Workshops
Sign up for any of the following workshops!
February 18, 10:00 AM
Play with All the Things: An Introduction to Theatrical Clowning - Sold Out
About Kristen Schier
Kristen Schier is the Artistic Director of The Philly N Crowd, a long running Philadelphia based short form Troupe. She is also a director and teacher for the Philly Improv Theater. Before coming to PHIT she taught improv for Delaware Theater Company, Drexel University, and The Actor's Center.
Kristen has a B.F.A. in Theater Arts from the University of the Arts and has been working in Philly as a professional actor, improviser and teacher for several years. She has worked with Commonwealth Classic Theater Company, Ego Po, and Vagabond Acting Troupe. She has appeared in many productions including the originally created Art of War, which received a Barrymore Nomination for Outstanding Ensemble. Kristen has studied clowning intensively with Giovanni Fusetti. She has also studied improv at The Second City and at the Annoyance in Chicago. She has taken workshops and classes with such improv notables as Michael Gelman, Jill Bernard, Asaf Ronen, Mick Napier, Susan Messing and Mark Sutton as well as members of the UCB Theater in New York City.
SOLD OUT
Find out how to use yourself and everything around you as a vehicle for pure play and spontaneous theater. We can sometimes close ourselves off in front of an audience and prevent ourselves from following our joy. Daring to be seen by the audience at every moment, will in turn, reveal a whole world available for play. Learn to allow yourself to be vulnerable in front of an audience, celebrate your flaws, interact with the audience and take more risks. This workshop is perfect for those interested in unlocking playfulness, becoming more aware of how they are perceived by an audience, and anyone interested in clowning or developing solo work.
$45
Character and Emotion
Teacher:
Michael Robinson
About Michael Robinson
Michael Robinson is a twice world Theatresports champion and a successful professional actor with over 80 film and television credits and over 40 professional theatre credits. He teaches acting, character, comedy, improvisation, intro to camera, audition, and sit-com at the world renowned Vancouver Film School.
Some improvisers have extensive acting training. Many don't. For those that don't, this workshop is about becoming a better actor, and therefore a better improviser. We'll discover how the world's best actors (Depp, Streep, Blanchett) approach a character vs how an improviser tends to do it, and how you can use their techniques in improv, and how great actors transparency of thought and emotion are achieved thought the surprisingly simple use of punctuated movement and a little thing I call the TEA principle.
$45
Making the Banal Magical - Sold Out
About Joe Bill
Joe Bill didn't provide a bio. Shame on Joe Bill. Are you reading this because you don't know who Joe Bill is? Shame on you. SHAME ON ALL OF US
SOLD OUT
Making the Banal Magical explores group work by beginning with The Invocation, pioneered by Del Close. The invocation is used as a source to draw scenes from. The workshop goes through the 4 steps of The Invocation: It Is, You Are, Thou Art, I Am. Students then spin scenes out of those ideas.
$45
February 18, 12:30 PM
Master Class: Directing - Sold Out
About Asaf Ronen
Asaf Ronen is a splendid man about town. (He did not provide a bio, either.)
Sold Out!
Improv might be the most challenging of the performing arts for a director to skillfully mold his cast, and this class will show you how to get the most out of your improvisers whether in a class or a rehearsal. Techniques for creating lesson plans, orchestrating rehearsals, and giving notes will be explored. Participants will be given the opportunity to apply the techniques through hands on experience directing each other, and at the end of the session there will be a Q&A to address personal concerns of the attendees.
