VerdensScene: Undertone - improv show from Miami

Verdensfolk is proud to present VerdensScene — our new offering that focuses on theater and drama in a diverse and vibrant perspective. This summer we invite you to a special improv evening at Melahuset with two international guests from Miami, David Christopher and Maria Kolovou, who are visiting Oslo for the very first time. They come straight from some of America's most famous stages and festivals and offer a performance that is both touching and entertaining. No script. No plan. Just here and now — with each other and with us as the audience. After the performance there will be a small Q&A with the performers, where you can ask questions and get an insight into their way of working.

Practical information:
Date: Saturday, August 9
Time: 20:00–22:00 (doors and bar open 20:00, show starts 20:30)
Place: Melahuset , Oslo
Tickets: Regular: NOK 300/ Student/Honors: NOK 200. Buy your tickets here.
Language: English

David and Maria about their work:

"As performers, we are drawn to work that explores presence, relationship, and the unspoken dynamics between people. In our shows we fuse improvisation with theatrical craft to create unscripted performances that are alive, immediate, and emotionally resonant."

UNDERTONE

Our simplest show—and one of the most revealing.

In Undertone, two performers step onto an empty stage with no script, no premise, and no plan—only each other. Together, they create improvised scenes driven by presence, relationship, and what lies beneath the words.

Without games or format, Undertone explores subtext, silence, and the subtle dynamics that shape human connection. Each performance is a unique encounter—simple, immediate, and deeply human.

BIOS

David Christopher, with over 30 years of improv and sketch comedy experience, is an improv performer, director, instructor, and producer. A founding member and former owner of Miami's home for improv and sketch comedy, and 7-time Best of Miami winner, Just The Funny. David is responsible for creating the improvisation and sketch writing curriculum and program at Just The Funny, where he teaches and coaches all six levels of improv acting classes, along with both the Harold workshop, narrative improv, hip hop improv, musical improv, and sketch writing classes. He is also the co-creator of The South Florida Improv Jam and is the executive producer of the Miami Improv Festival since its inception in 2003.

In addition to teaching at Just The Funny, David has also taught improv workshops and coached teams at The Improv Retreat, Spontaneous Combustion (Atlanta), Dallas Comedy Festival, Nestival (Columbus, OH), Sarasota Improv Festival, Curious Comedy Theater (Portland, OR), Bexar Stage (San Antonio, TX), Chaos Bloom Theater (Denver), The Torch Theater (Phoenix), Park City Improv (Park City, UT), Gainesville Improv Festival, First Coast Comedy (Jacksonville), Jacksonville Laugh Fest, Tampa Bay Improv Festival, Palm Beach Improv Festival and The South Florida Improv Jam, where his workshop was featured in the Palm Beach Daily News. David has also been featured numerous times in both The Miami Herald and Miami New Times, and was featured in The Actor's Other Career Book.

David has toured extensively and has performed improv at: iO Chicago, Curious Comedy Theater (Portland, OR), Hideout Theater (Austin), SAK Comedy Lab (Orlando), Florida Studio Theater (Sarasota), Chaos Bloom Theater (Denver), Bexar Stage (San Antonio), Dallas Comedy House, The Basement Theater (Atlanta), ComedySportz San Antonio, and Theater 99 (Charleston, SC).

David has trained with The Second City, The Groundlings, iO, UCB, Charna Halpern, Joe Bill, Mark Sutton, Susan Messing, Dave Razowsky, North Coast, The Improvised Shakespeare Company, Mike Delaney, and Asaf Ronen. He is a graduate of both New York University, earning a BFA in film and television, and Florida International University, where he earned an MBA

Maria Kolovou is an improviser, theatre-maker, playwright, and educator based in Miami. Her work fuses improvisation, devised theatre, and dramatic storytelling, with a particular focus on presence-driven and relational performance. For over a decade, she created award-winning devised theater in Greece, including two EU-funded projects, and received First Prize in Greece's National Emerging Playwrights Competition in 2017 for her play Someone Light Up the Moon.

Maria is an active performer with Just The Funny Improv Theater and has trained in acting and directing. She teaches at the University of Miami, guiding faculty in storytelling, embodied inquiry, and theater-based learning. She holds a PhD in Teaching and Learning, with research on distributed creativity in science-theatre collaborations, and a Master's in Drama in Education from Trinity College Dublin.