puppeteer armed with a torch either light their own or someone else’s puppet, a very simple but effective way of highlighting each character. Aisling Leyne as Claire was very funny with her high falsetto voice, this was matched by Chris Murray the downtrodden would-be suitor. Amongst all of this is Jo the land lubber cast into the depths and ordered to buy a fridge by the would-be villains who wish to profit from the downfall of Atlantis by creating a second ice age. Fleming and Chae create a series of likeable characters who dip in and out of the story of Jo played by the excellent Rowbottom.


Talk to the Hand is great fun, highly skilled and very funny. It had real moments of horror as one character was torn from limb to limb and seeing a set of eyeballs floating to the bottom of the sea will live long in the memory. The work is not something I have seen before, and this makes a refreshing change. It wasn’t flawless as there were moments where the action briefly stalled as puppets were being dressed between scenes, but this is a minor note. I highly recommend that you catch this show if you can. As Smith stated in the introduction this was an experiment and as such it works extremely well. Talk to the Hand is playful puppetry with an improv twist and this marriage of artforms works brilliantly.

This is a copy of the original review - the link takes you through to the At the Theatre website - The Incomplete Works of Shakespeare - At The Theatre 

Written by Sheldon Chadwick - 28/10/2022

The Incomplete Works of Shakespeare– 5 stars!
Presented by The Rubbish Shakespeare company and Wing It – Impro & Stories
The John Foster Drama studio was packed for this new piece of work from Liverpool companies Rubbish Shakespeare and Wing it impro. The tone for the work was set from the pre-show interactions between the actors and audience in addition to the sounds of the medieval version of Thunderstruck.
The set up for this improvised play is simple, William Shakespeare has failed to arrive with the new play. The company all members of the ‘Kings men’ decide that the show must go on as King James is sat in the audience. To ensure it does they derive three ideas from the audience in addition to the title of the play in this instance ‘Sharks Spears forget’ – one of the suggestions ‘the problem’ was based on sharks. From these simple ingredients this troupe of talented actors set about creating a Shakespeare play.
The next 90 minutes is a cavalcade of characters, chaos and clown. The skill of the work is in knitting together the ideas borne out in the early part of the play and slowly linking them to the conclusion. And yes, it is Shakespearean as the company use both prose and verse to create the text. In between all of this we experience love, death, magic – all played and generated in the moment. What was so impressive was the playfulness between both the company and the audience, if you require an extra actor pull them from the crowd. The highlight being a member of the audience instructed to sing ‘the song of war’ – daunting, but the company support the person, named ‘Big Tim’ in doing this. The level of interaction emerges organically and does not feel forced. The stage by the end is littered with props, costume, and musical instruments all of which have been used in different ways.
I highly recommend that you catch this show if you can. It is different to the normal improv work on offer, and this makes a refreshing change. It blends live music, clown, magic realism, physical theatre and storytelling into a delicious mix. The work is rooted in ‘play’ and we enjoy the actor’s childlike spontaneity in discovering each moment. Lee Hithersay, Rob Bond, Mark Smith and musician actor Pete Smith are extremely funny. Each made me laugh and in combination they are hilarious. The final moment of the play is decided by King James – the power of life and death in his hands as he is asked to give a thumbs up or down. As per the King, I give it a massive thumbs up. This is improvised theatre at its best. ​

This is a copy of the original review - the link takes you through to the reviews hub website - The Incomplete Works of Shakespeare - Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot - The Reviews Hub


The audience are greeted by the actors and live music as they enter the Sir Ken Dodd Garden a fabulous outdoor performance space set within the grounds of Shakespeare North. This pre-show is but a taster of what is to come. The space is simply set up with various costumes, musical instruments, props, wigs and weapons.
The company of fours actors all members of Shakespeare’s acting troop ‘The Kings Men’ (The reality is a combination of the teams behind The Rubbish Shakespeare Company and Wing It Impro & Stories) take to the stage ready to perform William Shakespeare’s latest play, but William fails to show, reportedly delayed in Leicester as he has a taste for the cheese. Without a script what are they to do?
The company decide to proceed – they tell us ‘We are going to wing it and hope we don’t create rubbish Shakespeare’ (a nod to each company name). And this is where the audience help as they provide the suggestions from which a new play will be made. With these bare bones, our play is set.

