Actor Milo Cawthorne and director Ella Hope-Higginson are hoping to generate plenty of smiles with their improvisational show conceived inside a Whanganui bubble.
Photo / Supplied
Actor Milo Cawthorne and director Ella Hope-Higginson are hoping to generate plenty of smiles with their improvisational show conceived inside a Whanganui bubble.
Photo / Supplied
Laughter is a well-known antidote for stress and anxiety so a pair of New Zealand actors decided to use their lockdown time to make some comedy.
Ella Hope-Higginson and partner Milo Cawthorne were visiting her parents in Whanganui when the level 4 stage lockdown was announced.
"Both of us areusually Auckland-based and we both had acting jobs put on hold due to Covid-19, which is why we thought we would come down for a visit," she said.
"When the lockdown was announced we thought there's no place we'd rather be than Whanganui."
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Hope-Higginson is the creator and director of a new improvised comedy web series, which features Cawthorne playing off against some of New Zealand's best-loved comedic talent.
"The premise is simple," she says.
"In The Sidekick series, Milo plays the character Helpful Boy, who is left alone when his hero The Batton has to go into isolation.
"He is interviewing for a new part-time hero to fill the gap."
Cawthorne is recognised for his previous work in Guns Akimbo, Deathgasm, Ash vs Evil, and Power Rangers.
As Helpful Boy, he will spend each of the five to eight-minute free to view episodes performing improvised comedy, with a different guest.
Hope-Higginson has recruited some well-loved actors including Billy T Award winner Kura Forrester best known as Desdemona Schmidt on Shortland St.
"With everyone in lockdown, we figured people would be free to participate."
"We also have Johnny Brugh, who was in Educators and played Deacon in What We Do in the Shadows, and Cohen Holloway, from Hunt for the Wilder People and Bellbird, as well as many other wonderful actors and comedians.
"Some of them are friends of ours and others we just said 'we think you're really funny, will you do this?'"
The aim was to make something that could be shot during the lockdown and hopefully make people smile.
"Each actor is given a character and then the episode is filmed in one take shot entirely on Zoom.
"The result is a fun adult-ish improv' show in the style of Wellington Paranormal, old James Bond, The Office UK and Christopher Reeves - Superman."
Hope-Higginson said good things always seemed to happen in Whanganui.
Last year she came home to coach young actress Libby Hunsdale in preparation for her role in Linda Niccol's feature film Poppy, and now she has been selected to take part in Centrepoint Theatre's online playwriting initiative to develop one-act plays to be performed once Centrepoint's doors re-open.
• View the Sidekicks series on Instagram @sidekickseries. Six episodes are available now and new ones will be available every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. A Facebook page will be up and running in the next week and will be found by searching sidekickseriesnz.
