Check out the upcoming topics:
Wednesday, April 3, 7-9pm
Use What You Know with Shannon McCormick
We are all of us unique individuals with personal stores of experiences and artistic and cultural touchstones. How often are you in the middle of a scene that reminds you of something you’ve experienced or read or watched? This workshop with Shannon McCormick (Gnap! founder, Merlin-Works instructor) will explore ways to channel the minutiae of your daily life into true, specific choices and how to riff on your cultural knowledge without slipping into cliché.
Wednesday, April 10, 7-9pm
Getting Over Yourself with Marc Majcher
Sometimes the only thing standing between you and the best scene you can do at any given moment is YOU. In this workshop Marc Majcher (Improv For Evil, The Escorts) will help you develop the tools to overcome your improv’s greatest enemy: yourself. Learn to get out of your own way, fully engage with your scene partners and environment, and never worry about just going out on stage with “nothing”. You got this.
Wednesday, April 17, 7-9pm
How to Play a Scene in Which Nothing Happens with John Ratliff
A lot of improv training is about making the big active choices that are crucial to good scenework. But we can get so caught up in worrying about what’s about to happen that we squander the richness of the scene we’re actually in. This workshop is an introduction to Chicago-style scenework based on the idea that character IS plot. (If you’re completely unfamiliar with this style of play, watching the TJ & Dave documentary Trust Us, This Is All Made Up beforehand is strongly recommended.)
Wednesday, April 24, 7-9pm
The (big) Secret with Jeremy Lamb
The actor’s brain is a complex mesh of fear, wonder, mechanization and repetition. The improv actor’s brain is all of that with the added pressure of being director, playwright and prop master on the fly. This workshop with Jeremy Lamb (founder of the Out of Bounds Festival) is all about learning tricks and methods to at least be able to fake it as an improvising actor in any scene. Here’s a free one: Everyone is faking it. The (big) Secret is actually a set of things you can do mentally that no one ever even has to know about, and they make you look like a freakin’ genius.
