Dramaturgy Stopper: Adam Megiddo @ Edfringe 2017

The Showstoppers present:

Showstopper! 

The Improvised Musical

The 2016 Olivier Award Winners for 

Best Entertainment & Family Show

Return To Edinburgh For Their 10^th Anniversary Season

2^nd – 27^th August at The Pleasance Grand

Critically acclaimed improvised musical comedy Showstopper! The Improvised Musical returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for a spectacular 10th year. Following their 2016 Olivier Award Winning West End debut at the Apollo Theatre and a celebrated UK tour, The Showstoppers are making 2017 their best year yet, one brand new musical at a time. 

The Showstoppers will create a new production, live on stage each night, at the Pleasance Grand from 2^nd – 27^th August. Tickets on sale Thursday 2^nd February.

What was the inspiration for this performance? 

The late, great Ken Campbell. When I met him in 2005 he had recently returned from Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, where he had seen the Die Nasty improvised soap opera. Ken thought their work was 'better than a lot of scripted stuff’ so he rallied a bunch of us together and we started making-things-up-on-the-spot. 

One of the challenges Ken liked to throw at us was ‘do this scene like it’s from a musical’ and off we went, improvising singing everywhere from The Royal Court Theatre to Shakespeare’s Globe. After a while, we formed our own company and decided to put the hours in, researching musicals, practicing how to improvise them and training together as an ensemble. 

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

Sure. Especially in improvisation where the audience can directly affect the action, even choosing theme and subject matter for the evening.

How did you go about gathering the team for it? 

It started with a few people who had been working with Ken Campbell. Then Dylan Emery (Showstopper! co-creator) added some comedians and improvisers that he knew. We were very lucky that the initial alchemy was so strong and the core of the group is still together, many years later. 

Now we audition people every year or so for a new intake. it takes about three years to learn the skills necessary to perform the show.

How did you become interested in making performance? 

Theatre is in my blood. My parents were dancers and choreographers. Music was my first great love but theatre took hold of me in my teens. I love seeing the spark of an idea develop over months and years until it is finally realised with an audience. 

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

We try to work together as much as we possibly can. Teamwork, trust and familiarity is essential. And we invest a lot of time in studying musicals.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

No it’s nothing like anything I have ever worked on before! There is no blueprint for it. The development of the show (artistically and commercially) is as improvised as the show itself! In traditional script-based theatre you begin with a script, make a plan, and then work for weeks towards a final product. 

In Showstopper! we begin with the finished product being made-up-on-the-spot and then work backwards to the end of the show to discover what it is we have just created. It is the inverse of many artistic processes and endlessly fascinating to work on. 

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

It’s a great night out. Lots of fun. Wild, dangerous, unpredictable and constantly engaging. We are told that people who like musicals love Showstopper! because they get to see a brand new musical forged fresh in the moment every night. And people who don’t like musicals also say they enjoy it because the get to see one deconstructed in front of their eyes. So everyone wins! And it’s funny. Very, very funny.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience? 

Improvisation has a reputation for being a bit knockabout, a little low-rent sometimes. We aim to make Showstopper! look slick and polished, like a fully-rehearsed finished product. This is why many people don’t believe it’s improvised. But I can assure you it is. It’s a show that belongs to its audiences because it is created out of their ideas.

No two nights are ever the same as The Showstoppers take audience suggestions and then spin a comedy musical out of thin air - stories, characters, tunes, lyrics, dances, harmonies and all - with unpredictable and hilarious results. If you’ve thought improv looked difficult before, try doing it in time (and tune) to music! The Showstoppers truly are the masters of musical theatre high-wire.

The Showstoppers have grown since 2008 to become the UK’s most acclaimed and in-demand musical improvisers, becoming a must-see global phenomenon. They now celebrate their 10th Edinburgh Festival Fringe anniversary by returning to their spiritual home at one of the world’s most famous fringe festivals! With a critically acclaimed West End run at the Apollo Theatre and now a residency at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue and an acclaimed BBC Radio 4 series to their name, The Showstoppers have taken their ingenious blend of comedy, musical theatre and spontaneity around the globe, receiving accolades and awards including the Olivier Award for Best Entertainment & Family Show 2016, Chortle Best Character, Improv or Sketch Act 2016, The Times Best of the Fringe, Mervyn Stutter’s Spirit Of The Fringe Award and nominations for MTM Best Production Award and MTM Judges’ Discretionary Award.

The Showstoppers also hosted the recent London Jam at Wilton’s Music Hall, an impressive week-long festival featuring the best in UK and international improv acts, culminating in a thrilling London 50-hour Improvathon. 

The Cast:

The rotating cast features some of the brightest minds at the forefront of the UK improv scene and in the world of comedy and musical theatre. The company includes:

