Starship Improvise plan to boldly go where no improv comedy has gone before

Featuring a supergroup of performers from Tony and Olivier Award winning companies Mischief, Showstopper! and Austentatious, you know you're in safe hands with the cast of Starship Improvise. They'll be pushing the boundaries of improv by performing each night as a stand-alone episode of smash hit science-fiction show Celestia 7, and recurring characters will develop throughout the run. The audience are in control of what happens within this ground-breaking show, but we know there will be performances from some of the funniest and most experienced improvisers, live music and even special effects. We asked co-creator Adam Meggido to give us the improv insider info...

Who of the Starship Improvise team is the biggest sci-fi geek?

Hmmmm maybe me or Nell Mooney. I used to devour Star Trek, and I loved the remake of Battlestar Galactica. In fact, Nell Mooney got an audition for Showstopper (our improvised musical show) because she said she was a BSG fan on her CV.

I used to read all the books that came out with the original Star Trek show. I remember some books that were filled with stills from the show, laid out with captions like a graphic novel. It was pure escapism. Our lighting designer/operator, Damian, also loved BSG and Firefly. He'd give us all a run for the title sci-fi geek supreme.

While improvising an episode in every show, how will you remember all the information that will become cannon for the run?

Good question. No idea! I'm sure audiences will keep track of things for us. Doing shows like this can become such an intense alternate reality that it's probably all easier to keep track of than we might at first think.

The more drama that happens, the easier it will be to build on. I really enjoy the world-building element of these things. I can't wait to see what we and the audiences collectively create as canon for the plucky crew of CELESTIA 7!

With a show that's never the same twice, how do you let go of moments you loved that you can't keep by adding to a script?

Ahhhh that's part if the joy. It's created, enjoyed, and then gone. We tend not to have much desire to revisit anything, we prefer instead to forge ahead, full warp speed, to the next delightful moment.

How much back story about the TV show CELESTIA 7 has been planned and how will you decide who plays who from the show?

We will know our character names and their function on the Starship CELESTIA. For example, I know that I will be playing Labb Raydor, a highly evolved dog. But that's it!! The rest we will discover as we play each episode.

What the most surprising thing that's been thrown at you on stage?

A peach.