This year’s Wagga Comedy Fest has not forgotten the younger members of the comedy brigade. There are a couple of events that are suitable for the whole family: Completely Improvised Potter and Trash Test Dummies.
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Completely Improvised Potter solemnly swear they are up to no good as they invent hilarious new Harry Potter adventures before your very eyes. Using only an audience suggested title, drawn from the goblet of fire, of what could’ve been a Potter book (but wasn’t), Completely Improvised Potter will show you a year at Hogwarts like you’ve never seen before!
This show enjoyed sold out seasons at Perth Fringe World and Melbourne International Comedy Festival and features members of Melbourne’s premiere Improv companies – The Big HOO-HAA!, Improv Conspiracy, as well as graduates of Chicago’s iO Theatre.
Completely Improvised Potter director Andrew Strano is also an ex-Wagga local getting ready to soar on the international stage.
Andrew started his theatrical career in Wagga Wagga, doing drama classes with Scott Howie and Mark Grentell at R.Y.P.T. out in the North Wagga Town Hall, then coming up through the KHS drama department under Peter Cox. Les Mis at the Civic Theatre was his real starting point though, with performances at the amphitheatre, Civic Theatre and the Riverina Playhouse that followed.
Andrew has gone on to study and work with the best improvisers in the world. He has worked with Chicago's iO theatre, performed and taught all over the world (including Wellington, London and Edinburgh). He's directed Completely Improvised Shakespeare, Improvised Love Actually, Improvised Downton Abbey, and taught and performed for all of Melbourne's improv theatres. He even teaches for NIDA - after first doing classes with them on the Civic Theatre stage!
Andrew’s Master's in writing for performance at the VCA, won a green room award for Best Original Songs, and he just found out he's been accepted to the New York University graduate musical theatre writing program.
Wagga Wagga to Melbourne to London to Chicago to New York... It's like those tea towels in the Tourist Info Centre are coming true.
If you attend the early session of Completely Improvised Potter you might like to linger at the Winter Markets. Stall holders will be offering delicious food options from 5pm. The Trash Test Dummies will perform a free comedy show outside the Theatre from 6:30pm.
Jamie Bretman, Jack Coleman and Simon Wright are highly skilled circus performers that can trash talk with the best of them. These dexterous dummies take the audience on a journey into their playful imagination, where they invite them to take a fresh look at the humble household wheelie bin.