In this workshop, we’ll learn some musical improv skills through doing short form games.

We’ll look at:

• Some simple formats that create great songs

• Working together to create effective improvised choreography

• Short form formats that are ready-to-perform,

fun for both the players and the audience It’s aimed at people who have had some experience of musical improv, though not much is needed. The idea is to learn a series of games that are ready to perform. 

Reality tv gives us a lot to play with: intense relationships, strong characters, drama, monologues and big promises. We will explore all this and more while learning a brand-new format. This workshop is a playful extravaganza that encourages you to be big, bold and ridiculous. This workshops results in a showcase OMG! I can't even! This show has been specifically designed to be accommodating ebough for improv newbies and interesting enough for experienced players. So anyone who has ever done a level 1 course, is more than welcome.

Sometimes in improv, we create characters by considering their external expression: for example their voice, or their physicality. This workshop looks from the opposite direction, and starts with personality traits to create a person, and to inform how they act in scenes. In this workshop, we'll look at: • key personality traits that are useful to think about in improv • how these can be used in scenes • “owning” that character throughout a scene, and keeping them consistent and believable • discovering what emotional reactions that character has to situations and other people • how plot develops from these reactions This workshop is fairly new (I’ve taught it three times so far, in the UK and elsewhere) and it seems to be working extremely well due to its novel approach and fun exercises. It’s a three hour workshop, ending with an ensemble scene where we explore the ideas that we’ve been looking at.

I always dreamed about life having a soundtrack because then the world would be easier to understand. This is the power of music, to shape our understanding of events coloring them with emotions. In this workshop, we will work on physical techniques to allow you to 'dress yourself with music' and be able to use it like a second skin. Allowing the music to move you and shape the understanding of your body, your partners and everything. This workshop is about mixing music, body language and movement into a single objective, to tell stories and thrill.

The power of the group on stage. The more the merrier. Crowded scenes are often a chaos of noise, movement, and indiscriminate spotlights. But how powerful is it to see a large group of people on stage working in unison, or to witness a magical chaos filled with deep listening and respect? This is a workshop to experience those scenes —that wonderful chaos— through devising theater techniques and Viewpoints. We will practice deep listening, group mind, intense collaboration, disinhibition, team work and playfulness.

What fun happens when you step on stage without a plan but with clear rules to play by? Kristine brings her favorite short form-improv games. Let's play around with spontanity, listening and work on our short form-muscles. We aim to explore the fun in games, and together we find tools to make a short form show together. We warm up together to get our listening on point, then we dive into a bonanza of no thinking and staying in the moment on stage. We both work in pairs, in smaller groups and as a group all together. We play a lot for each other, but also for our selves. During the fun, we also make space to analyze exactly why and what we enjoy in each game. We learn about intensity, working together, highs and lows and how to set up our own short form show.

In this workshop I will use my background as an improv and dance teacher to teach you how to bluff your way in ballet. Or in hiphop, Bollywood, country, disco, tango and many more styles. You will learn the most important tricks and steps to make it look like you are a dancer. The audience can shout out any style in music or dance: you will know what to do. And what games you can play using your moves. I have taught this workshop since 2009 to many Dutch, German, Swiss and Finnish improv groups and it is the most fun you will have in using your body on stage. Stiff as a board? No sense for rhythm? Perfect, then book this workshop now!

Your body is a better comedian than your brain! When you liberate yourself from everyday movements, you'll unlock inspiration for the plot and enrich the depth of emotions. Want to explore more possibilities in improv? The answer might be hidden in your body from the start! In this workshop, you will learn to create emotions, scenes, relationships, and characters, even before you speak. You will also explore how different rhythms, aided by music, can change the atmosphere of a scene. 

“Gael, you always mime-fish on stage!” they say. Well, I might admit that it’s true. I love mime-fishing because it’s full of details, elements and fun you can play with. Do I fish in real life? Not at all! In this workshop, you will learn how to mime-fish, mime-drive, mimeslaughter-a-pig, and a thousand other activities. Based on a strong space object work and a practice without words, you will discover the fun to explore your surrounding on stage and have an activity in your scenes. Inspired by Lecoq’s exercises and visual object work, you’ll be able to mime-anything like a pro!

