Presidential Pronouncement - Premium Performance Places
William Shakespeare famously wrote “All the worId’s a stage.” While he was being metaphorical, if you use enough imagination almost any space can be co-opted into a performance venue. Throughout its 20 year history as Brisbane’s best known improvisation company, Improv QLD performers have been fortunate to strut their stuff on many stages in countless venues both in Australia and internationally. In honour of our upcoming show at the Brisbane Powerhouse as part of the Brisbane Comedy Festival, we asked Improv QLD president Wade to tell us about his favourite places to have performed improv. So presented in no particular order are seven of Wade’s favourite performance venues.
Pictured - Wade in his regular, everyday clothes.
Underground Theatre - Brisbane Powerhouse
We know we said that this list was in no particular order, but Wade says that the Underground Theatre at the Brisbane Powerhouse is his absolute favourite performance space. In Wade’s own words “this has to be one of the best venues for improv I have ever encountered. It has a beautiful thrust stage and an intimate connection with the audience. Plus amazing heritage listed graffiti back stage.” Improv QLD’s upcoming Theatresports Grand Championships will be performed here, so why not buy a ticket so you can find out why Wade is frothing at the mouth to perform here.
La Boite Theatre
The La Boite Theatre is Brisbane’s famous in-the-round theatre (which means the performers are completely surrounded by the audience!). Wade says that “we were invited to perform in some shows at La Boite for the old Burbrook Cup theatresports competition. La Boite is the spiritual home of theatresports and improv in Brisbane and there is something both devilishly difficult but wonderful about performing improv in the round.”
Townsville
Wade is from Townsville, so he might be slightly biased towards this entry. He considers one of the best venues to be the Townsville located North Australian Festival of Arts. As explained by Wade “overlooked by Castle Hill and overlooking Magnetic Island, it is one of the prettiest fringe festivals I have attended. Plus there were really friendly crowds and we ended up in a local political cartoon!”
Brisbane City Hall
Improv QLD have performed several comedy festival shows in Brisbane City Hall. According to Wade “a chandelier and columns has a way of really classing up a show.”
Spring Hill Reservoir
The Spring Hill Reservoir is one of Brisbane’s most unique performance spaces. Located underground and behind the famous Spring Hill windmill, Wade likes it because “it's a dark atmospheric space which floods in the rain.”
Brisbane Tram Museum
Perhaps an usual choice, but Wade really liked performing a show at the Brisbane Tram Museum as part of the Anywhere Theatre Festival. Says Wade “the show was performed in situ on a historical tram at the Brisbane tram museum. A great show in a really unusual theatre space.”
O’Malley’s Pub
In the heady early days of Improv QLD, most of the company’s performances were in pubs and bars around Brisbane. O'Malley's (which sadly is now gone) hosted the weekly pub show. In Wade’s words “it was tough and tumble sometimes, particularly when the English soccer was on, but it was intimate space that taught us a lot about performing.”
Come See Us Perform
Given we’ve had Wade list a number of performance venues, it would be remiss of us to not mention Backdock Arts, the current host of Improv QLD’s monthly show, Sunday Funday. Backdock Arts is an intimate venue which fosters a great relationship between our performers and the audience. Tickets to our next Sunday Funday show on 2 June 2024 can be purchased here.