THE INSTITUTION THEATER IS EXCITED TO OFFER TWO MASTER CLASSES AND TWO ONE-DAY INTENSIVES TAUGHT BY THE INCREDIBLE JILL BERNARD FOR ALL OF JULY.
WARNING: THESE CLASSES WILL FILL UP QUICKLY
You can register for classes here.
Master Class: If It Makes You Happy
4 Weeks beginning July 10th
Saturdays, 12:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
$150.00 / only $125 for Institution Students
Too often improv feels like a chore, filled with right decisions and good and bad choices. It becomes about applying your intellect instead of following your bliss. In this series with Jill Bernard, participants will learn the joy and success that follows doing exactly what tickles them. We will revert back to our most basic impulses and follow them, to create the most adorable and pleasing scenes of your career. Please wear closed toe shoes to this workshop.
Master Class: Solo Improv Workshop
4 Weeks beginning July 7th
Wednesdays, 7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
$150.00 / only $125 for Institution Students
There are no “schools” of improv – we are each our own school, which means your solo piece is the ultimate expression of that school. Work with Jill to practice the skills that are universal to most solo pieces – character snapping, stage pictures, and aggressive choices – and also tease out what will make your solo piece unique.
VAPAPO: Character Toolkit
Sunday, July 11th
3:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
$50.00 / only $35 for Institution Students
Jill Bernard offers a character toolkit to give participants the ability to create strong, compelling characters that they can hang onto through the whole scene. This session will focus on using Voice, Attitude or Posture, and Animal, Prop or Obsession to build instant characters. Participants will use these tools to fearlessly initiate scenes, create relationships and find agreement. Please wear closed-toe shoes to this workshop.
The Fireball Theory
one-day intensive
Sunday, July 25th
3:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
$50.00 / only $35 for Institution Students
This workshop presents Jill Bernard’s Fireball Theory and offers exercises to help you improvise faster and harder than you can judge yourself. You will learn to metaphorically hit the scene running and outrun the explosion of self-loathing and doubt like an action movie hero outruns a fireball thus defying the laws of physics. Please wear closed-toe shoes to this workshop.
JILL BERNARD has been performing with ComedySportz-Twin Cities since 1993, and is also a founding member of HUGE Theater. Her one-woman improv piece, Drum Machine, has been featured at the Chicago Improv Festival, the Toronto Improv Jamboree, the Miami Improv Festival, Philadelphia Improv Festival, and the ComedySportz National Tournament, among others. She has taught and performed improv in Norway, Canada, and over thirty of these United States, in cities that include Juneau, AK; Spokane and Seattle, WA; Washington, D.C.; Bowling Green, KY; Phoenix, AZ; and also on an episode of MTV “Made.” She is one-half of the duo SCRAM with Joe Bill of the Annoyance Theater. An Artistic Associate of the Chicago Improv Festival, she has studied at the Annoyance Theater, Improv Olympic, the Brave New Workshop and other organizations; and is the recipient of the 2005 Chicago Improv Festival Avery Schreiber Ambassador of Improv Award, and the 2007 Miami Improv Festival award for Best Solo Show. She was also the winner, in January 2000, of the Executive Vice President Award for outstanding contribution to Human Resources, the highest award in the American Express Human Resources function.
