Performing live improv comedy is hard; adding improvised songs to the show is even harder.
What happens when another huge challenge is thrown into the mix? North Shore audiences can find out on Sept. 25, when Will Shakespeare's
Improv Musical plays for one performance as part of Lynn Valley's successful Friday Night Live series.
"Improvising a musical is one of the most difficult things a theatre company can do," says Alan Marriott, who does double duty as improv performer and Friday Night Live artistic director. "Why not up the ante by making it a Shakespearean musical? All of us at Friday Night Live love the Bard, and it's great fun to create a show on the spot that focuses on his works."
While the show will feature Shakespearean language, themes, and characters, all other aspects of the night's performance are the result of taking suggestions from the audience at the beginning of the evening. "We have no clue before we start what song is going to come out," Marriott says.
"We don't have pre-rehearsed or pre-written lyrics, melodies, chord structures, plots or lines. It gets a bit wild but that's what makes it fresh and funny."
