Hoopla About Us


Home Shows Balham Shows Edinburgh Shows Workshops Thursday Workshops Saturday Workshops Guest Teachers Performance Training Course Education Education Overview Primary Schools Secondary Schools Sixth Forms, Colleges and Universities Other Press and Reviews About Us and Impro Contact Us	About Hoopla Hoopla was founded in January 2006 by Steve Roe and Edgar Fernando, two old school friends who have known each other since they were 4 (how cute). It started as an open drama group designed to fit around everyone's busy work schedules, without the commitment required for reading scripts or regular rehearsals. Very rapidly this became an impro specific group, and the Thursday night drop-in workshop format has proved so successful that it is still going today. In early 2007 Steve and Edgar took some of the dedicated Hoopla fanatics and formed a separate performance team, with performances at The Bedford once a month. A year of great shows built up to a run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the summer of 2008, where Hoopla played to a friendly crowd of boozed up Scots in a Wetherspoons! In 2009 Hoopla ran their first performance training course, for improvisers new to shows, and were met with such enthusiasm that after this they switched to performing once a week in the West End - with a different cast every show. This lead to Hoopla returning to the Edinburgh Fringe in the summer of 2009, this time with two shows a day and an expanded cast of 15. Hoopla have also recently branched out into running weekend workshops with guest teachers, and teaching at schools and Universities. Edgar Fernando Edgar originally acted at the New Wimbledon Attic Theatre with The Carlton Dramatic Society. But after feeling restricted by scripts and more formal drama groups he soon became sucked into impro by Steve, and together they started their first group in Balham. Edgar is now a one man impro game generator, forever inventing new games and formats that don’t appear to happen anywhere else. He has also trained with John Cremer from The Maydays, and Alan Marriott and Dylan Emery at The Crunchy Frog Collective. Last year he also had the pleasure of training with Keith Johnstone. Professionally Edgar works as a legal representive, working closely with Barristers and clients at court and police stations. This man can get you out of jail! His other interests include running and DJing. Steve Roe Steve originally studied improvisation with John Cremer of The Maydays in Brighton. When he moved back to London three years ago he missed the workshops and shows so much that he persuaded his old school friend Edgar to start a similar group in Balham. He has also trained with Sprout Ideas, and Alan Marriott and Dylan Emery at The Crunchy Frog Collective. Last year he also had the pleasure of training with Keith Johnstone, the founding father of modern improvisation. Steve has also been training with Random Acts, a playback theatre company in Brighton, and Jonathan Kay, a Fool from Winchester. Professionally Steve has worked as a Management and IT Consultant with Accenture, a Project Manager with American Express, and more recently has spent the last three years working as TV Researcher and Scriptwriter with a number of independent production companies. His other interests include squash, mountain biking, beans on toast and Muppets. Impro Improvisation (also known as Impro or Improv) is the art of spontaneously acting and reacting to your surroundings in the moment. It offers a chance to relax and drop your defences in a safe and positive environment, to really be yourself on stage. In the theatre this usually takes the form of actors taking suggestions from the audience and turning them into totally spontaneous and unrehearsed scenes, games and sketches. The result of improvisation is sometimes serious, but usually comic. It's important to make clear that actors don't have to be clever or funny, which seems counter-intuitive when compared to the result. It is more important to be present in the moment and to listen to the other actors, so that the comedy and entertainment almost happens by accident. People don't have to be 'taught' to improvise, but they do have to be taught to let themselves improvise on stage. We improvise all the time in real life; we don't plan every conversation and interaction that is going to happen to us over the day. Many of the best bits of life are totally spontaneous, and this is what we try to recreate on stage. If you meet an old friend who makes you laugh, you don't have to try to smile - you just do it without thinking. Our foundations of impro are really only based on four concepts; listen, say yes, commit and be altered. From these all manner of weird and exciting things can happen from just the simplest of suggestions: Listen:* listening and seeing others on stage instead of listening to your own self-consciousness or trying to plan in advance. Say Yes: accepting the ideas and offers