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 a weekly open drama group for their friends designed to fit around everyone's busy work schedules, without the commitment required for reading scripts or regular rehearsals, and without breaking the bank.

Very rapidly this became an impro specific group, and the Thursday night drop-in improv 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 in Balham 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 at The Round Table - 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 16.

After a brief rest and a couple more shows at The Bedford, Hoopla returned to weekly shows at The Black Horse in Rathbone Place, and this time with different formats and guest groups getting involved to help expand the impro community.

In the Autumn of 2010 these weekly shows moved to The Miller in London Bridge, and proved so popular that they expanded to Tuesdays and Wednesdays in 2011. The name ‘Hoopla’ was also dropped as a performance group name in order to grow a clear distinction between different styles of shows and grow new performing groups.  

Hoopla’s workshops also expanded in 2010 to include additional weekend workshops, guest teachers, corporate workshops and Universities.

Hoopla also expanded to include stand up comedy nights, cabaret evenings and production of various different shows.

In 2011 Steve Roe from Hoopla also became the producer for Music Box the Improvised Musical, which was awarded 5 stars at The Brighton Fringe and 5 stars at The Edinburgh Fringe.

Hoopla are currently seeking to set up improvisation workshops outside of London in order to expand the improv community around the UK.

Hoopla are also working towards establishing the UK’s first improv theatre.

Hoopla’s 1st show, The Bedford, Balham, 2006