High School Magical: The Reunion"The PlayShop team proves yet again what wizards they are at this improv lark."
Everyone would rather forget their awkward time at Spellington College of the Magical Arts, but the ten year reunion threatens to cast new spells and open old secrets. Magical improvised comedy from the company that brought you Game of Things, Riddiford Street and the award winning 10 Things I Hate About Us. Premiered 23 July 2019 at BATS Theatre 
BABESHOP LIVE!This year we reprised our all female cast and crew show, BabeShop. Performing to a sold out audience, we had 11 players onstage including Lesa who has just had a new baby, Stevie in her MC premiere and Charlotte and Olivia on music and tech respectively. We cannot wait to bring this show back next year!
Reprised 20 September 2019 at BATS Theatre |
CubaDupa: Insecurity GuardsThis year we had the amazing opportunity to perform with the Insecurity Guards at the Cuba Dupa Festival. This was an amazing event shared with Victoria University of Wellington where we went and collected people's insecuritys in cardboard boxes and then burnt them at the end of the festival.
Premiered at CubaDupa 2019 |
GAYSHOP LIVE!We brought back GAYSHOP for its second iteration this year to a sold out audience. We had an amazing cast of entirely queer players and had some amazing poetry and storytelling to inspire us from Maddi Warren, Courtney Rose-Brown and Maggie White. Thank you to everyone who came and supported us!
Reprised 12 July 2019 at BATS Theatre |
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How To Write An Album in 12 Hours |
GAYSHOP LIVE! |
BABESHOP LIVE |
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"The Victoria University Theatre Department and Play Shop Productions have collaborated to offer a novel experience as part of the Inaugural Summer of 77."
Musicians, improvisers, and writers form a band to create and record an entire album in just 12 hours. A new song from conception to perfection every hour. Experience and engage with all the joy and struggles of writing songs and making an album. Nowhere to hide, no secrets, just artists and audiences making art. Produced by PlayShop Premiered in Summer of 77 Showcase 2018 
PlayShop DEAD
PlayShop LIVE is now...
PlayShop DEAD! PlayShop's annual Halloween special is on Friday night at BATS Theatre! With the especially spooky start time of 11pm! Come see your favourite playshoppers AND some extremely spooky guests, as they risk everything against unnatural forces and ghouls from undiscovered worlds... This year we're doubly excited because we get to do the show as part of the New Zealand Improv Festival! There are geniuses from all over the world putting on incredible, original shows all this week! Get amongst! See something no one else will ever get to see again! Reprised 26 October at BATS Theatre part of New Zealand Improv Festival |
Love LIVE!
Love comedy. Love being all inclusive and LGBTI awesome. You know the drill. PlayShop is coming out of the Studio closet for a Propellor Stage special Friday 10pm May 25th. Drop by, grab a drink, and get to know our beloved queer cast and spunky special guests. We guarantee you won’t be able to keep a straight face. Reprised 25 May 2019 at BATS Theatre |
The women of PlayShop plus international guests take over BATS for PlayShop's final show of the year.
Featuring some of Wellington's top comedy and improv talents, this is an improvised treat you won't want to miss! Premiered 2 November 2018 at BATS Theatre |
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GAYSHOP LIVE! |
ShakesBeer in the Garden |
Christmas Actually |
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We are premiering our new show GAYSHOP LIVE! Supporting the LGBTQ community and our LGBTQ players this is a live like no other! Featuring an entirely queer cast this LIVE is definitely coming out out of the closet with a bang!
Premiered 22 September 2017 at BATS Theatre 
PlayShop DEADAre you brave enough to join us for our scariest show of the year?
Werewolves, ghosts, vampires, student loans, zombies, you name it we've got it! The scariest of things entangled with the funniest of people in what could be the best Halloween celebration this side of Transylvania! Come along to the Heyday Dome in BATS Theatre on the 27th of October at a special scaaaaary time of 10pm and join in the fun and silliness with the extra ghoulish cast of PlayShop! Premiered 27 October 2017 at BATS Theatre |
This November, Southern Cross Garden Bar Restaurant, PlayShop, Garage Project and Shakespeare Globe Centre NZ join forces once again to bring you a fundraiser with a difference. Come on down & enjoy a bit of The Bard in The Garden Bar!
