Tiny life slices _{by Madelaine Empson}

For Ali Little of Wellington Improvisation Troupe (WIT), the joy of improv lies in the spontaneous back-and-forth of building a whimsical story with a stage partner that, although likely bonkers, can still have a glimmer of truth that makes the audience laugh in recognition.

“Some performers are brilliant physical comedians, others can twist words or music into amazing new shapes, some play reality in a way that exposes everyday ridiculousness; all have a place in improv”, Little says.

WIT is a member-based community theatre group and registered charity that has been teaching and performing the artform in the capital since 2003. Perhaps unsurprisingly, some rather memorable things have happened on stage during that time. In fact, Little’s husband once got so carried away pretending to be Captain Kirk during a show, he quite literally tore off his shirt.

“It was a little awkward when we all went out to dinner afterwards.”

With improv being such a flexible kind of theatre, Little says WIT has “performed on all kinds of odd stages, from a cathedral through to a sports pub that kept all their screens on the whole time we did the show”.

The next ‘odd stage’ will be Thistle Hall on Friday the 10^th of April, where Little will direct Elsewhere in the Building. The show employs a friendly improv format that occurs in different places within an overarching location suggested by the audience, creating a world of multiple scenes.

“It’s loosely based on an American format called Close Quarters from the late 1990s, which none of us have seen. This was the basis for a movie of the same name, also which none of us has ever seen. So, ‘loosely based’ is stretching it.”

Also incorporating elements from the likes of La Ronde and The Map Game, Elsewhere in the Building will show audiences “tiny slices from lives lived in different parts of a space”.

Little hopes the characters created will “tell their stories in a way that lingers and makes the audience speculate about what happened next for them” while also rousing many a belly laugh.