The Spontaneity Shop: Performance and training Improvisation company
Home > About > Q And A > Alex Maclaren
- How long have you worked with The Spontaneity Shop?
- Since 2000. Our friendship will always be as old as the millennium.
- Why do you love improvising?
- Cause it's a bit DANGEROUS. Like me - Grrr.
- What's your favourite improv memory?
- Mel and Deborah arresting and physically carrying from the stage a chauvinist doctor at the Chigaco Improv Festival.
- You're also an actor. What are your favourite ever acting jobs?
- I loved doing the villain in the Chipping Norton panto one Christmas - and Jana and I once had a hilarious week shooting a commercial in Paris. Lot of beer, lot of moules-frites, lot of Gauloises, incoherent ramblings in Franglais...
- You've worked a lot for The Tobacco Factory in Bristol. Tell us about them.
- They are a company doing large-cast Shakespeare performances in an intimate space - quite highly regarded critically, and we transferred our 2004 season to the Barbican. They operate on a shoestring, however, and if you want to see them continue their work make a donation to the fund to keep them open! Their website is www.sattf.org.uk and their next season will be Much Ado and Othello in Feb-April. Their director is Andrew Hilton.
- You recently made a short film. What was that like and where can we buy it?
- It's called One Day and the creators are Cameron Fitch and Ed Sinclair. South of the River films are holding a showing of this and their two follow-ups Unbroken and Cat Food - A Tragedy in Soho in December. Watch this space.
- You've started working at the hot and happening Spontaneity Shop office in sunny Camden. What do you do?
- I am building a list of corporate clients, running workshops, training, performing and helping keep the business ticking over. This winter is looking really busy on the corporate side - we use the insights of improvisation to help people be more effective at work.
- What's your maxim for life?
- When shall we live, if not now? Seneca, you know.
- How many degrees of separation are you from Kevin Bacon?
- Two. Do I win?
- Anything else we should know about you?
- Yes. I am a food nut, but have slightly high cholesterol. You know how each man kills the thing he loves? Well in my case the thing I love is killing me - namely goose fat.
- Would you rather accept an Oscar or wield a light saber?
- Accept an Oscar - it would be a bigger challenge. Lightsaber work is easy.