What emerges over the next 70 minutes is quite brilliant and delightfully bonkers. We watch scenes of arranged marriage, death, evil, feuding families, murder, revenge and unrequited love. All themes which have been used in various ways by the bard himself. It is quite clear these actors understand the tropes and structure of Shakespeare and as such you feel safe in their hands as they improvise a brand-new play in this instance ‘The Beautiful, Lovely Woman of Verona’ or ‘As you Will’ titled by a member of the audience.
The lovely woman of Verona is played by Robert Rhys Bond – she is hosting a masked ball, masked because there is a plague. The mad and evil mayor of Verona played by Lee Hithersay plans to scupper the event because, as he reminds us, he is Evil. The subplot is that young Patricio played by Ryan Byrne is having doubts about his arranged marriage to Susan a plan to unite their warring families. And finally, we have the Russian princess played by Mark Smith who having seen the portrait of the mad mayor has ridden thousands of miles to seek his hand and fall in love. This is a tragedy and of course, love never runs smoothly in this case it ends with death and the rats of Verona feasting upon the corpses of the dead.

Each member of the hilarious ensemble is comfortable in creating prose and verse spontaneously, this is made to look effortless. The use of live music and sound effects creates an additional layer which is impressive and certainly takes the frivolity to another level when comparing it to other impro groups of this nature.
Although the story being presented may have been a tragedy, tonight’s entertainment was extremely funny – the audience at various points roaring with laughter. The subtle and playful interactions with the audience were nicely judged and ensured we felt included throughout.  Imagine, mixing Monty Python, Blackadder and The Mighty Boosh together and then getting them to perform Shakespeare, this would be the result.
The Incomplete Works of Shakespeare is a brilliant, bold, and very funny evening’s entertainment. It may be aimed at a family audience – but trust me, you don’t need a child to enjoy this!
​

This is copied from the website this link takes you through to the original - The Incomplete Works of Shakespeare - Shakespeare North Playhouse - North West End UK

I was very excited to visit the Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot, being from Liverpool and usually having to travel down to Stratford – upon- Avon or London to see these fine performances. It is such a joy to have this on my doorstep. The building is on the original site of the Shakespearean theatre that was originally built by Richard Harrington from 1597-1603.  This rebuild was under the Prescot 1597 Project and was funded by the Lottery Heritage Fund.  A great opportunity to have a modern building on the grounds of such a prestigious site.

Today the theatre was presenting the “incomplete works” in the small outdoor theatre known as the Sir Ken Dodd Memorial Gardens and again this felt very fitting, as I was a great fan of this wonderful Liverpudlian comedian. The garden was an arena of stone steps that portrayed an embedded photo of Ken and his lovey sayings, and these steps lay bare to an open area that was prepared with wigs and costumes as the audience entered the area.

The play was performed by four very talented cast members Mark Smith, Ran Byrne, Lee Hithersay and Rob Bond, who equally demonstrated their awesome skills and creativity to ad-lib and improvise with ease and myth. 

Although the bright summer afternoon some became cold and windy, the change in temperature did not dampen the spirits of the cast or the audience who filled the small outdoor area. The cast intermingled with the audience and playing drums and a mandolin, soon welcomed us to their unique show.
Although cold, the audience were soon clapping, laughing and cheering along with the cast and when the cast announced that William Shakespeare “Bill” was stuck in Leicester and could not join them the four members turned to the audience for ideas on what their uncompleted works were to be based upon. 