of other actors and letting things happen. Commit: going for it, going for the first idea, the worst idea, the most obvious idea and letting yourself be free. Be Altered: letting yourself be emotionally and physically changed by the other actors. The most famous example of improvisation is probably the TV Show "Whose line is it anyway?" and you will probably recognise a few of their games at our workshops and shows, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of different games and techniques and it's exciting to explore as many as of these as possible. The final and most important concept is HOOPLA, but to find out what that is you will have to turn up! * We're eternally grateful to impro gurus John Cremer (from The Maydays in Brighton), The Crunchy Frog Collective, and Keith Johnstone for teaching us all this and for opening to the door to the wonderful world of impro. Books If you want to improvise you really have to come along to a workshop and, err, improvise. But the boring 'life bits' inbetween those moments can be made a bit more interesting by reading about impro instead: Impro for Storytellers, Keith Johnstone, Ł14.99 Don't let the name put you off. I know the word "storytellers" conjures up weird images of odd people in purple coats turning up at your primary school but this is the standard text for most impro groups and has a large amount of fantastic games. Buy this book! Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre, Keith Johnstone, Ł9.99 A great impro theory book that also touches on philosophy, education and mask work, but it lacks the easy to follow game descriptions found in "Impro for Storytellers". A lot of people make the mistake of only buying this book and not Impro for Storytellers, so make sure you buy both! Truth in Comedy: Manual of Improvisation, Mike Myers (Foreword), Charna Halpern, Del Close and Kim Johnson, Ł15.50 The secret to comedy stars like Mike Myers, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi? Impro! Especially long form impro, described in this book. It's a good introductory text but the only real way to learn is to watch a group, join a group and then give it a go. We'd really like to do more long form in our group but there isn't much going on at the moment. It's worth checking out the Maydays in Brighton though as they seem to be developing a long form addiction. The Art of Chicago Improv: Short Cuts to Long-Form Improvisation, Rob Kozlowski, Ł11.98 This book annoyed me at first as I thought it was going to be a well written guide to how to do long-form, but it isn't. It is more of a historical book on the birth and growth of impro in Chicago, but at least it is good and very detailled at doing that. It is useful as an overview on what is going on and for helping steer the direction of a group. Other Groups The Impro Jam, London and Edinburgh Festival, improjam.co.uk "The Karaoke of Comedy", The Impro Jam is a great show where some lucky audience volunteers can join part of the performance for the evening and improvise with the guest troupe. It's a cool idea, and a great way of getting some performance experience and stretching your impro muscles with some new people. The Maydays, Brighton, mayday.uk.net Steve's first ever impro workshop was with John Cremer of the Maydays in Brighton, and he loved it so much that it's gradually taken over his whole life. We still try and get down to Brighton as much as possible for workshops and shows. As always, thanks loads to John for getting us into all this. The Crunchy Frog Collective, London, thecrunchyfrogcollective.com This was originally set up by Alan Marriott and is now run by Dylan Emery since Alan went back to Canada. Dylan is great - there is nothing this guy doesn't know about impro! They are especially good at teaching narrative and stage directions. The proof is in the pudding, as Dylan's show "Showstoppers - The Improvised Musical" has to be seen to be believed, it's fantastic. Sprout Ideas, London, sproutideas.co.uk Steve did his first ever show with Sprout Ideas and really enjoyed it. They are a friendly supportive bunch, especially good with working with complete begineers or people new to shows. They also now do a cool weekend singing workshop which is probably the best introduction to impro singing. Jonathan Kay, All over UK, jonathankay.co.uk Jonathan Kay is Steve's current love. He calls himself a Fool and performs completly mad one man impro shows. His workshops are really emotionally deep and get you to some weird places - I really don't know anyone else like him. Random Acts, Brighton, randomacts.freeuk.com Random Acts are a Playback Theatre company, a form which draws on the traditional use of story telling in groups. The Director gets more complete stories from the audience, instead of the single suggestions found in impro, and the actors play it back to them. It is more likely to take on a serious or emotional tone than normal impro, and can be regarded as a form of drama therapy.