Very often in improv we perform in studio theatre stages, with just the front of the stage open to the audience, with the performers enclosed on the other three sides. It’s not the only kind of performance space though, arena stages and theatres in the round place the audience all the way round the performance. This type of stage can create quite an intimate atmosphere, and it changes a lot of how we think about playing to that audience, and how you can manage not to turn your back on them! It’s good for dramatic effect, but for theatre in the round some part of the audience is always at your back.
Keeping every member of that audience engaged will require new choices about whether to remain static or occupy the stage in different ways. In a nutshell, we will be staging the room with chairs in a 360 degree environment for two, three and (maybe) four person open scenes.
This workshop is suitable for beginners.
