This year in Edinburgh I performed in Mischief Movie Night (for the month) & Showstopper! The Improvised Musical (for the latter half of the month), both at The Pleasance. I have done many an Edfringe in various iterations and I have to say this was my favourite one yet, thanks in no small part to Mischief who are such a lovely company to work for, and live with.
It was sometimes a challenge for my tired brain to do two big, improvised narrative shows in a day, but both were blessed with lovely, warm audiences and I felt very lucky indeed to be improvising alongside such funny, talented people.
One of the things I love most about improvising is the freedom it gives you to play numerous characters. Here are some characters that I can remember playing; Emily Rees-Mog, a Lamp, Mickey Mouse, Mary Berry, the Poet Laureate, a Charity Shop Owner, a Phlebotomist, a Guinea Pig, the High Notes of a Saxophone, a Sherif, a Geeky Schoolgirl, The Blandest Woman in the World, a traffic warden, a step-mother Bumble Bee and of course God.
I also saw lots of great shows such as; Sarah Louise Young’s The Silent Treatment (a beautiful, delicately made one-woman show about voice loss), Christopher Bliss: Captain Word’s Eye (pure non-stop fun), Famous Puppet Death Scenes (pure non-stop very dark puppet comedy!), Love Them to Death by Max Dickens (tense and fascinating two hander play), Ellie MacPherson: Happy Birthday, Mr President! (v entertaining and WOW what a voice!), Fantastically Great Women who Changed the World (I wish when I’d been a twelve year old girl there had been anything with as many upbeat and galvanising female role models in it as this!) and of course my friend’s shows; Film Club, Boris the Third, The Awkward Silence’s Big Break, Starship Improvise, Charlie Russell Aims to Please, and The Mind Mangler. Ooh and let’s not forget Nina Conti who is one of my all time favourite performers.
It was a great month.
But, for balance, on the train home I got a rejection for a stage project and the next day a rejection for a writing project so y’know…..swings and roundabouts. Onwards and upwards!