I teach workshops in improv, sketch, and movement-based theatre to kids and adults. Take a look at some examples below of workshops I've taught in the past but please reach out if you have something specific in mind. I'm always revising and creating new workshops to train specific skills or to accommodate a specific group. Contact me directly for prices/more information.
IMPROV BASICS
Learn the basics of Yes AND, comedic characters, and scene work in this intro workshop. Great for actors, new improvisers, and corporate events/team building workshops.
IMPROV TO SKETCH
Learn how to create hilarious sketch comedy from your favorite improv scenes or moments from real life. Keep it simple, find the one unusual thing, heighten, explore...and eventually write it down.
IMPROV DIRECTING
Have an improv group that needs a director or interested in a one-time workshop to work a specific skill? Let's talk. I've trained in many improv philosophies and excited to work with what your team is interested in - whether it be game/premise-based improv or more organic scenes. Also happy to flavor in physical theatre and commedia dell'arte that will help bring your scenes to the next level.
CAPTAIN PLANET IMPROV
Use earth, wind, fire, water (and heart!) in your improvised scene work! Nature has all the inspiration we need for character, mood, tone, environment - use these impulses to create dynamic character movement and more meaningful scenes. Combines Lecoq-actor based movement training (elements, materials) and long-form improvisation.
DEVISING
We will explore theatrical elements (text, sound, material, movement...) and understand how to best layer and use them in order to create original pieces of theatre. Based in my training at Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland.
CHARACTER CREATION
A study of emotional polarities. Is my character narcissistic or insecure? Both? Do they isolate between the two extremes? Part discussion, part workshop - we will discuss the creation of a character's inner state. This is not your mom's acting realism class. Let's understand human nature through play. Based on my training at Helikos International School of Theatre Creation in Italy.
CLOWNS IN REAL LIFE
This workshop is an introduction to red nose clown as well as a guide on how to use clown state in improv, sketch, and theatre. Clowns are completely vulnerable and they share every feeling with their audience. The clown’s humor comes out of their honest play, naivety, and commitment to their own stupidity. Using the red nose and your body, you will discover your inner clown’s rhythm, physicality, voice, and hilarious talents. We will then take these clowns off the stage and away from their silly instruments and into real life (the office, the DMV, a first date) in order to discover new ways of using this theatrical form.
Based on my training at Helikos International School of Theatre Creation in Italy.
GROTESQUE CHARACTERS
"Through caricature, you can see the actual drives of corrupted people" - Augusto Boal
Grotesque characters are able to expose the ugly hidden nature of society's many archetypes and situations. This satirical form lives in the world of opposition, characters are insecure but at the same time narcissistic, hunchbacked but trying to achieve perfect posture. Through body stuffing and personality flip-flopping, we will discover characters pushed to the end of their physical and mental limit. This workshop will utilize movement-based theatre fused with the polarity work of Gestalt therapy (a pedagogy developed by Lecoq master-teacher Giovanni Fusetti) as well incorporating techniques derived from Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed. This workshop is for improvisers, sketch writers, and actors who are interested in character work and satire (comedy that provokes and challenges our current socio-political culture). Based on my training at Helikos International School of Theatre Creation in Italy.
BOUFFON
Bouffons are creatures from somewhere else - they watch, mimic, and mock us, playing the great game called "Human Society." They expose our greatest hypocrisies from years of watching us from the swamps. A mix of Lecoq / Gaulier types of bouffon - this will be a crash course in this satirical and oftentimes offensive theatrical style. The approach to this provocative and satirical form exposes the great human hypocrisies through exuberant play, evocative imagery, physical and vocal mimicry, repetition, rhythm, and musicality. The bouffons have come to deconstruct our world and magnify the grotesque essence of human behaviors. This workshop will consist of exercises to introduce the essentials of grotesque bouffon play, style, and structure - including mockery, game creation, physical state, and body mask.
Based on my training at Helikos International School of Theatre Creation in Italy.
Header photo by Marc Scrivo.
IMPROV BASICS
Learn the basics of Yes AND, comedic characters, and scene work in this intro workshop. Great for actors, new improvisers, and corporate events/team building workshops.
IMPROV TO SKETCH
Learn how to create hilarious sketch comedy from your favorite improv scenes or moments from real life. Keep it simple, find the one unusual thing, heighten, explore...and eventually write it down.
IMPROV DIRECTING
Have an improv group that needs a director or interested in a one-time workshop to work a specific skill? Let's talk. I've trained in many improv philosophies and excited to work with what your team is interested in - whether it be game/premise-based improv or more organic scenes. Also happy to flavor in physical theatre and commedia dell'arte that will help bring your scenes to the next level.
CAPTAIN PLANET IMPROV
Use earth, wind, fire, water (and heart!) in your improvised scene work! Nature has all the inspiration we need for character, mood, tone, environment - use these impulses to create dynamic character movement and more meaningful scenes. Combines Lecoq-actor based movement training (elements, materials) and long-form improvisation.
DEVISING
We will explore theatrical elements (text, sound, material, movement...) and understand how to best layer and use them in order to create original pieces of theatre. Based in my training at Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland.
CHARACTER CREATION
A study of emotional polarities. Is my character narcissistic or insecure? Both? Do they isolate between the two extremes? Part discussion, part workshop - we will discuss the creation of a character's inner state. This is not your mom's acting realism class. Let's understand human nature through play. Based on my training at Helikos International School of Theatre Creation in Italy.
CLOWNS IN REAL LIFE
This workshop is an introduction to red nose clown as well as a guide on how to use clown state in improv, sketch, and theatre. Clowns are completely vulnerable and they share every feeling with their audience. The clown’s humor comes out of their honest play, naivety, and commitment to their own stupidity. Using the red nose and your body, you will discover your inner clown’s rhythm, physicality, voice, and hilarious talents. We will then take these clowns off the stage and away from their silly instruments and into real life (the office, the DMV, a first date) in order to discover new ways of using this theatrical form.
Based on my training at Helikos International School of Theatre Creation in Italy.
GROTESQUE CHARACTERS
"Through caricature, you can see the actual drives of corrupted people" - Augusto Boal
Grotesque characters are able to expose the ugly hidden nature of society's many archetypes and situations. This satirical form lives in the world of opposition, characters are insecure but at the same time narcissistic, hunchbacked but trying to achieve perfect posture. Through body stuffing and personality flip-flopping, we will discover characters pushed to the end of their physical and mental limit. This workshop will utilize movement-based theatre fused with the polarity work of Gestalt therapy (a pedagogy developed by Lecoq master-teacher Giovanni Fusetti) as well incorporating techniques derived from Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed. This workshop is for improvisers, sketch writers, and actors who are interested in character work and satire (comedy that provokes and challenges our current socio-political culture). Based on my training at Helikos International School of Theatre Creation in Italy.
BOUFFON
Bouffons are creatures from somewhere else - they watch, mimic, and mock us, playing the great game called "Human Society." They expose our greatest hypocrisies from years of watching us from the swamps. A mix of Lecoq / Gaulier types of bouffon - this will be a crash course in this satirical and oftentimes offensive theatrical style. The approach to this provocative and satirical form exposes the great human hypocrisies through exuberant play, evocative imagery, physical and vocal mimicry, repetition, rhythm, and musicality. The bouffons have come to deconstruct our world and magnify the grotesque essence of human behaviors. This workshop will consist of exercises to introduce the essentials of grotesque bouffon play, style, and structure - including mockery, game creation, physical state, and body mask.
Based on my training at Helikos International School of Theatre Creation in Italy.
Header photo by Marc Scrivo.