Given the challenging tasks that were offered by the tantalising audience – “midnight”, “2,000 years B.C”. and “who has taken by tangerines?”, the four were unperturbed at the task that lay before them and rightly so, as the four were “on it”- constantly changing accents, costumes and guises in a non-stop turmoil of myth, laughter and tomfoolery that had the audience ‘in stiches’ laughing. 
Their references to St Helens, The Wirral and Rock ferry made this a very local play, and this enamoured them to all who were there. Amazingly, the plot did cover all suggestions requested and after an hour of mayhem the uncompleted works of Shakespeare was completed.
The audience loved it and interacted enthusiastically and so did the four men- experts of improvisation, who I could imagine were very proud of their comical achievement.

The play is on again on Sunday 18th September at 1pm and at 3pm.

It’s a real family fun-filled afternoon for families of all ages.

​Reviewer Jan Mellor
Reviewed: 17th September 2022
North West End UK Rating: ★★★★

I met online (via zoom) with journalist Vicky Anderson. Vicky has been a long time supporter of improv within Liverpool. We discussed numerous things improv, past, present and future. The long read also interviews numerous other improvisors who are based in the city. It is a great read - LONG READ: The story of Liverpool improv — Made Up: (onstageinliverpool.com)

From today (29th of January) till the 5th of February is National Storytelling Week, organised and run by The Society for Storytelling The Society for Storytelling | The Society for Storytelling (sfs.org.uk). As part of this week we ran our first Story Pot (thank you for those that attended). The next one is coming soon, but more of that later.


To mark this week, Eavan, Mark and Munro are setting a 24-hour challenge – we would like you to suggest a word or an image to create a new story from. We will then write, record and perform them for you. This is a bit of fun, and we hope you will get involved. Can you send your suggestions to wingimpro.ms@gmail.com by Sunday (tomorrow) no later than 6pm. These will then become the source of inspiration from which we will respond. We will then post the results on Monday evening.


As mentioned earlier, Story Pot 2 is now on sale – tickets are free – this link take you through to booking Story pot 2 - Wing it - Impro & stories (wingimpro.com)


A big thank you to all our subscribers, your support means a lot.


All the best
​

Eavan, Mark and Munro
AKA – Wing Stories

Wing It Impro and Stories, The Bunker (Halloween Edition), is an intimate evening of storytelling inspired by the autumn season. The first of planned quarterly events, this cosy and charming evening of spooky tales is supported by Mark Smith providing live sound effects and enhancing the comfortable atmosphere with a warm and friendly presentation of the evening.

The evening opens with Munro, telling a story of a family heirloom which, Alexandra, the lead character clings to for dear life, but in doing so unleashes the wrath of a terrifying beast which is determined to reclaim what belongs to them. Munro’s vocalisation of the beast’s voice is particularly good and creates a genuine sense of fear. His body language and gesturing is also very good. Munro’s second story is brighter, looking at what happens to people as they prepare for the arrival of their first child. Exploring the topical theme of vaping and its relationship to quitting smoking, this is a fun tale which explores how early parenthood affects your relationships and behaviour.
​
Emma’s story begins with her performing as the lead character before morphing seamlessly into third person narration, clearly using the skills she has picked up previously as an actor. Her wide eyed fear is very good and creates a frightening atmosphere around her visceral and graphic story.

​Eavan uses props in her stories, which are taken from her wide personal collection of curios and antiques. Her first story is that of Pogo, a man who was exhibited in the circus as a “freak” and lost his place in the world when these type of exhibitions fade out of fashion. Gradually abandoned by everyone he cares about, the story culminates in a dark parody of tales of wishes and magical intervention. Eavan’s style is very confident, and she owns the stage while she is on it telling her mesmerising tales. Her second story looks at a boy whose mother died during childbirth and how this affects his relationship with his impatient and busy father. Another prop, an antique teddy bear, adds a layer of tenderness to this one which is a sweet and affectionate tale of love and family.

