What: An hour and a half of fearlessly inventive, exciting and funny sketches and songs, all made up on the spot, all inspired by audience suggestions.
When: Every Thursday from January 26th to March 29th 2012
What Time: 8:30pm -10:15pm (doors open 8:15pm)
Where: Upstairs at The Wheatsheaf, 25 Rathbone Place, London W1T 1JB.
Five minutes walk from Tottenham court road or Goodge Street tubes.
How Much: £7
Bookings: e-mail tickets@grandtheftimpro.com or phone 020 7580 1585 to book - give a name, a date and a number of tickets. You must show up by 8pm on the night to pick up the tickets.
Photographs by Rob Rackstraw
For more on improvisation in the UK, go to The Crunchy Frog Collective website
The Cast
GTI members
Dylan Emery has been performing, teaching and directing impro for almost 10 years. He has performed at The National Theatre, The Royal Court, the Bristol Old Vic, Latitude Festival and many times at the Edinburgh Fringe; he has also performed for BBC Radio 1 and 7 and hosted the Radio 4 series of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical .
He co-founded Grand Theft Impro, Showstopper and is a member of ‘hard-bardics’ improvisers The School of Night. He primarily trained under Alan Marriot and Ken Campbell.
Phil Whelans has done impro in Toronto, Seattle, San Franciso, New York, Glasgow, Edinburgh... but mostly in London: Theatresports at the Donmar Warehouse, Court in the Act and Eddie Izzard's Impro MD. Phil was invited to improvise at 2001's Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival (CBCTV) and made Impro pilots "Gibberish" for Celador TV and "Altered Egos" for Radio 4.
Phil's TV performing credits include Stupid (BBC1), The Jack Docherty Show (Ch5), Preston Front, Punt and Dennis (BBC), Jo Brand through the Cakehole, Brasseye, and The Lost Chord with Bill Bailey (Ch4). His writing includes The 11 O'Clock Show, The Big Breakfast, 2DTV, Armstrong and Miller, The Live Floor Show, Velvet Soup, TV to Go, The Now Show, The Jason Byrne Show and his own radio sitcom, My First Planet - which Cariad's in too.
Cariad Lloyd is a highly experienced improviser, performer and comedy writer. Her one-woman show 'Lady Cariad's Characters' was shortlisted for Best Newcomer at the 2011 Edinburgh Comedy Awards. She founded the impro group 'The Institute' and regularly appears in The Sticking Place's 50-hour annual Improvathon - and has hopped across to Canada to be in the original one of that form created by Die-Nasty in Edmonton.
She has guested with Ken Campbell's School of Night on improvised bardics, Showstopper! The improvised musical, Scratch and Scatpack. She is also a member of Austentatious: an improvised Jane Austen Novel.
Jan 26
Cast: Phil Whelans, Dylan Emery, Paul Foxcroft, Briony Redman.
Lighting: Chris Mead
Music: Sam Cable
Feb 02
Cast: Cariad Lloyd, Phil Whelans, Charlotte Gittins, Brian Robel
Lighting: Roderick Millar
Feb 09
Cast: Phil Whelans, Cariad Lloyd, Dylan Emery, Pippa Evans
Lighting: Peter Silk
Feb 16
Cast: Dylan Emery, Phil Whelans, Cariad Lloyd, Niall Ashdown
Lighting:
Feb 23
Cast: Jacob Banigan, Dylan Emery, Phil Whelans
Lighting:
March 01
Cast: Dylan Emery, Phil Whelans, Niall Ashdown
Lighting:
March 08
Cast: Dylan Emery, Phil Whelans, Phil Pellew, Ruth Bratt
Lighting:
March 15
Cast: Phil Whelans, Cariad Lloyd, Niall Ashdown
Lighting:
March 22
Cast: Dylan Emery, Phil Whelans, Cariad Lloyd, Pippa Evans
Lighting:
March 29
Cast: Phil Whelans, Dylan Emery, Cariad Lloyd
Lighting: