| As the lazy days of summer creep up on Calgary’s theatre scene, it’s important to remember that, nestled in their new digs in Ramsay’s Crossroads Market, Calgary’s oldest improv troupe is still creating new work nightly.
And yet, while Loose Moose, the infamous co-creation of improv legend Keith Johnstone and Mel Token, has certainly eked out its niche in the world of the spontaneous and original, this summer sees the return of two familiar Moose shows – namely, More or Less and a sketch program titled Human MisBehavior.
More or Less, which asks Loose Moose performers to create long-form work that is either accepted by the audience (more) or stopped cold (less) to allow another performer to direct, first ran in the Moose’s former home of the Garry Theatre in an abbreviated form. Its current incarnation runs for two hours and usually offers a 25-to 35-minute play within the show’s total time.
The second summertime addition, Human MisBehavior, returns sketch comedy to the Moose’s repertoire after a long hiatus, with Ken Gardiner, Rob Mitchelson, Melissa Northan, Gavin Williams, Jamie Northan and the mask stylings of Steve Jarand.
"I think it was because we were down for three years and we all kind of had notebooks of ideas in our heads because we weren’t able to be onstage," says performer and producer Northan. "And then when the new space opened we realized how many options we had, so we pulled together a sketch show."
Long fuelled by young and ambitious performers who believed they had the comic chops to take centre stage, the spirit of experimentation has always been an important part of Loose Moose. Though the program represents the first time sketch comedy has been performed on the Moose’s new stage, the company itself has a long tradition of sketch comedy shows that has included Kids in the Hall alumni Bruce McCullough and Mark McKinney, as well as One Yellow Rabbit’s Andy Curtis.
"You take a chance, that they have the enthusiasm and the talent to carry it off," says Loose Moose artistic director Dennis Cahill. "If someone comes up with an idea that sounds worth doing, we’ll give it a try, no matter what it is."
Cahill himself is, in no small way, a product of the kind of creative progression that Loose Moose affords its volunteers. Part of co-founder Johnstone’s original group, culled from his theatre classes at the University of Calgary and one of the performers in the group’s first-ever show at the Alberta College of Art and Design, Cahill worked his way up from janitor, to associate director and associate artistic director before being handed the reins of the nearly 20-year-old improv institution. The company has begun systematic volunteer training again for the first time in nearly three years.
"It’s because we didn’t have our own theatre," says Cahill, alluding to the rental dispute with the owners of their former space in the Garry Theatre, which left them homeless. "The volunteer program was really on hiatus. We were taking in a few new people, but not to the extent we can now."
Essentially an exchange of volunteer services for improvisation training – a commodity Loose Moose exports annually to theatre artists from around the world via their International Improvisation School – the volunteer program aims to attract the new blood necessary to create the kind of new work that has kept the company fresh. But, even as the company stresses the importance of its training program, Cahill points out that, in the end, it is onstage where Loose Moose performers ultimately prove their mettle.
"At some point, all the training in the world doesn’t make up for putting you in front of the audience," he says. |
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