The evening closes with Gav Cross, who immediately declares himself a fraud as he retells old tales to children, rather than writing his own as the other storytellers have. His rendition of Rock-a-Bye-Baby however, is very funny and involves the audience in an engaging and fun way which ends the evening on a high.

It is apparent that some of the storytellers are less experienced than others and nerves did affect the vocalisation of the stories on occasion, meaning that some elements were said too quickly or slightly mumbled which meant that not everything could always be heard clearly. This is however a minor issue which will likely be ironed out with further performances.

Many of the stories use local geography, enhancing their identifiability for the audience. After anchoring the action in reality, many of the stories then shift into the weird and wonderful, creating a feeling of disorientation and making the twists and turns of the stories very enjoyable. The lighting used in the evening is very effective creating a creepy atmosphere which emphasises the theme of the stories well. The sound effects are also very good, adding an extra level to the stories being told, and increasing the creepiness of atmosphere of many of them.

The Bunker (Halloween Edition) is a fun and seasonal evening of storytelling which begins Halloween in a lovely way, with some local creatives and original pieces of art which each of the storytellers can be very proud of. The additional touches of sound effects and prompts give the evening a unique twist and make this an original piece of theatre which is a lovely tribute to the autumn season as the nights grow colder and darker with the approach of winter.

Taken into the basement of the Liverpool Masonic Hall and escorted through numerous corridors all lined with Masonic images it’s hard not to feel the immense atmosphere and history of the building. So much is seldom seen, and this most definitely added to the overall experience of the evening. Arriving at a blue door where we were greeted and seated in what can only be described as an Egyptian temple. The layout in the space is interestingly intimate and beautifully lit by the company. Simple but effectively highlighting the architecture of the space and ensuring that everyone could see the very small stage.
There were seven original stories told across the hour, from the scary to the personal all thematically linked by the season of Autumn. The evening was hosted by the effervescent Mark Smith who, like, all good hosts made us feel welcome and immediately at ease, seamlessly incorporating those who were late. He linked the evening together whilst also supporting the stories using live sound effects. This is not something that I have seen before and gave an added edge to the work.

Opening was Angie Waller who delivered a wholly improvised story underscored by her ukulele whilst competing against her five-minute sand timer. The conceit was that she would spontaneously combust if she didn’t deliver in time. The story was derived from the two suggestions taken from the audience. It was delightful hearing the audience’s ideas being woven so skillfully into what became a ballad about the doctor and the ghost. This takes real skill and Waller is clearly very comfortable working in this manner.
Next up was Emma Reilly and her story of a ghost who finds itself in a loop until the call from the place beyond the grave informs her that she is indeed dead. The story was beautifully written and delicately delivered, however, it was slightly too breathy to always hear clearly what was being said.
Up next was Eavan Seasman who utilised the strangest of child’s toys, to tell the story of ‘Pogo’ the once-famous circus performer whose fame had dissipated as the audiences taste for the ‘Freakshow’ changed. Set 
on the Medway this American story was a familiar story of fame, loss and the desire to fit in. The twist in the story would have made Stephen King very proud. A very charismatic performer who incorporates her taste for the objet d’art as stimulus for her work. Her later story was a born from a similar trope, equally impressive but perhaps a change of style in the evening might have been useful.
Trev Fleming’s story was perhaps the most moving of the evening, drawing on his personal memory of his own father’s wake and the tales that emerge at the cusp between sleep and consciousness. Fleming is a voice actor, and he uses this masterfully in switching between himself and the various other characters we hear from.
Finally, we have the larger-than-life Munro Scott, a likeable performer who created two very distinctive stories. The stronger of the two was about the ghost who lives within a vape machine and helpfully assists with the care of his young baby. The second was well delivered but the writing was not quite as sharp as his first piece, he clearly has a talent for storytelling, and I suspect his journey is only just beginning.