improvised opera course
Learn how to improvise opera with Niall Ashdown and Anthony Ingle from Impropera, the world’s first improvised opera company!
Niall is a regular performer with The Comedy Store Players and a original cast member of Whose Line is it Anyway!
Anthony is the Musical Director for Impropera the improvised opera and director for music at LAMDA.
Impropera have hugely successful improvised opera shows in London’s West End, at the Edinburgh Fringe and across Europe. The company have an international reputation for their unique mix of virtuoso musicianship, agile wit and ingenious storytelling.
You don’t need any previous improvised singing experience to do this course, but if you are totally new to improv in general it’s best to start with our beginners improv course.
dates, time, location
Dates: Every Tuesday for 6 weeks from Tuesday 25th February 2020. BOOK NOW
Time: 7pm – 9:30pm each week.
Price: £200. Either payable all at once or £100 at time of booking and £100 when the course starts.
Teacher: Niall Ashdown and Anthony Ingle.
Workshop Location: KCBC, Vernon Square, King’s Cross, London, WC1X 9EW.
Tube: King’s Cross.
You don’t need any previous improvised singing experience to do this course, but if you are totally new to improv in general it’s best to start with our beginners improv course.
Niall Ashdown
Niall is one of the UK’s finest improvisers and a regular performer with The Comedy Store Players and original cast member of Whose Line is it Anyway!
He is the baritone singer and improviser in Impropera the improvised opera.
He has worked with a wide range of improvising companies including Impropera, Paul Merton’s Impro Chums, Improbable’s Lifegame and The Suggestibles. He has also performed a story-telling and sketch show with improvising quintet Between the Notes led by cellist Matthew Barley.
He has co-devised and performed with some of the UK’s most innovative theatre companies including Improbable, Cartoon de Salvo, Punchdrunk and Told By An Idiot.
Niall has also performed two solo shows Hungarian Bird Festival and The Man Who Would Be Sting both of which were made into radio plays for the BBC, and has appeared at the Young Vic in Annie Get Your Gun and Public Enemy.
He has appeared many times on television comedies including Outnumbered (BBC1), Drop the Dead Donkey (Channel 4), Parents and Whose Line Is It Anyway (Channel 4).
On radio he has written and performed two series of Losers for BBC Radio 4.
He has a written songs for radio plays and stage shows, poetry for Radio 3’s The Verb, and maintains a devout hope that alter ego Robbo Robson will become blogger of the year one day.
Anthony Ingle
Anthony is the Musical Director for Impropera the improvised opera.
Anthony started improvising on the piano at the age of three, and learning to play it properly two years later; parts of the latter process involved a music degree from Cambridge and postgraduate work at the London Opera Centre.
He has been director of music for productions at LAMDA for many years, and since 2001, the Musical Director of Opera Circus.
Anthony has written original scores for over sixty musico-theatrical productions (notable: ‘Nana’, Almeida 1987/Mermaid ’88; ‘The Invisible Man’, Stratford East 1991; ‘A Working Woman’, West Yorkshire Playhouse 1992; ‘Misalliance’, Clwyd 1997), and directed the music for as many others, in particular the recent spectacularly successful production by Tête à Tête (NB, an opera company) of ‘Salad Days’.
More recently still, he has decided to return to the world of Properopera and is now Musical Director of Opera A La Carte.
faqs
Who is this suitable for?
People with previous improv or singing experience who want to learn about improvising operas.
How much improv should I have done before doing this course?
You should be used to doing improv in a workshop or on stage. This course is not suitable for people totally new to improv.
Is there a show at the end?
No. But we do have various performance opportunities should you want to form a group from the course and put on something.
What comes after this course?
We have a variety of other advanced improv courses that would be suitable and help you get different inspirations and experience the full wondrous word of improv!
What if I’m running late?
We’ll be starting each session at 7pm. This is an advanced course and we’re trying to form a team, so please don’t book this course if you are likely to be late on a regular basis.
What’s the class size?
Our workshops are usually around 14 people.
Can I pay by instalments?
Yes. You can pay half at time of booking and half once the course starts, please see details at top of page.
Do I have to know anything opera to do this course?
No.
How often will you be running this course?
Not that often, about once a year at the most, as the teachers are busy with other projects.