Welcome back...
There has been a long history and tradition of performance improvisation in Australia. In particular in Melbourne there has been a constant presence in the form of Al Wunder and the Theatre of the Ordinary for the past two decades or so. Conundrum, a monthly improvisation event has just celebrated it’s sixth birthday and there’s a new kid on the scene called Cracking It Open. Rushing for the Sloth, a monthly event in Sydney has been running for more than a year and Hobart has it’s own night called blink. Ryk Goddard and is theatre ltd. are pushing towards an improvisation performance festival through making this practice a core element of the company - not quite a first for a funded company (Born in a Taxi springs to mind) in Australia but clearly trying to strike a new path.
Photo by Carla Gottgens
And, in the true nature of Improvisation an event in July has emerged from a collusion & collision of random organisations. The innaugural Improvisation Festival of Melbourne is scheduled for the first 3 weeks in July.
It seems like an exciting time for improvisation performance and that’s reflected within these pages. So, for the first time in <proximity> history we bring you the ‘events’ edition. After all these events happen we hope you find time to write about your experiences and the processes you engaged with - and then find the time to send ‘em in. Keep on moving...