Immerse yourself into the inner world of fellow commuters with Transported by improv masters ImproMafia

Ryan Goodwin is the director of Transported. Ryan is an improvisation extraordinaire and theatrical handyman who has improvised throughout Australia and overseas since 2015.

Tell us about the show in 100 words or less

Transported is a layered exploration of public transport and the inner world of passengers. Despite the physical proximity of individuals on public transport, people shut down the moment they enter this space and escape into their own remote world via phones, books, and daydreams.

Transported takes its audience on a 50-minute tram commute and introduces them to different characters just trying to get to where they’re going. Fully improvised and interactive this will be a journey full of surprises and unexpected revelations…for the audience and the performers themselves.

Anywhere Festival takes place anywhere but a theatre. Tell us about your venue. What is it about your space that adds to your audience experience?

Transported takes place on a stationary tram at the Brisbane Tramway Museum. The show seeks to explore the private world of people on public transport. In this space, the audience is invited to physically become part of the journey as fellow passengers, effectively blurring the line between audience and performance. The venue also works to evoke a sense of familiarity in the audience- we’ve all had to catch public transport before- but allows them the unfamiliar experience of getting a glimpse into the inner-world of their fellow commuters. Ryan hopes some audience members will leave the show with a sense of curiosity regarding their fellow man that carries over to their own interactions with public transport in the real world.

Brisbane’s Tramway Museum, the site of Transported.

What is your creative process like?

Ryan’s first step in the creative process is to strip the idea down to a singular mission statement. This dissection is usually achieved by pondering on important questions like:

• What is the show trying to achieve?

• What is the show’s recognisable quality if it were to be performed repeatedly?

• What will the audience leave the show with?

Once the mission statement has been established, ideas can be bounced off it and the show built up in layers.

 As someone with dyslexia, physically writing out ideas doesn’t naturally form an essential part of Ryan’s creative process. Instead, exploring the ‘energy’ of an idea or different show elements is more important to his technique. What energy does a certain idea bring to the show itself? What energy could it produce in the performers as a result? What energy will it likely generate in the audience? The cohesion and contradictions that potentially lie between these three elements often make for thrilling and vibrant performance pieces.

Tell us your origin story. How did your company/show/collaboration start?

Ryan started his creative career with a degree in Drama from Griffith University, he then spent most of his twenties involved in the theatre space. After earning a degree in Film from Queensland College of Art, he dabbled in the industry before pivoting into improvisation six years ago. This move was motivated by the desire to escape the restrictive expectations of film and television. Improvisation does not rely on big budgets, scripts, excessively curated details, or over-rehearsed scenes. Improvisation is reliant only on the imagination, courage, and mutual trust of its performers.

Who is your perfect audience member? Who is going to LOVE this event?

Anyone who has used public transport before and those interested in a voyeuristic journey into the inner world of fellow commuters!

Is there anything else we simply MUST know about the show?

Transported mimics the physical cues people use to indicate to fellow passengers they don’t want to interact. While Transported is intended as an interactive show, the cast understands that some audience members simply want to observe. These individuals will be offered headphones to wear around their necks. In a case of art imitating life, these headphones tell the performers that this person does not want to be engaged with as part of the show.