This year, PlayShop will be performing Shakespeare like you've never seen it before. From the best improvisors at this event, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastrol-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited, an entirely new Shakespeare play created before your very eyes! These talented thespians will interact with all, to ensure a lively and memorable evening away from the pre-Christmas melee. Reprised 26 November 2017 at Southern Cross Bar and Restaurant |
"...plays out with the rhythm and flow of a well-modulated improv show, utilising many of that genre’s tropes..."
It's that time of year again; tinsel is lazily draped everywhere, someone has blu tacked mistletoe in the doorways, and Mariah Carey has been singing "All I want for Christmas is you" on repeat for two weeks. It's the office Christmas party. Come for the drinks. Stay because the boss said you had to. Watch as PlayShop and Friends wiggle their way through a night of hellish organised fun and mandatory enjoyment! Join your favourite stars of PlayShop (the award winning company that brought you 10 Things I Hate about Us and Suddenly: a Musical) and some very special guests for a hilarious and touching hour of festive fun and shenanigans! Premiered 12 December 2017 at BATS Theatre |
AD MEN |
Grimm Bedtime Stories |
SED Speeches |
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The advertising world of the 1960’s comes alive in the witty, intelligent, improvised show, Admen.
Admen was an improvised show based on the world of 1960’s advertising agencies, similar to the award-winning television show, Mad Men. Our experienced team of improvisers played a diverse set of roles based in an advertising agency, but the audience chose a name and a product for the actors to base the show around. While the story grows the players divided into two teams, both of which will try to win the account with a radio, television or print advertisement pitch. At the end of the show the audience decided who deserves the best campaign. Admen is PlayShop’s only Fringe Festival production in 2016, and will be our fourteenth production for Wellington audiences. In the 2015 Fringe Festival PlayShop was nominated for Best Theatre - Ensemble, and won the award for Best Improv for its production of 10 Things I Hate About Us. Premiered 16 February 2016 at Gryphon Theatre as a part of the Wellington Fringe Festival |
When you can’t get to sleep late in the night, listen to a story fueled by fright!
There will be breadcrumbs, castles and perhaps a hag, with sights and smells sure to make you gag. But fear not, we promise you will laugh, cause our stories are silly and really quite daft. Grimm Bedtime Stories is a hilarious and magical tale of brothers who are determined to stay up late by thrilling each other with stories. Some stories are scary, some are sweet, others are much too fun! Your children will be invited into this secret world, where bed sheets become landscapes, torches become monsters eyes, and pyjamas become mystical puppets. In a show made especially for children aged 5-10 years, this high-paced comedy adventure will thrill audiences as your favourite bedtime adventures are brought to life in clever projection design that is made by the audience! Premiered 27 July 2016 at Circa Theatre |
PlayShop returns to the NZ International Comedy Festival to transform attitudes, lives and all of Wellington through the power of laughter. Inspired by inspiration, motivated by motivational wisdom, and ready to guide you with instant wisdom, SED Speeches is the spontaneous, hilarious reimagining of one of the world’s most respected global conferences. Part mad-lib, part magic, our cast will be mixing your suggestions with visual presentations to create instant inspired discussions.
"If you've ever watched one of those do-gooder online videos and thought 'this could be funnier' then this show is for you," says Jennifer O'Sullivan, director of the New Zealand Improv Festival where SED Speeches debuted at BATS Theatre to a sell out crowd last year. "It's inspiring clickbait brought to life. It makes you laugh and then makes you think... Well only for a moment. Then you'll laugh again." Reprised 27 April 2016 part of NZ International Comedy Fest |
10 Things I Hate About Us"...Easily one of the best hours of long-form improvised performance I have ever seen."
10 Things I Hate About Us explores the hilarious complexities of a relationship from first date onwards. Whether this will lead to happily-ever-after or happily-never-after is anyone's guess. The audience will play matchmaker, choosing the couple from our cast to watch the relationship evolve. Will you dare them to push the limits of PlayShop's ingenuity? Why not throw them a curve ball and watch the chaos unfold before your very eyes! In 10 Things I Hate About Us the audience will be more involved than an awkward third wheel. NZ Fringe 2015 at BATS Theatre Winner: Best Improv Nominated: Best Theatre (Ensemble) 
PlayShop DEADPlayShop DEAD :Fast and spooky theatre from nothing!