$65
February 18, 01:30 PM
Intro to Improv Freestyle Hip-Hop - SOLD OUT
Teacher:
Twinprov (Buck and Clint Vrazel)
About Twinprov (Buck and Clint Vrazel)
Buck and Clint Vrazel have been performing and teaching improv for 11 years and are a driving force in the Oklahoma improv scene. They are co-artistic directors of OKC Improv, the state's premiere professional improv showcase and learning institution, where they currently teach classes to teens, high school, adults, and business professionals. They perform with numerous troupes including Fortune's Fools (improvised Shakespeare), The Ones Your Mother Warned You About ( relationship longform), Short Order Crooks (short form), Sketchers in the Wry (original sketch comedy), Villain: The Musical (improvised musical), and their nationally recognized duo act, Twinprov. As Twinprov, Buck and Clint have performed and taught at theaters and festivals around the country, including the Chicago Improv Festival, Colorado Improv Festival, Dallas Comedy Festival, Improvaganza! Hawaii Festival of Improv, Improv Festival Kansas, Kansas City Improv Festival, New Orleans Improv Festival, Out of Bounds Comedy Festival and Twin Cities Improv Festival.
Official Selection: Los Angeles Improv Festival, Duofest, Duke City Improv Festival
As their rapper alter-egos The Doppelgangstas, they’ve played several concerts and opened for nerdcore rapper MC Frontalot. Their YouTube videos have garnered over 165,000 views and their "New Moon Rap" was featured on Last Call with Carson Daly. They are the creators of the original musical long-form improv shows Rap-sody, String Theory and Dream Machine.
SOLD OUT!
Buck and Clint of rap-comedy duo Twinprov have taken their high-speed full-length hip-hop improv Longform Rhapsody to festivals from Chicago to Austin to Hawaii. They know what keeps most people from rapping is fear of rhyme. Learn to demystify rhyme, chorus, imagery, beatboxing and more in this workshop. Building on existing improv skills, you'll learn to improvise lyrics, from hip-hop to Broadway to Shakespeare to slam poetry. Supercharge your language and body with physical and vocal expression, storytelling, and poetic technique games. By the end of the workshop you’ll be crafting whole songs on your own. If two nerds in ties from Oklahoma can do it, so can you.
$45
Louder Than Words: Improvising without Dialog - Sold Out
About Garrick Paikai
Garrick Paikai is an Honolulu based improvisers and has been instructing improv for over 10 years. He is the Artistic Director of On The Spot and has tour the county with his group teaching improv and performing.
SOLD OUT!
Sometimes dialog in an improv scene gets in the way of a great scene. "Louder Than Words: Improvising Without Dialog" is a workshop that will teach you to use physicality and emoting to tell wonderful stories. The workshop will teach On The Spot's techniques they use for their improvised silent movie show Hush, which can enrich any improv scene. Experience how much more powerful an improvised scene can be once you get rid of all the words.
$45
February 18, 04:00 PM
Bigger Than The Stage - Sold Out
About Marz Timms
Marz Timms is an actor, stand-up comedian, improviser, writer, director, and producer who has shared the stage with SNL’s Bobby Moynihan, and Horatio Sanz , Anchorman’s Fred Willard, Whose Line is it Anyway’s Wayne Brady, Madd T.V.’s Ike Barinholtz, and Keegan Michael Key, and Upright Citizen’s Brigade’s Matt Besser in New York. As an actor he has performed in over 100 productions across the U.S. getting his start in Chicago at the Annoyance Theater in Co-ed Prison Sluts with Chicago improv icons Mick Napier, Susan Messing, Joe Bill, and Mark Sutton. He then took his talents to Second City and was an original member of Second City’s Brown Co. Marz wrote, produced, and starred in the Big Kids Comedy Hour, a play that ran for three years in Chicago and New York! . Marz created, produces and directs the critically-acclaimed improv and sketch comedy group Pimprov. Pimprov is based in Chicago and tours regularly, performing across the U.S. and Canada, including stops in NYC, Miami, Toronto and Los Angeles. As a touring stand-up comedian, Marz has performed with Loni Love of Chelsea Lately, Lynne Koplitz and Eddie Griffin. Most recently Marz contributed his voice to another video game starring in the latest Mortal Kombat as Jax. Marz has written for film, television, and The Second City. Marz is a product whore who you can occasionally catch on television or radio doing what his pimp says and getting you to buy something you don’t need.
SOLD OUT!
