Theatresports: National Championship

A stage full of actors with no script, no idea of what's going to happen or where the show is going: welcome to the wonderful world of competitive improv! This year Sydney plays host again to teams from Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra and defending champions Brisbane. Each team consists of the two fittest improvisers from their respective states, with each pair competing for the national title. Although there are set teams, it's not unusual for all the actors to collaborate in a scene.

Director of the show and veteran theatre athlete, Marko Mustac says the contest is not “cut-throat”. “Well, it's a kind of contest. The competitive side for the audience is pretty exciting, but for the players, it's really a whole cast working together. They are in teams playing for the glory of winning, but it's not exactly the most serious competition; it's a lot of fun and often the players swap teams and play amongst each other.”

The Theatre Sports National Championships are held in Sydney every year where the sport started up in Australia during the mid-'80s at the Belvoir Theatre. It was at this time that Mustac took up Theatresports and hasn't stopped since. He recalls an unforgettable performance when he and a cast of eight stripped the stage of everything including the carpet, throwing it across the stage as they mimed being in an Antarctic blizzard. “Everybody went insane for a whole five minutes and the audience just howled with laughter the whole time. And I'll always remember it as being one of the craziest things I've ever been involved with on stage.” Mustac admits it's that element of the unexpected and the unknown that makes Theatresports exciting to watch. “It's exciting stuff that really happens in the moment and that's what really makes it all worthwhile. I think that's why Theatresports works, not so much that it's competitive, but, it's like watching a sport where it's happening in the moment live.”

This year promises to be a tight contest with a resurgence of new young talent emerging such as the NSW team made up by Tom Walker and Bridie Connell, aka MotherFather, among many others. “We've got the best improvisers and comedians from all over the country, and it's terrific how good the performers are,” says Mustac. Think Thank God You're Here and Whose Line Is It Anyway? and get ready to take a journey with some of the best actors in Australia into the unknown abyss of improv.