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.
*PERFORMANCE SPOT
INCLUDED FOR ALL STUDENTS!
topThe 2007 Miami Improv Festival features workshops from improv's leading instructors.
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Workshop Information |
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WORKSHOPS ARE ON SALE NOW AND ARE SELLING OUT FAST! Tickets for workshops currently range from $20.00 US to $160.00 US. Tickets to workshops can be purchased online, or at the box office the week of MIF 2007. To purchase tickets online click BUY TICKETS next to the workshop you wish to take. |
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Scholarships |
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MIF is offering a limited number of scholarships to deserving individuals who apply. Scholarships cover the full cost of the workshop determined by the MIF Scholarship Committee to the awarded recipient. For more information on Scholarships, or to apply for one please go to SCHOLARSHIPS. |
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FREE Workshops |
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MIF 2007 wants everyone to get involved and learn improv. Be sure to take advantage of our FREE Workshops presented by Just The Funny on both Saturday and Sunday at 8:00 am. Purchase a ticket to any festival workshop and you can take Beginning Improv for FREE! |
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Workshop Quick Links |
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Click on a link below to find out more about Workshops and Instructors at MIF 2007! |
The following is a complete list of workshops and instructors for MIF 2007.
| Friday, January 12, 2007 | |
| 10:00 am | |
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Techniques of Harold
Workshop - Master Class (3 Hours) iO: Charna Halpern Instructor Bio $110.00 BUY TICKETS Learn the techniques of The Harold from the Artistic Director and Owner of iO Chicago (Formerly Improv Olympic) home of long form improvisation, Charna Halpern. This workshop will cover call backs, group mind, theme, edits and connections. Everything you need to have a successful Harold experience. |
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2:00 pm |
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Discovering the Freedom of Improvisation - Master Class
(3 Hours) iO: Charna Halpern Instructor Bio SOLD OUT! Charna Halpern will be teaching her signature form: Cats Cradle. “This is a piece that teaches the students to use everything they know to create their own forms. (The Cat’s Cradle) changes its structure every time you make a new move. The basic concept of trust, which I fear gets lost in advance teaching, is what makes this piece work. It also brings back the child-like joy of improvising. This class will make you feel free and reinforce the idea that you are in charge of your own fate, and that we can create amazing things together based on the idea that anything you initiate will be supported by your friends. The best thing about this class is that all the skills that support this work will make you a better player on your Harold teams or wherever you are performing.” –Charna Halpern |
| Saturday, January 13, 2007 | |
| 8:00 am | |
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Just The Funny - Beginning Improv* FREE with purchase of any MIF 2007 workshop!
This introductory workshop
focuses on improvisational acting. Learn the
techniques to improvise scenes and characters for auditions,
ad-libbing, or just to sharpen your acting skills!
This workshop is ideal for the beginning improviser, who
wants to gain experience prior to taking other festival
workshops! |
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Just The Funny - Improv for Kids (Ages 7-12) This introductory workshop features acting games and exercises crafted around individual student's needs. Kids have fun and increase confidence, while learning fundamental acting skills that include: movement and voice, improvisation and storytelling. Help your young actor become the performer you always knew they could be! |
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10:00 am |
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Work Slower, Go Deeper
- Improv Scenework Workshop The Second City: David Razowsky Instructor Bio SOLD OUT! A scene isn’t made up of words, it’s made up of moments. Often it’s not what’s said that heightens the scene, it’s what’s noticed and acted upon. This workshop will focus on slow play, “deep tissue listening” and discovering how much is said when we take in the moments through patient playing, soaking in the lines in between what’s said, and honesty. |
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Improv Form: The Short to the Long of It* Are you
well versed in Short Form and Game Improvisation, but having
problems translating your skill to Scenework and Long Form?
