ZEIG – Zoom Experimental Improvisation Group
During the second lockdown, Marcus started ZEIG (Zoom Experimental Improvisation Group) with a group of actors and writers, exploring long-form improvisation stories via Zoom.
As Marcus says: “Having spent many years improvising with Chris Johnson’s group Fluxx, I was keen to explore how this could work over Zoom, as so many of our relationships, meetings, conversations and in fact life had suddenly, and overnight, transferred to this way of communicating.”
Instead of an imagined space, that you would normally create on stage with an improvisation, ZEIG exclusively tells stories within a Zoom setting. So typically, the relationships explored are: Lovers, Work Colleagues, Friends, Siblings, Counselling and Child/ Parent.
Throughout these sessions there is an attempt by the group to analyse and study which story structures work and why.
Couples in Crisis
This work has led to a series of improvisations called “Couples in Crisis”. Two actors are given a backstory from the same event but from two different perspectives. They meet in Zoom, under the auspices of a relationships counsellor, to see if differences can be resolved.
There is no screenplay, no rehearsal and not even a prior discussion with the actors. They simply receive their backstory before meeting.
For ZEIG updates, follow Marcus on Twitter @MarcusMarkou