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In 1985 I did a ten day workshop with Keith Johnstone in Dorset. That is how I started doing Impro and my work hasn't been the same since. On the last day Keith showed us the format of a show he was creating and performing in Calgary at his theatre, Loose Moose. It was called "The Lifegame". I still remember the scenes we improvised based on an interview with one of the students. As Keith says, "Good impro can make you laugh, we love it, but soon the content is forgotten. Good scenes from the Lifegame stay with you always. They haunt you." I was convinced that the Lifegame contained the seed of a new type of theatre. After the workshop I decided that I wanted to do the Lifegame in England. I am thrilled that we finally have the opportunity.
LIFEGAME was originally called "How it was". It has a very simple central idea. To talk to someone about their life, improvise scenes based on the stories they tell, find out "How it was" and maybe as we are watching remember how it was for us.
At the beginning of rehearsal we spent five days working with Keith. He has tried to tell us some of the things he has learnt whilst trying to complete the format of LIFEGAME. Keith says that it is an unfinished form, he still does not know how to do it. Nor do we. But with your help perhaps we can create a new sort of theatre together as we try to find out "How it was". No two nights will be the same as each show will be about a different person's life; their memories, experiences and perhaps sometimes about their dreams and aspirations. At the time of writing we are two weeks into rehearsal. We are already excited about the things we have discovered: the joy of someone remembering something before our eyes perhaps for the first time in years. The thrill of storytelling in a theatrical space charged with both the mystery of the unknown and a curiosity and desire to know about each other. However, this still feels like the beginning of an exciting journey and as with all Improbable shows, we will only really begin to know what this show is like when you the audience turn up and see the show.
As Keith said to us:
"If theatre did not exist then perhaps this would be a good place to start if we wanted to invent it from scratch."
Phelim McDermott March 1998
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