Play in the Moment Claqueur in Performance
Throughout the Pandemic lockdown Claqueur Performers met three times a week to develop 'Play in the Moment' which calls on all their skills as improvisers to react moment by moment. Both styles are dependent on ‘playing in the moment’. with no forward planning. In effect this puts the performers in the same place as the audience, the story unravels behind them when they ask "what just happened?" as opposed to the general impro rule of asking "what happens next? It's improvisation with no rules rather principles. It's the purest form of improvisation, it's like stepping into a play that somehow already exists and discovering rather than inventing who we are playing. We can't tell the audience whether we are stepping into a drama or a comedy, whether it will be dark or light, we will discover that in the same moment as the audience. For us it feels thrilling, dangerous and liberating. We are testing it out with a series of previews on the last Tuesday of every month 7.30pm at the Rusthall Club. You are welcome to come and take risk with us. So far we have been getting great feedback. It's a continuing journey
Workshops
Jon Oram leads regular Monday night beginners and intermediate improvisation workshops at the Rusthall Club, St Paul's Street, Rusthall, near Tunbridge Wells. Claqueur performers practice every Tuesday evening at the club and on Thursday afternoons at The Rackcliffe Centre, Rusthall Parish Council office. It's great to be back live after two years working on zoom through the pandemic.
Devising through Improvisation
Between September 2019 and July 2021 Claqueur Impro worked with their mother company Claque Theatre on a devising Legend of the Rocks the company's first devised community play. We then worked through lockdown on a second involving a greater reliance on improvisation, spontaneously playing out scenes and ides suggested by a participating audience or based on their research and Empty Gallery conversations. You can read about both project Legend of the Rocks I The Heroes Journey, and follow their journey along Legends of the Rocks II, The Happy Highway on Claque's Community Play Website.
