First test session a success (curry also brilliant)

Last night we entered the testing phase of our project with our first interactive game show test session. Way back at the start, when we were in our format development phase I came up with the idea of a drama that is created live by the remote audience via a group of actors and a director who are all experienced in improvisation. Yesterday five of Bristol's finest performers came together with two of it's more interesting directors to test the format. We played the game four times, each time altering the format based on how the previous game had gone. It was good to have two different directors as each took different approaches and the other was able to observe and alter their own method accordingly. We've documented it on video and will be pushing the format forward with another session soon - this time using chromakey sets and more advanced audience participation. It was really good fun - well organised by Greg Browning and Ruth Farrar - and it was exactly what I hoped Media Sandbox would give us - play time. Many, many thanks to actors Richard Headon, Jon Robins, Daisy Dugmore, Chris Grimes and Clare Thomas who were incredibly inventive and generous with their creativity. Thanks also to Daf Palfrey and Luci Gorell Barnes who were both terrified of the responsibility of directing an improvised drama, but came out energised. The consensus was that the curry from Dil Se on the Gloucester Road www.dil-se.co.uk was superb. These things are important.