PlayShop is pleased to announce a Halloween Special, PlayShop DEAD, a twist on its flagship show, LIVE. PlayShop LIVE is late-night improvised comedy without limits, fast, physical, and unpredictable, and it's performed every Friday night! On the 30th October a team of skilled actors and a musician create spontaneous theatre with nothing but each other, the audience, and their spooky imaginations. PlayShop DEAD will be lead by PlayShop's Artistic Director, Lori Leigh, and will be completely unique. So come along to join the party of ghouls, pumpkins and monsters for a wonderful Halloween night. Premiered 16 October 2015 at BATS Theatre |
Suddenly! A Musical"It is to the great credit of everyone involved that Suddenly! A Musical works on multiple levels."
Watch as a brand new Webber musical is created before your ears. Will we sing a doomed romance? Will history be brought to funky life? Or will weird personified things serenade us all? You decide! Premiered 25 August 2015 at BATS Theatre |
SED SpeechesFrom the company that brought you the sell-out smashes Game of Things, Riddiford Street 2 and 3, and the award-winning 10 Things I Hate About Us comes a show that will change your life. In SED Speeches: Theories of Stuff our players will transform attitudes, lives and the entirety of Wellington through the power of laughter.
Premiered 7 October 2015 at BATS Theatre a part of Improv Fest |
The Silent Treatment"These are among the rootin'est, tootin'est live performers around, and they take to improvising film dialogue like a cowboy takes to spouting off folksy, homespun metaphors."
Two actors and a musician attempt to reimagine the dialogue and soundtrack for the Hopalong Cassidy western 'Six Shooter Justice'. This hidden gem from 1947 is your archetypal cowboy film, but what happens if you silence the film and improvise over the top? Premiered 13 June 2014 at Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision |
Just Add CoffeeTo edit, click on the text to start adding your own words.
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Take AnywhereTo edit, click on the text to start adding your own words.
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Riddiford Street"A riveting experience and just as potentially addictive as any good soap-opera."
The show that first brought PlayShop’s unmatchable grace to BATS returns with a brand new season of unscripted lust and intrigue. And medicine. Season 2: 26 Feb - 2 Mar 2013 Season 3: 9-13 Sept 2014 
This Fair Verona"PlayShop is on to another winner with This Fair Verona."
A hilarious improvised love story of Shakespearean proportions, made fresh before your very eyes each night. The course of true love never did run smooth . . . Working with the audience, our merry band of improvisers will create a unique, contemporary landscape for our Romeo and Juliet to strut and fret their hour upon the stage. Taking our cues from Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, each night will follow a new pair of star-crossed lovers’ misadventures. It’s Shakespeare. As you’ve seen it before. Lots of times. Again. After all, puberty is poisonous... Premiered 15 Oct 2013 at BATS Theatre Reprised Burning Globe, Southern Cross Garden Bar 2013/14 |
Game of Things"An absolutely heartening and enjoyably energetic 60 minutes."
In the burning south, dragons and their queen. To the frozen north, The Rift. And scattered throughout the land betrayal, war, and magic. Each night the cast will tell the stories of kings and knights, lords and ladies, schemers and schemestresses, and whores and thieves as the battle for the realm rages. Join us on late night, epic adventure as you watch performers grapple with romance, incest, betrayal, loss, war and the supernatural. Featuring live music, an original theme, a smoke machine and in the style of true improv, audience ask-fors. Premiered 26 June 2013 at BATS Theatre |
Into The Dark Cave"Good and unpredictable... the stories themselves are new and wildly unfamiliar"
Join the improvisers on a stage strewn with mattresses, pillows and blankets. There, under the warm glow of household lamps (and marshmallows, for sustenance), the stories shared by improvisers and audience alike will leap to life as live-action, shadow-play and puppetry. Premiered at New Zealand Improv Festival 2013 |
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