This Sunday is Valentines day, so why not kick off your mid-week with a lot of laughter and a little bit of love. Tomorrow night, the Cambridge Impronauts are holding a Clickfire! Love Edition online which is streaming live from 8pm GMT. I spoke to Damien to find out all about it!

Hello there tell us a little bit about yourself!

We are The Cambridge Impronauts! We’re an Improv troupe with members from the area: students and locals both! When stage-performance was allowed, we did both short-form games called “Quickfire!” and long-form narrative shows with different themes.

Tell us all about the project that you are bringing to the online world at the moment?

We’ve jumped head-long into on-line performances and training for almost a year, now. This Wednesday, 10 Feb, we’re doing a heart-felt short-form show “Clickfire! – Love Edition”. There will be love, romantic and not. Something for everyone, we hope.  

What times does it run throughout the day?

We’re live-streaming at 8pm GMT, for one night only.

How much does it cost , what platform etc?

The show will be FREE on youTube – hosted by The ADC Theatre. 

They are a wonderful organisation, supporting a huge variety of performance art in Cambridge. Of course they’ve been hit hard by the inability to stage performances. 

How was the project formed?

We have been putting together on-line shows all year. On this occasion, we responded to The ADC Theatre’s request for pitches. Current Troupe Director, Barney Slater, and Shows Officer, Isabella Leandersson are co-directing this show. 

How has it been going so far?

The co-directors have been choosing games and shaping the show to keep the theme present throughout. We’ve put together a superb cast, including people have been performing with the ‘Nauts since 2016 and others who have recently joined after attending our Open Workshops for several months. Our first rehearsal was brilliant fun – that age-old problem in Improv where you wish you could have been live! It’s a good problem to have, though!

How do you rehearse for an online show?

With online rehearsals! We run rehearsals every week to keep our general skills fresh – but for a particular show, we select a cast and prepare together. We make sure we’ve practised the specific games and we tweak them as needed. 

With everything happening in the world at the moment, why is it so important to have activities like yours available?

Creativity is so very valuable. Taking a break from one’s study or work to focus on something different is so beneficial. 

Improv is about listening, empathy, sharing and cooperation. Part of each rehearsal is given to bonding as friends; scenework focuses on those other things. 

Performance adds another dimension – entertaining the audience.

What are three things you have learnt about adapting to Improv online?

1) It is it’s own medium – play to it rather than trying to “make do” without a stage.

2) Learn how to use your software (host/tech and all cast), and make sure everyone knows how the performance will go. It can be slick

3) Think about your gets – there’s a lot of delay in streamed shows which can really drag if you’re not careful.

Even when shows are back in theatres in the future will you be considering doing any more online content? 

Oh yes! It gives a world-wide reach for audiences and participants. It’s also fun.

If people want to find out more about you on social media where shall they visit?

Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as @impronauts.

Finally why should people get invovled?

This is going to be a fun show – lighthearted and warm. The Impronauts can’t wait to meet the Audience in the youTube comments. And, importantly, we need your prompts to create our scenes.