This workshop will bring to light the true differences
between Short and Long Form Improvisation. We'll especially
focus on helping your Short Form brain grow some Long Form
legs by attaching emotion and point of view to your jokey
bits. I'll show you how to "play through the laughs" so
that on the other end, your scene still has enough gas in
the tank to be compelling. |
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1:00 pm |
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Upright Citizens Brigade - Master Class (4 Hours)* Game of the Scene - The UCB approach to Longform $110.00 BUY TICKETS The UCB approach to Longform - Learn how to quickly identify the unusual and unique aspect of the scene and how to further explore it under the framework of "if this is true what else is true". Finding the Game of the Scene allows you to stop working and start playing. When built on this foundation, your scenework will be much more consistent and enjoyable both for you and the audience. |
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What Happened - Improv
Scenework Workshop Many improvisors fall into comfort zones. They know the people they play with and, while their shows and performances are good... they tend to be about the same. What happened? Too often we get comfortable and lose our ability to deal with, and seek out danger and risk in our work. In this workshop you will learn how to better initiate craziness into your scenes, characters, and shows... while staying committed to good scenework and relationships. You'll see what it's like to adjust to "monkey wrenches" that take scenes in whole new directions and how to embrace them when they come. When this workshop is over you'll gain a better understanding of staying with your character no matter what occurs, and actually enjoying it when something, or someone, comes into you scene out of nowhere. |
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3:00 pm |
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Master Class - Improv Scenework Workshop The Second City: David Razowsky Instructor Bio SOLD OUT! David Razowsky’s master class will focus on getting the improvisers to the heat of the scene through immediate, emotional connections between players by listening not just with their ears but with their whole being. By allowing emotions to create scene work instead of the actor’s brains, the work tends to be more surprising and unexpected, and scenes will be created without the use of conflict or argument. |
| Sunday, January 14, 2007 | |
| 8:00 am | |
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Just The Funny - Beginning Improv* FREE with purchase of any MIF 2007 workshop!
This introductory workshop
focuses on improvisational acting. Learn the
techniques to improvise scenes and characters for auditions,
ad-libbing, or just to sharpen your acting skills!
This workshop is ideal for the beginning improviser, who
wants to gain experience prior to taking other festival
workshops! |
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Just The Funny - Improv for Teens (Ages 13-17) This introductory workshop teaches teens to express themselves through improvisational acting. The workshop focuses on improvising scenes and characters through acting game play in a fun, non-competitive environment. |
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10:00 am |
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Upright Citizens Brigade
- Improv
Workshop UCB Scenework Intensive $60.00 BUY TICKETS This workshop offers a study of scenework, fundamentals and dynamics focusing on building scenes brick by brick with your scene partner – all from the UCB approach to longform. Learn to enrich your work and create exciting scenes instantly through strong choices, commitment and bold moves. |
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VAPAPO - Character Workshop 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. |
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| Performance Series - Sunday, January 14, 2007 | |
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The Miami Improv Festival Performance Series is a set of workshops that focus on specific improv skill sets to in a class setting followed by student performances later that evening. The goal of the MIF Performance Series is to inspire improvisers to create new shows, following instruction and coaching from some of the best specialists in the industry. |
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1:00 pm |
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Making the Group - Ensemble Improv Workshop (4-Hours)* Why are
some groups successful? How does each player fit into the
chemistry of the whole? In this workshop you will find out
the attributes that you bring to the table. You'll see how
your style meshes with others and what energies do and don't
work together. The first part of this intensive will run
the students through a variety of exercises that will
showcase their skill set and what they bring to the table.
