Project Steve

Hooray, hooray, we’re off today!

Fun filled train hours to come… and the opening afternoon show so soon! (That’s 2.45, Augustine’s, George IV Bridge, in case you possibly didn’t know… )

Hopefully see you in Edinburgh!

Imagine meeting that on a dark night...

I’m Project Steve’s musician, which means playing the keyboard, getting the actors to sing, and improvising operas on the spot. When the actors look all professional playing invisible instruments, that’s me. Me! I’ve been doing this since 2007 when ICE swept up and am starting to worry that I’m forgetting how to read sheet music. Lines and dots, right?

I’m the baby of the group. There’s nearly a decade between me and Dr Wareham, although while he retains startlingly youthful looks, I am prematurely aged from the stress of so much improvised music (see photo) such that he is often mistaken for my younger brother.  

I am deeply, passionately in love with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who has rocked my little piano playing socks since I was about 6 years old. Various attempts have been made to beat this out of me, such as burial alive and exposure to Schoenburg, but to no avail.

I come from the Other Place, or as near to it as makes no difference, in what can only be described as  a small village in Hobbit Country. My feet are in fact preternaturally hairy, which does not affect my musical output in any way.

I can also play other instruments, and sometimes even write music down(!). In (even) younger days I was the drummer in a band. It was called Burn the Barbies. Ah, we were young… My ambition nowadays is to pursue my quest to make louder and louder noises, and learn the organ in order to surprise tourists in Trinity Street with massive and intimidating chords.

Buttons scare me, but I like toggles.

I am renowned in certain circles for being able to provide an ‘excellent sensory experience’ for any occasion (The Cambridge Student, Lent Term 2009). I should clarify that the sensory experience in question is limited to the ears (again, see photo).

So that no one is under the impression that the cast currently consists of Rich Wareham only, I should introduce myself! I’m Laila, aka The Girl, aka the Laitron (increasingly often). 

I’m a bit littler than most of the cast in still being an undergraduate and I can’t therefore boast to have been a part of the Days of Yore and productions such as The Crystal Maze, nor am I a founding member of Improvised Comedy Ents. But I have done some other fun things!

Such as a hoste of plays/pantomimes with the Cambridge University Light Entertainment Society, for whom I’ve written, directed and produced as well. In fact, this Michaelmas all Cambridge-based people can look forward to a CULES play written by myself and Hannah ‘Miss-Hannah-Price-at-the-piano’ Price . In addition to CULES I’ve written and directed a version Alice in Wonderland for my college drama society, acted among others in Troy: The Musical, The Diary of Anne Frank,  The Tale of Lancelot Sebastian von Ludendorff and Lady Windermere’s Fan (which, incidentally, you can listen to here) and did some other stuff to, I’m sure.  When joining Improvised Comedy Ents one inevitably suddenly stars in more shows than there are weeks in the term, quite the change from laboriously rehearsed plays, and I’ve been in more shows with ICE than I can off the top of my head count. The highlight was without a doubt Murder Most Improvised, last year’s Edinburgh show. I promise it’s not because of the bloody murders.

When taking a bit of time off from improv and theatre, I study Classics  and am therefore very much hoping the audience will come prepared with Classical suggestions. Especially of historical events with women in (they seem to be even more rare in history than they are in 1920s murder mysteries!).  I very much hope to be able to portray a Livia, Cleopatra, Boudicca, Helen of Troy, or a Medea in one of the shows. The real struggle though seems to be to get to play these women when certain male cast members get excited…  In my next post I might upload a picture of Tom as Florence Nightingale…!

Time for some introductions for the people involved in Project Steve. First off, because I run the website :), here is me, Rich Wareham.

I’ve been involved in performing stage comedy for over five years. I  started way-back at University where I helped found Cambridge University’s longest-lived and most popular improvised comedy society, the increasingly strangely names Improvised Comedy Ents. In addition to improvised comedy, I have co-written and directed The X Factor: The Pantomime, a child-targeted satire on television talent show programmes.

Towards the end of University, I performed with the historic Cambridge University Light Entertainment Society taking comic plays to local schools and rest homes.

In 2006 I directed Triple Point Comedy’s production of Not The Crystal Maze at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In 2007 I again visited the fringe playing a dame version of Lorraine Baines/McFly in Two Shades of Blue’s successful Back To The Future: The Pantomime. During this year’s fringe, I will be celebrating a glorious one year of being pantomime free.

Outside of comedy I work as a Real Scientist (TM). I even have one of those ‘doctor’ things in front of my name!

Project Steve, and it’s Edinburgh Fringe production 2009, An Improvised History of Absolutely Everything are now part of the joint OxbridgeComedy brand for the Fringe. See the other shows at OxbridgeComedy.com.

This is the first post on the band new shiny Project Steve website.