How to replace action by reaction? This workshop is about being in the moment, reconnecting with your partner and yourself to find the truth of the moment. Using exercises influenced by Meisner’s work, you will open your eyes, your senses and your heart to your partner. These exercises will give you clues to a spontaneous way to act. First, you will empty your head, in order to be in the moment, just there, connected with yourself. Then, you will explore every way to observe details in you and your partner. Finally, you will 100% focus on the other player, understanding his emotion without a word to create a deep and full relation in the scene. When you forget to think, you have time to listen and love!

Playfulness is at the core of improvisation. It makes a good scene wonderful and a bad scene comfortable. But where does playfulness hide? How do you bring it out in yourself? As a recovering control freak, I can teach you something about how to find that spark. Finding your playfulness is (also) a skill, and I have the tools for you to train that muscle. Through a series of fun games, probing exercises, and reflection on yourselves we will find your ‘play’. As a result: next time you are taking the scene / the show / improv a little too seriously, you can fall back on the tips and tricks of this workshop. It will take some practice. And some fun, light, and die-hard playing.

Sometimes, you find yourself in the middle of an improv scene, realising you don't know what the scene is about. At the same time, the audience wonders why you've missed so many opportunities. In this workshop, we will practice not only accepting our scene partner's offers but also valuing them, so that we can quickly create interesting scenes without long, boring intros. Scenes that continue to be interesting and don't fizzle out once the initial idea has been exhausted. We will practice making blod choices and throwing curveballs, but above all, unpacking blod choices and contextualizing curveballs so that our justifications breathe life into statements instead of killing them. We will approach these concepts from various angles, touching on cumulative acceptance, scene painting, space work, pattern building and narrative storytelling in the process.

Navigating Scenes – Avoid Getting Lost With Gareth O’Connor. How often do we find ourselves in scenes that have a strong start and get some big laughs up top only to find ourselves asking “What do we do now?”. Or scenes that are killing but we feel like we run out of steam and we’re dying for someone to sweep. Or even scenes that just never seem to get moving at all. In this workshop we will work on how to navigate scenes through beginning, middle and end. Starting strong from a place of discovery and not fearing silence. Making truthful moment to moment decisions about what your deal is and what’s going on in the scene. Using your environment to innovate from within the scene instead of creating from outside. Being the most committed actor you can be and making strong choices regardless of whether you’re the voice of reason or the unusual person.

The workshop explores how improvisational theater can be enhanced by using tools from scripted drama and comedy. Improvisers have the skills to create engaging scenes on the spot based on their wealth of imagination, timing and courage. However, a challenge remains in improvisational theatre: how do we lift the scenes from a series of funny one-liners to a level of heightened theatricality with a clear dramaturgy that tastes of written and directed theatre? Through a hands-on approach similar to the production of a scripted work – but with the spontaneity of improvisation – we aim to create improvised scenes with the depth and impact of traditional drama and comedy. Key components we will explore: Character Development: Instantly transforming oneself into a captivating character using Jacques Lecoq's physical approach. Relationships and Dynamics: Creating and developing interesting character relationships based on the understanding of motives and weaknesses of the characters. Stagecraft Techniques: Enhancing scenes with timeless principles of staging, to complement and elevate the dialogue. Mastery of Dialogue: Utilize builds, repetitions, strategic pauses, punchlines and adapted language for dramatic effect. Comic Timing: Applying insights from scripted comedy in improvisational scenarios to enhance comedic effects. Level: Impro performers and/or actors with some or extensive experience.

The importance of listening, hearing and taking in your fellow players, and the audience, cannot be underestimated. Without interplay on stage and collaboration with the audience, we have no art form. Yet, surprisingly often, we occupy ourselves with thoughts that prevent us from connect on stage. Worrying if we are sufficient, intelligent or funny enough. Or just being busy having fun.
In the workshop “Cooperation on Stage” we exercise our brains to let our hyper-intelligent synapses work in peace. Without being disturbed by private or personal obstacles or fears. Focus will lie on receptiveness and being present. And how to get access our great ideas – we all have them.
You will also get to work with the Rabbits…
You’ll se.