Then they will be divided into two groups and rehearse with
either Mark or Joe for the rest of the session. The class
will culminate in a performance by the groups that night. |
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Solo Improv Workshop
(3-Hours)* |
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Techniques of Harold Workshop - Master Class (3 Hours) Discovering the Freedom of Improvisation - Master Class (3 Hours) Charna Halpern has been named by Variety as one of the top ten women in entertainment. Mike Myers calls her The Uta Hagen of comedy. The creator of long form improvisation, who changed the face of comedy forever, Charna Halpern recently celebrated her 25th year as Director of I.O. (formerly ImprovOlympic) in Chicago and I.O. West in Los Angeles. She and her partner, the late Del Close, have been responsible for creating the talents and sensibilities of some of the biggest stars in show business. Their alumni include Bill Murray, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, Tina Fey, Andy Richter, Andy Dick, Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau - just to name a few. Her theaters have been the conduit for talented performers and writers on television shows such as SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, CONAN O’BRIEN, MADTV, THE DAILY SHOW and THE COLBERT REPORT as well as feature films. Under Halpern’s guidance, ImprovOlympic is producing the next generation of artistic geniuses as well. In addition to her directing stints and creating pilots for television, Halpern travels world-wide teaching seminars in improvisation. She was hired by The American Embassy to teach her philosophy of agreement in Cyprus in an effort to bridge the communication gap between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots. She is the author of TRUTH IN COMEDY which is considered the bible for improvisation in the entertainment industry and is mandatory reading in the theater departments of most colleges. Her newest book, ART BY COMMITTEE –AN ADVANCED GUIDE TO IMPROVISATION takes her work even further. She has recently opened a third training Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. |
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VAPAPO - Character Workshop Jill Bernard has been performing with ComedySportz-Twin Cities since 1993, and is the director of their workshop program. Her one-woman improv piece, Drum Machine, has been featured at Red Curtain Cabaret, Improv-A-Go-Go, the Chicago Improv Festival, the Toronto Improv Jamboree, Philadelphia’s Female Funny Fest, and the ComedySportz National Tournament. She recently appeared in Storybox and WNEP’s Defending Your Life at the Chicago Improv Festival. She has taught improv all over the country, including Juneau, AK; Spokane, WA; Washington DC; Portland, OR; at the Dirty South Improv Festival, the Funny Woman Fest, and the Tiny Funny Woman Fest. |
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Improv Form: The Short to the Long of It* Making the Group - Ensemble Improv Workshop (4-Hours)* Joe has been performing, coaching and teaching at The Playground almost from the beginning. He currently plays with Inside Vladimir, and is the coach of American Dream. He is one of the co-founders of Annoyance Theater, where he performed in and directed over 50 productions from 1987-2000, including smash hits Co-ed Prison Sluts, The Real Live Brady Bunch and The Screw Puppies. Joe has also coached and performed with numerous ensembles at Improv Olympic from 1985-1987 and 1995-present. Highlights include Georgia Pacific and the innovative lights out long form, "The Bat". Currently, Joe performs with IO based, Improv Super Group, Weasiliscious. Joe teaches improvisation for The Second City Conservatory and Training Center, Annoyance, The Playground and around the U.S., Canada, UK and Netherlands. He started doing Improv in 1977. |
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Work Slower, Go Deeper - Improv Scenework Workshop Master Class - Improv Scenework Workshop David Razowsky is the Artistic Director of the Second City Los Angeles, and has written and performed in ten Second City Chicago revues. During his tenure as a performer at Second City he worked with Steve Carrell, Stephen Colbert, Jeff Garlin, and Amy Sedaris, among others. David directed Second City Chicago Mainstage’s No, Seriously, We’re All Gonna Die, Second City LA’s, Encino Evil, The Second City Untitled Project, The Second City Detroit's acclaimed 19th Nervous Breakdown, and The Second City National Touring Company. He directed two of Amsterdam’s Boom Chicago theatre’s productions-- RockStars, and their critically acclaimed Live at the Leidseplein - Your Privacy is Our Business. David is credited with creating Boom’s signature live on-stage video production. Both Boom shows were remounted for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He is a member of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, and performed in their sold-out run The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He is a co-founder of The Annoyance Theatre, and has written for The Simpsons Comic, The Simpsons nationally syndicated Sunday comic strip, and was commissioned to write a film treatment for The Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening. David is the voice of Dixon, the world’s coolest adult, in ABC’s animated series, The Weekenders, and has appeared on Spin City, Roseanne, and Late Night with David Letterman as the voice of Albert Brook’s parrot. |
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What Happened - Improv Scenework Workshop Making the Group - Ensemble Improv Workshop (4-Hours)* Mark Sutton is one of the most respected and sought after teachers in improvisation today. He is a founding member of Chicago’s legendary ANNOYANCE THEATER and, for 10 years, was the Theater’s managing director. Mark is on the faculty of both ANNOYANCE and The Second City, and has been a featured instructor at comedy festivals across the United States and Canada for many years. He helped develop the aggressive, personal power style of improvisation pioneered by Mick Napier at The ANNOYANCE. Mark’s no-nonsense, personal style of teaching has inspired and enlightened thousands of students during his 20 year career. |
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For more
information on workshops you may contact MIF at:
workshops@miamiimprovfestival.com