I went to most of Protea Impro’s “Dark Impro” festival in September 2025. It was organised by Matt Wilson, Rowan Harris and Milla Chaffer as nine days of workshops and shows. The three of them had clearly put a heap of work into creating something special for Hobart to enjoy. I know Protea are working on building the presence and awareness of improvisation theatre in Hobart and Tasmania, and this festival was a wonderful contribution to that.
We had excellent teachers come from interstate and New Zealand. Each brought their own style of impro to teach us. Most days had two workshops on in the Peacock Theatre, Salamanca. In the evenings there were several performances. Some were cast from the workshops. Others were guest performers bringing their own show, or people who had been specifically invited from the ensemble.
I loved all the workshops I went to! Three I’d like to mention as especially fun are:
Whiplash with Jason Geary and Jaron Why. This was a really unique impro where Jaron provided drumbeats for us to find the physical attributes of a character. We were then able to build the character from the physicalisation we had found. I’m used to having a musician improvise in response or as background to what the actors are providing. It was really fun to have the actors improvise based on the music instead.
The Sneaky Improviser with Jim Fishwick. Jim shared techniques for us to bring information into our scenes, which we want the audience to know – without just boringly blurting it out. There were some really interesting techniques in there to add to my toolbox.
Wizards in the Supermarket with Malcom Morris. This one was just so much fun! We took fantastical characters such as wizards, aliens, robots and asked – what do they buy in the supermarket? How do they clip their toenails? What is their coffee order? And other very human questions.
Although it was a heap of fun, I am not used to making theatre at this level of intensity – going to several workshops in a day, then several shows at night. I found it tiring, more so than I expected. I feel with more regular practice I would get used to it though.
There was also something really wonderful about doing impro hour after hour and day upon day. Around day three I noticed significant loosening up in my imagination and ability to be present. I felt more playful, light, happy and free. It makes me want to be in an environment where I can improvise more frequently. If I lived in a bigger city like Melbourne or Brisbane, I would likely join several impro groups so I could rehearse multiple times a week.
During Dark Impro, I performed twice. Once was in theatresports on Friday night, where we had a 15-person cast. It was a huge, great energy and lots of fun with a sold-out house. Our team captains were Ryk Goddard, Jason Geary and Jaron Why. The audience was so excited and wonderful, as were all the amazing performers!
My second performance was in “Pears”, a new format devised by Matt Wilson. Audience members picked names of performers out of a bowl (written on cardboard pears) and the two people (i.e. the “pair) picked out had to improvise a 7-minute scene together. This was my first time improvising something so long, and I was a bit nervous – yet really proud of myself once I’d done it! I was also paired with the lovely Jeff Michel, who is a super-supportive and generous performer, which felt great. We played a father and daughter who were robbing the local McDonalds to raise money for Dad’s divorce – then the plan goes wrong when they figure out Mum is also working at McDonalds. It was silly and big and I loved it!
I also got to see lots of amazing performance during Dark Impro. It was great watching some of the Protea cast play in a school of mystery and intrigue, “Our Place” and multiple iterations of The Lighthouse. It made me excited for more impro and to keep developing my skills.
Can’t wait for next year!!