• Co-founder Adam Meggido, an award-winning writer/composer who has improvised at the National, The Royal Court Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and currently holds the world record for the directing the longest impro show - 55 hours without a break. He recently directed Olivier Award Nominated Peter Pan Goes Wrong at the Apollo Theatre (for Mischief Theatre), which was also televised on BBC One 
• Dylan Emery, the other co-founder, has been improvising for more than 15 years – including at the National/Royal Court/Shakespeare’s Globe. He created veteran comedy improv group Grand Theft Impro, and the UK’s premier website devoted to the form thecrunchyfrogcollective.com.
• Pippa Evans is an Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer nominee who has had great success on TV, Radio and stage – she is a regular on BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show and BBC2’s Fast and Loose, performs regularly with the Comedy Store Players and has had many years of success with her hit character act Loretta Maine. She won the Chortle Award for Music & Variety last year and made her debut on BBC Radio 4’s Just A Minute recently, as well as appearing on BBC Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. 
• Ruth Bratt is a writer/performer and Fringe regular for the last 12 years. Radio appearances include Trodd en Bratt Say Well Done You, Sarah Millican’s Support Group, and Best Laid Plans; television appearances includes People Just Do Nothing,  Vic Reeves’ The Ministry of Curious Stuff, Fast & Loose, and Ricky Gervais’ Derek; film includes Wyrdoes. 
• Sarah-Louise Young is an internationally renowned cabaret performer, actress and writer. Named one of Time Out’s Top 10 Cabaret Acts and voted Best Musical Variety Act in the London Cabaret Awards, Sarah-Louise won The Stage award for her work across three shows at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe. She is one half of writing and performing duo Roulston & Young and has guested with Fascinating Aïda.

Dates: 2^nd – 27^th August Show: Showstopper! The Improvised Musical

Venue: Pleasance Courtyard - Grand

Address: 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, Midlothian EH8 9TJ

Time: 6pm (70 mins) 

Price: Previews £10, Early Week £13 (£11) Midweek £15 (£13), Weekend £17 (£14.50)

Box office: www.pleasance.co.uk / www.edfringe.com

Dramaturgy Stops the Strange: Adam Meggido @ Edfringe 2015

See Showstopper! The Improvised Musical at the Pleasance Courtyard: One during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 5th – 30th August.

The Fringe

What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?

Adam Meggido: All my projects in improvisation have started with my love of form. In the case of Showstopper, I am a big fan of a good musical (grew up in a musical household) so it was inevitable, upon discovering improvisation eleven years ago, that I should turn my attention to the question ' can you improvise a musical?'. It turns out, you can. Although if you want to do it really well it takes several years of practice and research. 

My new show - The Society Of Strange - reflects my love of the 'Weird Tale' (spooky short stories). So the starting point is the form or genre I would like to spend some years getting to know better and exploring from the inside.

Why bring your work to Edinburgh?

It's the greatest arts festival in the world. It's hard not to come to Edinburgh with a new project.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?

Showstopper is a great, wild romp of a show. Fast, funny, entertaining, with lots of music and comedy throughout. As much as it is a 'good time' show we hope the audience will puzzle as to how we did it, how we managed as a team to pull off something that seems so absurd and ambitious. I also hope audiences like the fact that we are willing to risk, to try anything and to fail gloriously. They will definitely get a story that looks and feels like a real musical. We are not just an impro night with songs, we are a full story with characters and stories you can care about. 

See The Society of Strange at C Venues: C+3 during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from the 18th – 30th August. 

In the case of The School Of Night: Rhapsodes, we want the audience to engage very closely with everything we are doing, especially our analysis of poetic language. We know Shakespeare intimidates many people so we hope to make it accessible by making it up on the spot! And should you come to see The Society Of Strange we hope you will be spooked and unsettled - if only by the new direction we are taking improvisation in!

The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?

An understanding of dramatic structure is completely essential to all three of these shows. We couldn't tell a 'weird tale' in twenty minutes or complete a satisfying musical narrative in seventy minutes if we hadn't worked hard on dramatic structure. Any improviser working in narrative form has to understand structure. 

Not that you ever master it, it is a lifelong investigation. But if you want to really improvise authentic Shakespeare then you have to know the difference between comedy and tragedy. You can't even pastiche Shakespeare effectively without some understanding of dramaturgy, let alone try to summon it from its roots for real in the moment.


What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?The Society Of Strange owes a great deal to the likes of HP Lovecraft, Neil Gaiman, Algernon Blackwood, Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Machen, Mary Shelly, MR James, David Lynch, Thomas Ligotti and WH Hodgson - to name but a few. I hope we are following in their tradition but exploring it in ways completely new. I'm certainly not aware of anything like this being improvised anywhere in the world at the moment.

As regards the nature of our improvisation, well we are not dogmatic. There are thousands of ways to improvise and we don't subscribe to any one method. We have certainly been influenced by the Die-Nasty players of Edmonton, Canada - mainly because they are less interested in 'the rules of improv' and more interested in actually entertaining people. And boy do they do it well! We love those guys.

Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?

It completely changes. Each new project has a different set of parameters and new forms to wrestle with. Each group is new - each cast, crew, space etc - it changes all the time. The only 'approach' I ever have is to try to start with a blank canvass. It is always very collaborative - although I have found that if one person is finally in charge, things work better.Collaboration under clear leadership is my favoured way of working. (I hope that doesn't sound too much like the German occupation of France in 1940!)

What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
For me, most theatre fails to address its audience. (Not all - most). There is often an indulgence in the artists' processes which excludes the audience. For me, the audience is utterly essential. They craft, shape and create the show with us. It should belong to them. That's why we keep it fresh every night, so a new group of people can create it and own it. 

Many of us in these three shows worked with the great theatre maverick genius Ken Campbell. Ken was all about the audience. He taught us not ignore them and leave them sitting in the dark, hoping they were having a good time. He taught us how to understand and address them. Theatre belongs to its audiences - and so do our shows.

 Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?

I should add that improvisation seldom allows for editing or rewriting. We set ourselves huge challenges in being able to improvise tight dialogue, music or dramatic structure without the luxury of time to reflect and make changes. It makes the process thrilling but we have to work exceptionally hard to stay on top of story and structure in the numerous pressures of the ever-golden-moment.