HOOPLA is casting for an exciting limited-run narrative show! Scandalgate will hilariously detail the rise and fall (and maybe fall again) of the corrupt and the incompetent, the well-meaning and the vaguely competent – set in the world of the media, business and politics. Think Succession, The Newsroom and House of Cards, thrown in a blender with The Thick of It. Like all good narrative improv, it will be a mix of high stakes, emotional connections, grounded relationships and abject silliness. The show will be directed and coached by Leo Maxwell, a founding member of narrative improv maes ..read more

First of all many thanks to you all for your support and patience over the last year . Improvisers, teachers, students, venues, performers and our support team have all adapted to so many different things so thank you and we’re happy to say the improv flag is still flying high at Hoopla! Since September 2021 we’ve had various safety measures in place and we are very thankful to everyone for coming along and making improv fun through these times! From 19th July most of the legal restrictions on workshops and shows have been removed, but we understand many of you may still have some concerns reg ..read more

Description This is a fun warm up for spontaneity. Start by having everyone walk around the room. Get them to point at something and then name what it is out loud. The body should lead, the name coming after, so we aren’t thinking too much about it. Everyone all at once then does that for multiple things around the room, with joyful enthusiasm. So lots of people running around point to things and saying what they see. Next round we point and say anything the object isn’t. The next round they point they point at things but call it the object they pointed at one step before. Purpose Fun warm up ..read more

Hi,   Many thanks to everyone who donated to our crowdfunders at the start of the pandemic over a year ago. A couple of quick updates for you.   We started them just a year and a bit ago and we are happy to say that our main crowdfunder page plus other crowdfunding and events have now raised almost £10,000!   Thank you so much everyone for your help and support. This means that we are going to start recruiting a for a new Improv Outreach Worker shared-role this summer and those people will be bringing improv fun to new communities, and helping to bring people back together afte ..read more

Our improv classes and shows are back in real-life at venues across London from late May and June. Many people this past year have taken up online improv and we salute you brave digital pioneers! Hoopla’s online impro is here to stay and if you would like to also move into doing impro in real-life we’ve put together this handy blog to help! Am I at a disadvantage having started out with improv online? No. In fact quite the opposite! Our real-life courses and shows have been on hold pretty much for a year now. So real-life impro is going to be new to everyone and we will all be getting used to ..read more

This blog is usually about improv but with yet another lockdown started it looks like more and more people are taking up running as a way to stay healthy. I thought I’d share some running tips that I built up, some of which came from playing like an improviser when running. These tips aren’t going to give you record times or win you medals, but they might help you to enjoy running and stay healthy and uninjured – and enjoying it will help you do more. You’re not just in your body, you ARE your body Try this as a mantra when you are running: “I’m not just in my body, I AM my body”. It tends to ..read more

Classes This is going out to everyone who has a real-life course booking with us for this year. Unfortunately it doesn’t look likely that London will be back in Tier 2 over January or February so we have had to postpone all courses due to start in January and February until the Spring. Courses due to start in March or later are currently staying scheduled as planned but we will be reviewing the news over January to see if we also have to postpone those. For courses due to start in January or February we are putting together some new dates for Spring onward and will be emailing you these over t ..read more

Well that didn’t go as planned. Obviously there have been lots of horrible things about the year. People have been ill, lost loved ones, lost jobs, had their businesses closed down and more. When we started the year we weren’t expected to actually be closed down for so much of it. But in this blog I’m not going to talk about those things. You know about those things already, and I post about those things on twitter after a couple of drinks. Instead what follows is a collection of some of my favourite improv highlights from the year, from the joyful windows of opportunity and inventive places w ..read more

Hoopla have been running improv classes online this year and their next improv courses start in early January. Hoopla’s classes are fun & friendly and a great way to have some fun and meet new people. We help make improv open and accessible to everyone, with a playful and supportive environment. Here’s a collection of our favourite zoom games from the year that you could play with your family online this Christmas: 1. The Race Everyone stands close to their screens. The host shouts out an object and the winner is the first one to run off and come back with that object and show it on screen ..read more

Classes Any real-life classes (with one exception who we are emailing separately) that were due to run on Monday 2nd, Tuesday 3rd or Wednesday 4th November we will still be doing these in-real-life at the normal venues at the normal time. For any real-life classes happening from this Thursday 5th November up until this Christmas we are now converting to online. We’re gradually emailing each course today to let them know, and before the first online workshop we’ll be emailing each course the login for zoom for each week. The classes will take place with the same teacher, the same team, and happ ..read more