Marz Timms creator of the improv group Pimprov will teach you how to do more than just make an audience laugh. You’ll learn how to grab your audience and draw them in as soon as you hit the stage. The stage doesn’t stop where the audience begins, but encompasses the entire theatre. Learn to have a complete awareness of your surroundings, and your presence in those surroundings. Marz Timms teaches you to be completely present throughout a show, both in physical and mental terms.
$45
Listen Like a Therapist - Sold Out
About Amie Roe
AMIE ROE is a Philadelphia-based improviser, bleeding heart, and keen observer of the human condition. Amie appears regularly on stage in Ne...w York City at the Magnet Theater with resident Megawatt improv ensemble, Brick. Amie also appears regularly at the Philly Improv Theater (PHIT) with best-friend-improv-duo, The Amie and Kristen Show/The Kristen and Amie Show, which has been a featured selection at improv festivals in Philadelphia, Seattle, Chicago, Baltimore, and Toronto. She's proud to say that she has studied improv comedy with the very best and brightest at the Philly Improv Theater (PHIT), the Magnet Theater (NYC), and at various workshops throughout the country, with renowned performers and teachers such as Armando Diaz, Asaf Ronen, Keith Johnstone, and Susan Messing, to name a few. Currently, Amie is an improv instructor at PHIT and directs PHIT resident improv ensemble, King Friday. She is co-creator and a producer of Duofest, the nation's only improv festival dedicated solely to improv duos.
SOLD OUT
Psychotherapist and improviser Amie Roe distills thousands of dollars of graduate school and improv education down to one easy workshop! Learn some tips and tricks for deep listening and how to make yourself truly available to your scene partners.
$45
ATTACK OF THE GENRE! - Sold Out
About Troy Miller
TROY A. MILLER has been teaching and performing improv since 2002. He has studied with a host of renowned improv luminaries such as Keith Johnstone (twice as a TA), the BATS company, LA Theatresports, Frank Caeti of "Mad TV" and Matt Walsh of "Upright Citizen's Brigade". As an original member of the Heroes of Comedy at the Hideout Theatre in Austin, TX, Troy produced and directed the critically acclaimed shows "Cops & Lawyers", "Hitchcocked!" and "Start Trekkin" (which was selected to perform at the 40th Anniversary of "Star Trek" in Las Vegas). His comedy group "Confidence Men" (improvised David Mamet) won Austin's B. Iden Payne Award for Best Improvisational Theatre in 2010 and 2011 and has toured comedy festivals nationwide. When not improvising, Troy is an accomplished writer and filmmaker - his feature film "Severance" toured film festivals in 2005-2006 and will soon be available online and on DVD.
SOLD OUT
There are myriad genres and sub-genres in the world of literature, theatre, and film (romantic zombie comedy, anyone?). Learn to play the genre on stage from a master of genre in this workshop. Learn to have fun, make strong choices, build rich characters, and tell exciting stories. In this workshop students will learn how to play in almost any genre, and to flesh out that improvised world using body language, establishing setting and mood, and utilizing conventions like narration, sound effects, and playing multiple characters.
$45
February 19, 01:00 PM
Master Class: Raising Your Game - Sold Out
About Joe Bill
Joe Bill didn't provide a bio. Shame on Joe Bill. Are you reading this because you don't know who Joe Bill is? Shame on you. SHAME ON ALL OF US
SOLD OUT!
Up your game and self diagnose your strengths and weaknesses using scene work in this master class taught by Joe Bill.
$65
Asaf Ronen - Getting Out of Your Own Way
About Asaf Ronen
Asaf Ronen is a splendid man about town. (He did not provide a bio, either.)
There are a hundred things that you end up doing on stage instead of what you want to be doing. Your brain is clouded with all sorts of things that you think you are supposed to do instead of what you are inspired to do. Learn to throw all conventions to the wind and just have fun in your scene work. Learn how to pull from all your learning and find the school of thought that works for you, because it comes out of you.
$45